Unwieldy but capable
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Mostly at f/8 and 1/250th, ISO100.
I used a monopod to steady things up a bit. It’s an unwieldy piece of kit but the results are worth it.
A late Nikon MF long lens.
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History:
The previous version of this lens I owned in 2012 was the 300mm f/4.5 which proved to be a splendid performer, although mostly limited to static subjects. There is no auto focus.
Like the 300mm this 400mm lens includes Extra Dispersion glass elements for better resolution but, most importantly, also sports Internal Focusing, meaning that despite its considerable weight the focus collar – which moves selected internal elements only without changing the length of the lens – is lightweight and a delight to use. There is absolutely no binding.
Nikon made many versions of manual focus 400mm lenses as Roland’s exhaustive database discloses. Extracting from that list:
The best version:
The best of the bunch are those with IF, for ease of focusing, with Nikon’s reputation for sharp, long lenses taking care of the rest. See the test images towards the end of this piece. While there were faster f/3.5 and f/2.8 versions of the IF lens, weight skyrockets with these, placing the f/5.6 version in the sweet spot. At 42 ozs/1200 grams the f/5.6 is the lightest of all, with the f/3.5 coming in at 99 ozs/2800 grams and the f/2.8 at a whopping 182 ozs/5150 grams. Can you say “tripod only”? Stated differently, the 400mm f/5.6 Nikkor weighs just 8 ounces more than the Leitz 200mm f/4 Telyt.
The lens was originally sold with a removable tripod collar and you really want this for proper balance on a tripod or monopod. Mine came with OEM front and rear caps, a Hoya 72mm UV filter and included the tripod collar. I paid a modest $215 for an optic in near mint condition, no haze, fungus or element separation, with butter smooth focus. Mine is s/n #294155 which makes it March 1997 vintage, a veritable youngster compared with some of the 60+ year old Leitz glass I often use on the SL2-S. I write ‘near mint’ as it is actually mint except for the floppy lens hood. See below.
My goal is to use it for architectural studies on the Leica SL2-S so I added a Fotasy Nikon F-to-Leica L adapter for $15. It’s perfectly machined and a tight fit, and permits infinity focus on the SL2-S.
The detent screw and the awful lens hood:
In addition to the aperture and focus collars there’s a chrome screw on the front ring, just rear of the lens hood. This provides a detent for a pre-selected focus position, allowing return to that position in the event the lens is focused elsewhere. Useful for motorsport or bird photography, it works beautifully. To disable it simply rotate the ring past either end of the focus range and lock it in place – as in the image above.
As with the 300mm f/4.5 the design of the lens hood is simply awful. It flops about, does not lock in the open position and is generally a nuisance. Quite why Nikon never got this right when they went to great pains to make a superior lens beats me. A long screw-in hood, something like this, is a better alternative. I have wrapped a length of black electrician’s tape around the periphery of the lens so the hood at least remains in the deployed position. You can just make it out in the image above.
Apertures and the tripod collar:
These range from f/5.6 through f/32 in (mercifully) full click-stops. No half-stop nonsense.
The tripod collar has helpful white dots for horizontal and vertical camera orientation. When the (captive) knob is unscrewed the collar hinges and can be removed for easier handholding. I have fitted the collar with an Arca-Swiss plate for use with the Artcise ball head on my monopod.
Focus and balance:
The closest focus distance is 13′ which is equivalent to a standard 50mm lens focusing down to 20″. Not at all bad. As with the 300mm variant the lens focuses beyond infinity to allow for thermal expansion in warm weather:
Fitted to the SL2-S body with the Nikon F-to-Leica L adapter the center of gravity is exactly below the tripod collar. Perfect.
Leitz alternatives – pass:
Why not opt for a long Leitz optic? Well, they simply never got it right. The early 400mm f/5 Telyt uses a regular focus collar and is very heavy at 70 ozs/2000 grams plus a raft of adapters for the L mount, and not especially sharp by modern standards. Like the 280mm f/4.8, which I once owned, the weight of the glass causes the focus collar to bind unless the front of the lens is well supported. The f/5 can be found for under $500.
The later f/5.6 Telyt lens head requires the trigger focus pistol grip attachment, is a simple so-so sharp two element achromat, and weighs in at 65 ozs/1850 grams for the kit. Reckon on $750-1,000 and get the R-mount version which requires just the R-to-L adapter for the SL2-S.
The even later 400mm f/6.8 Telyt, 67 ozs/1830 grams, also a simple achromat, has a push-pull focus trombone released with a side button. I owned one and definition was reasonable, but the first thing you will want to do is get the movement re-greased – probably an additional $200. Unless it’s perfectly smooth nailing focus becomes an exercise in (jerky) frustration. $500-750 and try to get a complete kit which includes a handy shoulder stock. Also look for an R-mount.
