Airshow lens: Nikon 70-300 (AF vs AFS) vs Nikon 300 AF f/4

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eltawater

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Hello,
I'm looking forward to going to the Waddington Airshow in early July and am currently in a quandry over which lens to buy. I attended the Duxford show last year with my Tamron 18-270 attached to my Nikon D3100 and was a little disappointed with the soft images and dog slow focussing at the long end.

I now have a D7000 which has opened up the option of AF lenses to me.

I'm considering the following options with a budget of around 350 pounds.

Nikon 70-300 AF
Nikon 70-300 AF-S
Nikon 300 AF f/4

Is there likely to be a significant optical difference between the AF/AF-S versions of the 70-300 at the long end?

Looking at the 300 f/4, I like the idea of being able to attach it to a teleconverter for reach during the airshow, but am being put off by what appears to be the significant weight and size. Given the age of these lenses now, have they optically been caught up by the 70-300 AF-S models which are newer and a similar price?

Would appreciate any views from better equipped members :)
 
If you are talking about the AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4D IF-ED Lens it is a first rate performer with and without Nikon teleconverters, but the price is way over a grand. It is a replacement for a previous 300mm f4 Nikkor (around year 2000).
The Nikon 70-300mm AF-S is a good performer, too and for airshows the flexibility of a zoom is most useful since near and far shots can present themselves must faster than the time it takes to change lenses.
 
Hello,
I'm referring to the plain AF Nikkor 300mm f/4 which is circa year 2000 vintage as you have highlighted. No way will SWMBO entertain the AF-S version :)

The 70-300 AF-S and the 300 AF f/4 can be had for similar prices on fleabay, whereas the old 70-300 AF is under 100 pounds. I'm a bit reluctant to buy the 300 AF f/4 if the 70-300 AF-S is optically better and more practical to carry around :)
 
The old 70-300 is a bit of a dog, so no better than you have. The 70-300 VR is a very good lens, can be soft at the long end, but if you are shooting props will normally be at f8-f13 anyway.

I have the AFS 300 f4 and its brilliant, not too heavy, and great IQ. You can get these for 600-650 second hand. Not used the older version, would think that IQ would be similar, just a bit slower.

If you look at the critique section on here, i have some posts from 10 days or so ago with my pics at Duxford, most from the 300 although some were the 70-200 (some of the group red arrows ones)
 
Just to close this thread off, a friend was kind enough to lend me his 70-300 AFS VR for the weekend. I found it pretty fast to focus and actually quite sharp at the long end as I was shooting with f8-f11 for most of the day. Lovely lens and a vast improvement on the Tamron 18-270.

As you said Arclight, the flexibility of the zoom was incredibly useful on the day as some of the jets passed quite closely. I found that sometimes when the planes moved to a distance where 300mm was useful, the air quality and smoke haze played havoc with the image quality. Thanks all!


DSC_4472 by eltawater, on Flickr


DSC_4708 by eltawater, on Flickr
 
Another option that you may want to consider is the Tamron SP 70-300 VC USD
 
Those are nice sharp images, looks like that is the lens for you. I have never owned a 70-300mm, but I would say it is more suitable for airshows than the prime 300mm. I love my 300mm, but I would never take it to an airshow again; on a D7000 it was too long for many shots.

I don't understand why shooting at f/8-f/11 though. I shot at f/5.6 all day and never had an issue with DoF, given the distances.
 
Xjacktar said:
I don't understand why shooting at f/8-f/11 though. I shot at f/5.6 all day and never had an issue with DoF, given the distances.
Click to expand...

Using a small aperture is nothing to do with DoF, it's all about the shutter speed. You want a shutter speed such that you get nicely blurred propellers or rotors. Big aperture tend to require fast shutter speeds which will probably give frozen props or rotors which look unnatural.
 
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