Nikkor 80-400mm VR - Get The Most Out Of This Lens

On flickr I get asked frequently about the 80-400mm lens, and often share info freely with other photographers. It's probably got something to due with the flickr tag and the rank of some of my images for the 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D VR.


Of the top 60 images currently only 9 are NOT mine. Anyway, I'm writing this as a resource for more photographers to hopefully benefit from.

I've heard that the Nikkor (Nikon) 80-400mm D VR lens is the first VR lens that made by Nikon. I've had it for about 2 years now, have probably taken over 100,000 images with it. (I've got 4 dSLRs and am at around 180,000 clicks or so.)

Before I got the 80-400mm and again after I got it I read some reviews from various sources. Some reviewers liked it, others hated it and returned it within hours because it is "soft".

My take on the lens is that for the money (well under $2,000 US) it is a great lens for many reasons. Read the rest of my review/guide for what works well (and what doesn't), and how to get the most out of this lens.



To start, here's how I normally setup and shoot with the lens.

In General

Hand-Hold
As of May 2008 about 85% of my images are taken hand holding the lens. About 13% of my photos were taken with a monopod, and the remaining 2% are from a tripod. So, mostly I hand-hold with the lens.
AF-S
With my both my D200 and D300 I mostly shoot in continuous focus mode (AF-C) and tend to use just the center focus point (with group assist on the D200, or 13 or 21 or whatever point assistance on the D300. I try not to be too caught up in the technical exactness, as you may have wondered from that last sentence....
No Filters
UV - For quite some time I have not used a UV filter on this lens. I have gotten a minor mark on the front element as a result, but you cannot see it in any images. A UV filter is only useful in my mind for a protective cover over the lens while you're not using the lens. While on the lens it will add another piece of glass that will degrade image quality and possibly affect focus.
Circular Polarizer - For quite a while I used a Circular Polarizer with the lens. But for about a year now I've not. The same problem as the UV filter applies (see above) but there's a much worse problem with the CP filter. It blocks two stops of light. That's how a CP filter works, it blocks light from certain directions, to produce its effect. A Circular Polarizer filter can be great for landscapes, or setup shots. But for tracking wildlife, getting focus on a moving subject, you lose way too much light to make the effect worth it. At 400mm the lens is at f/5.6. This is the standard minimum f/stop that Nikon cameras are rated for to get accurate focus. With the polarizer on the minimum f/5.6 goes to about f/11 worth of light. Expecting a Nikon body to track focus at 2 stops under its recommended rating is asking too much, even in decent light. So, ditch the polarizer!

The next set of things I do are based on the available light.

Poor to Moderate Light
The down side to this lens is that it needs light. When light's not that great I shoot close to wide open at f/5.6 or f/6.3 in Aperture Priority mode. Then to get a decent shutter speed I boost ISO. In these lighting conditions I might shoot at ISO 400 to ISO 1000, or sometimes even higher. If you're worried about noise, answer this: Would you rather have a sharp-noisy image or a blurred noise-free image? All things being equal I prefer some noise to some blur. So I make sure I am shooting at a minimum of 1 over focal length over (ie 200mm = 1/200, or 400mm = 1/400). One way to come close to this is to shoot in Auto ISO at the D200 or D300's maximum shutter setting of 1/250th minimum. When doing this I set the ISO to around 400, and then let the ISO climb as needed probably to ISO 1600. Here are two decent examples of this at work:
ISO 1600 @ 1/100 and 230mm

ISO 900 @ 1/250th and 400mm


Good to Great Light
When the light is good, the lens is at its best. I will usually shoot at ISO 200 to ISO 400 and stop the lens down to a minimum of f/7.1 and for great light f/8 or f/11. Most of the time I will target a maximum shutter speed of about 1/1000th, and then give the rest of the light to the f/stop setting. I shoot in Aperture mode almost all the time. The problem I have with shooting in Shutter Mode in these conditions is if I set it to 1/1000 and that produces around f/9 and then I move on to a shaded area, or a cloud passes over, etc, I might be at f/5.6 and 1/1000th, not what I would pick. While Aperture mode alone won't fix this problem, I guess I am just used to shooting and adjusting the f/stop when the light changes... The main thing this lens needs to perform well is the right f/stop and a decent shutter speed.