Both the f/5.6 and f/6.8 lenses are long-focus, not telephoto, designs and very long and unwieldy in use. So, in terms of ease of use, light weight and optical quality the Nikkor is a bargain, and that’s before you pull out your wallet. By contrast with the Leitz offerings, the Nikkor protrudes just 285mm/11.2″ from the camera’s bayonet flange with the Nikon F-to-Leica L adapter in place.
Disassembly:
Fancy dismantling a beater 400mm Nikkor to clean oil off the iris and re-lubricate the focus movement? Be warned. This is a very complex piece of mechanical engineering as this instruction set reveals. There are several lacquered screws to remove and careful marking of helicoid positions is essential if you want the lens to focus properly on reassembly. Not a job for the inexperienced or faint of heart. Better to search out a mint example than risk destroying a beater.
Tele-converters:
These came in 1.4x and 2.0x versions, making the lens a 560mm f/8 or 800mm f/11. The 1.4x version is the TC-14B (Ai-S), with the 2.0x version being the TC-201 (Ai-S). While I have used neither they have a good reputation for maintaining the prime’s optical quality. Reckon on $50-75 each. With high quality modern digital sensors I would expect that simply cropping in post will yield results every bit as good as using a teleconverter, and it means one thing less to carry.
IBIS on the Leica SL2-S:
What does use on the SL2-S mirrorless body offer with this long manual lens that is not available on a DSLR film or digital body? In Body Image Stabilization (IBIS) is the most important feature. You get up to 5 stops of stabilization on a long lens which is prone to camera shake. Further, owing to the EVF, when using aperture priority auto exposure mode the image brightness is constant at all apertures, making for much easier use. Finally, the image magnification option in the SL2-S makes correct focus a breeze.
Two settings are required for IBIS to work:
It’s essential to dial in the correct focal length of the lens (the lens’s name is not important) so that IBIS can properly compensate for camera shake. So if your lens’s name does not appear on any of the many choices, choose a lens of identical focal length and all will be well. The EXIF data can be changed using an LRc plugin such as CaptureTime to EXIF.
Test results:
IBIS, along with the relatively light weight of the Nikkor, makes handholding a realistic possibility. The delightfully smooth and light IF focus technology makes nailing focus easy, aided by the EVF magnification feature of the SL2-S body.
There is just a hint of diffraction, meaning loss of definition, at f/32, but it’s not a big deal. Also, AutoISO elected ISO1600 at f/32, which will take some definition away. These were all handheld with focus on the registration plate. I have AutoISO set for a minimum shutter speed of 1/250th second. That, and IBIS, take care of any camera shake.
Conclusion:
A fine 400mm optic with delightfully smooth manual focus at a bargain price.
Out-of-focus rendering? Talk of smooth!
There is no better bargain.
I have been taking studio pictures with my Novatron strobe outfit for almost three decades now with the cameras ranging from rangefinder Leicas, through Rollieflexes, and Canon and Nikon DSLRs. Autofocus in the DSLRs instantly obsoleted the film equipment which was sold. Maybe the lenses were better, but nailing focus every time beats optical quality in my book.
My Nikon DSLR journey started with a D700, then the D3x, the APS-C D2x, and finally the D800. The latter was introduced by Nikon in 2012 for $3,000 and I paid just $525 a few months ago for mine with 16k clicks. Clicks are not that important for a body designed to deliver 200,000 of them, but a USA legal import is. Nikon USA will refuse to service grey market imports. Check the serial number and look for the ‘Nikon USA’ sticker inside the battery compartment.
Suffice it to say that, with the introduction of mirrorless bodies and new lenses to fit, Nikon has comprehensively trashed the used value of every DSLR they ever made and most of the lenses which fit it.
Yes, the D750 and D780 and D810 and D850 have better low light sensors but that is of no use in the studio environment. With powerful strobes I’m mostly using ISO 200 or less.
Two things stand out in my D800 experience in the studio. Even in the low ambient light that I use with weak modeling lamps in the strobes, focus is nailed every time and as for absence of sensor noise it is simply extraordinary. Definition is like nothing I’ve ever seen and while I am strictly an SOOC guy, knowing that I can crop when needed is comforting.
Maybe a Phase One or a digital Hasselblad with a large medium format sensor will render more detail for the mega buck cost of entry, but as I have no interest in making billboard-sized enlargements, call me a happy camper. And keeping the additional $12,000 in my pocketbook is a benefit not lost on me.
Do I have a complaint? Of course. Just take a look what this little outfit weighs with the 28-300mm AFS zoom and loaded battery grip:
I extolled the D800’s many virtues, weight aside, here, but as ever pictures speak louder than words. Here is Dutch, a gorgeous Hungarian Vizsla, in a recent studio session, SOOC naturally:
Sharp enough for you?