These setting will apply to just about any camera and lens combination, but for me on my D200 and D300 here's what I do. Generally I shoot wildlife, birds, moving subjects, etc.
Camera Settings

AF-C - Continuous-Focus mode - For moving subject you have to be in AF-C. Simple as that.
AF-C and AF-S mode - These two settings can be found under a1 and a2 and they need to be set to Focus Priority. When in Release Priority the camera will let you take out of focus images. I want my images IN focus.
JPG Compression Mode I use JPGs about 98% of the time for my images, and the compression mode makes a huge difference. Be sure to have this set for Image Quality, NOT File Size. Also, if you want the best JPG image possible from the camera make sure the camera is set to Large and Fine. If you shoot in RAW these settings don't apply. For me, the extra file overheard and processing time is almost never worth it.

Misc

VR - 99% of the time I use the VR in position 1, which only activates the VR when an image is taken. The other mode enables preview with VR on when the shutter is half-pressed. The two problems with this is it uses more battery power, and when panning it can result in things creeping out of the frame before you take an image. When on a tripod for long exposures I will turn off VR, and when on a tripod with fast shutter speeds I often start with it off, and then try some with VR on too.
Back lit subject - When something that is back lit and the exposure is adjusted for the front of the subject, like a bird on a branch, the chromatic aberration can be very noticeable. There's not much you can do, stop down a little, and shoot RAW and adjust the aberration via the RAW plug-in.
Lens Hood - Most of the time I use the lens hood. It will prevent light from creeping in from the side and messing up the image. It also acts as a good alternative to a protective UV filter, preventing the front element from coming in contact with anything.
Hand holding - Two things you can do to improve your shots: 1) don't hold the lens from the front element. This moves during focusing, and if you are holding it, you can restrict the movement and the lens' ability to focus. 2) remove the tripod mount, or flip it upside down so you can get an even grip on the bottom of the lens.
Focus Limiter I keep the focus limiter enabled at all times, unless I need to focus at a close distance, and then I turn it off. To enable the focus limiter so that only things at a distance are in focus, and so it won't hunt at a close distance, start by focusing on something far away. Then rotate the ring at the front of the lens to A-L for Autofocus-Limit. Then move the slider on the side of the lens to L. One thing I've noticed is that to temporarily allow close focus is that you can click the switch on the side and you can focus on near subjects.

So, if you have under $2k for a 400mm lens I think this lens is a great choice. If you have $5-10k and don't mind shooting from a tripod a lot, get a 300mm f/2.8, or 400mm f/2.8 or 500mm f/4. I've considered getting all of those lenses but for now have held off. I like the mobility of the small 400mm. If I were to be going on Safari in Africa or somewhere in Alaska I'd seriously consider buying a bigger and faster lens, or even renting one... But until then I'm happy with the Nikkor 80-400mmD VR lens.



-Jon
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Nikkor 80-400mm VR - Get The Most Out Of This Lens

How to Get the Most out of the Gear You Already Own - Part 1

How to Get the Most out of the Gear You Already Own - Part 1

I think this can apply to all levels of photographer, and a huge variety of camera gear. Please don't take this post the wrong way. I do have a lot of "stuff", but that alone hasn't made me take "good" photos... and I didn't know all this when I first started out with a dSLR in August of 2005.


Suggestion 1
My number one suggestion, and it's so obvious, is get out and take/make photos often. Over the past couple of years I've probably been out shooting nearly every weekend day, and on average a day or two during the week as well. The more you use the gear you have, the better you will know it. The more you get out to familiar places as well as new places, the more chances you will have to get that shot, something new, something you've never captured before. Or maybe it will be something you HAVE seen before but you missed the chance before due to something you could have had under control but for whatever reason caused you to miss that chance. The more you get out, and use the gear you have, the more the gear will become second nature, and the more time you can spend focusing on your surroundings and what you see, and what you think you might want to shoot.


Suggestion 2
This might seem controversial or counter-intuitive, but, until you get all the specifics of how your camera works, and what you like to shoot, and what works best, you should just shoot in jpg mode. Forget about the raw feature of your camera. You will wind up spending too much of your time processing images, instead of doing what will serve you better which is getting out and taking images, and learning to control the tools in your hands (the camera and lens). An image that you didn't capture properly can only be recovered so much. If it takes you an hour to improve via the raw file an image 10%, vs what you can do from the jpg in 2 minutes, is it worth it? Wouldn't you rather have spend that 58 minutes taking more images, and getting better at operating your camera?


Suggestion 3
This one requires that you handle your gear with care, and keep it clean. Don't use a UV filter on your lens, unless you only are using it as a protective filter while not actually shooting images. A UV filter will degrade the quality of your images, reduce the ability of your camera to focus due to the extra layer of glass, and can add lens flare due to light bouncing off the filter itself.


Suggestion 4
Don't use a Circular Polarizer as a standard attachment for your lens. All too often I see someone with a dSLR and they're not an avid shooter like I am, and they're shooting in poor light, indoors, or on a cloudy day, and they've got a polarizer on the front of their lens. Unless you're shooting in direct sunlight, directional sunlight, there's little reason to use a polarizer, with the one exception being when shooting through glass, to try to cancel out a reflection. What you get when using a polarizer in the wrong circumstances is decreased image quality due to the extra glass. But what is even worse is you lose about 2 stops of light.

A polarizer works by blocking out light from a certain direction. When you have harsh light coming from the sun, this can be helpful. But as a general rule, you're going to turn a chance to shoot at a give ISO and f/stop at for example 1/1000th of a second in to one where the shutter speed is instead about 1/250th. So you're going to give up sharpness due to the slower shutter speed.

But one of the real impacts is that you're depriving the focusing system of your camera the light it needs to gain and track focus quickly and accurately. If you have a lens that is near the limits of what your camera is rated for to focus properly (Nikon is f/5.6 I think) you're going to think that the camera isn't working right or well, and you'll end up either not getting the images, or getting ones that are not fully in focus, and are also possibly blurry due to a slower shutter speed. A polarizer on a lens at f/5.6 will turn it in to a lens with the equivalent light of a lens at f/11 (one stop is f/8, second stop is f/11) and you won't even get the benefit of the added sharpness or depth of field that f/11 straight from the lens would offer. So, to get the same shutter speed and aperture at 5.6 with a polarizer you need to for example to change your ISO from ISO 200 to ISO 800, and add all that noise due to the higher ISO, but you will still not get the focusing advantage back. When you stop down a lens, it uses the lens at wide open to gain focus prior to taking the shot, and then at the last second changes the aperture and shoots the image. With a polarizer that light is blocked throughout the process of capturing the image, and thus limits the ability of the camera to lock and track focus.

I'm going to leave this blog post at that, and revisit some more of the basics in a follow up post.

To summarize: Get out often and learn your gear. Don't use a UV filter or a Circular Polarizer (as a general rule), and while you're in the (early) learning stages of photography shoot just in jpg mode so you don't end up spending a lot time trying to recover or improve flawed images in post processing that could have been shot better from the start if you were more familiar with the camera gear and settings in the first place.

The following image was taken at 400mm, ISO 400, f/7.1, and 1/1600th of a second and is partially cropped, and didn't use a UV filter or circular polarizer...



-Jon
Read more On "How to Get the Most out of the Gear You Already Own - Part 1"!

How to Get the Most out of the Gear You Already Own - Part 1