One final advantage. Even my ancient, non-subscription Lightroom v 6.4 from 2015, bought and paid for just once, happily processes D800 RAW files. Try that with your latest and greatest Nikon body, or pay the nasty people at Adobe a monthly fee of $20 in perpetuity – and good luck getting off that treadmill. It’s not for nothing that the US DoJ just sued them for shady subscription practices.
At bargain basement prices.
Having returned to FF DSLRs with the Nikon D800 one year ago, I thought it might be of interest to show my outfit now.
When Nikon discontinued its DSLR range in favor of newer mirrorless bodies, with lenses to match, two things happened. The price of the latest gear shot up and that of the discontinued hardware crashed. As a result, if your psyche can tolerate a flapping mirror, just as most have these past 75 years, then look to keep your check book bruised but not battered as you acquire some of the finest photography hardware ever made.
There is nothing I can tell you about these lenses that is not already known – outstanding definition at any aperture, dead accurate and fast AF and robust but not heavy for what you get. Resale value? 100 cents on the dollar.
The Micro Nikkor will be sold when my film ‘scanning’ project is completed, making for a net kit cost of just $1,653. A Nikon Z8 mirrorless body runs some $3,800 and lenses are extra. Can you spell ‘Bargain’?
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Instant preview.
Tethered shooting refers to a connection – wired or wireless – between your camera and a display device, allowing near instant preview of images, typically in a studio environment, on a decently sized laptop or desktop display. ‘Chimping’ the small rear LCD on the camera pales by comparison.
In this way you can instantly assess composition, lighting, exposure and focus and, most importantly, if you have a client present, you can give him faster-than-Polaroid previews of the session’s photographs.
Before you start spending money on cables I suggest you check that your processing software on your computer supports the camera of your choice. Not all software supports all cameras and you can bet that older versions of software will not support many of the latest camera models. Of all manufacturers you can be assured that Adobe will have been first on the planned obsolescence wagon, forcing you to upgrade your software at considerable cost.
My gear is relatively dated – Lightroom 6.4, a Nikon D800 and a 2015 MacBook Air, the latter no speed demon by modern standards. I use a wired USB2 connection between camera and laptop. Wireless solutions are available for those with more money than sense. Mine involved diving into the cable box in the garage and finding the right cable, free.
Plug the cable into the laptop and camera, turn the latter on, and Lightroom requires these steps:
Once both ends of the cable are plugged in the Nikon D800 no longer shows a frame count on the top LCD:
If you do not see ‘PC’ in the frame count location unplug the cable from the computer and reconnect it. As a further check, a display panel will pop up in Lightroom and will show the model of the connected camera if the connection has been properly made.
‘PC’ indicates that the storage card in the camera is not being used to store images, which are being sent directly to the connected computer.
One word of caution. The camera socket for the connecting cable in the D800, if using a wired solution, uses a USB2/3 Micro USB design. This is unarguably the worst connector ever made, being unidirectional, fragile, small, and easily damaged. What’s worse the cable is subjected to tugging and stress in use, inviting disconnection as a minimum, damage at worst. So, instead of a costly solution what is needed is a simple twist tie, attached between the left strap lug or key ring and the cable, acting as a simple and free strain relief thus:
Acknowledging the awfulness of the Micro USB socket and connector, Nikon did make a strain relief clip but mine did not come with the secondhand body I bought. They crop up on eBay from time to time for very little; mine ran me $9.45:
Here it is installed. Be aware that the MicroUSB connector comes in both USB2 (narrow) and USB3 (broader – two connectors in one) versions. The casing for the USB3 version on the cables in my box will not pass the opening in the Nikon USB Cable Clip (you could always try sanding it down if that is all you have), while the narrower USB2 version passes through just fine. There’s a locating peg and a couple of shark teeth to hold the whole thing in place on the camera and the cable itself is secured with a locking foldover bar. Indeed, as the image below shows there’s an unused adjacent peg hole which suggests there may be a wider USB3 version of this clip. I do not know. It works well:
I have found no difference in transfer speed for the USB2 vs. the USB3 cable, both allowing LR to render the image on the laptop’s display in 5 seconds after the shutter button is depressed. using my ancient 11″ MacBook Air and the 14-bit RAW file format. That’s a whole lot faster than a Polaroid! Edwin Land would be proud.
My strong inclination is to rip off that awful, intrusive rubber cover for the connector area, but I have not yet summoned the courage to do that.
I switch Lightroom to full screen display (hit ‘F’ on the keyboard) and the latest image is the one displayed in maximum size. Hit ‘G’ for the familiar LR grid display. The advantage of the full screen display is that it’s far easier to judge the image in full size.
And that’s about it. Once the session is completed the LR catalog can be exported to your desktop of choice for post-processing in the usual way. I simply network my desktop Mac Pro with the MacBook Air and transfer the catalog into the Lightroom software on the Mac Pro. You use Windows? You are on your own.