Nikkor C 80-200mm f4.5 AI
In 1991 I happily handed over $300 ish for my copy used. They sell for next to nothing on Ebay. You can easily find one under $100 maybe closer to $50 on ebay.
Outstanding build- really nice. I could be wrong, but I think this particular one was discontinued in 1975. Push pull zoom. really smooth especially considering the grease is like..45 years old. It's darn well a work of art or at least great craftsmanship.
The image quality is really nice. Really contrasty and saturated and pretty sharp. It has suprisingly little CA I don't see any once you stop down to 5.6. I actually purchased a HN-7 hood for it yesterday and I am contemplating having it sent out for an internal cleaning.
I don't recommend it as a bug lens, but I did get some shots yesterday that are amazingly...in focus or sorta in focus. These are straight out of the camera from the RAW files no adjustments other than crop. Any lack of sharpness you might see is due to high ISO and the fact that it is a manual focus lens on a moving bug.
Uploaded files:
almost at infinity, wide open. With a ridiculous crop. I don't know how well that would compare to my modern zoom. This one did take some auto edits, it was overexposed and it may have corrected CA. There was a little on the osprey. My modern 70-300mm would have some wide open. Stop it down 1 stop and all thats gone.
I forgot to mention these are on the D7200.
Uploaded files:
Along time ago this was the only telephoto I had. I was waiting to take a shot of a green heron nail a fish - hence the SS uneccesarily high at 1/3200. I snapped this shot out of boredom because the heron was doing pretty much nothing. Later as I was editing the shots and saw this one. I was like...holy cow that looks real. It looks really good for how high the iso is (3200) and again, no crazy editing.
Click on the image and check it out in Flickr.
Frawg by Mark Kasick, on Flickr
I agree, beautiful rendering. Impressive sharpness for what on the surface seems like a consumer zoom and not a pro zoom. That crop wide open on the long end is really telling. On a cheap lens that would be so full of purple fringing you wouldn't see the bird hardly at all.
Quote from Snappy on July 5, 2021, 12:01 pmI agree, beautiful rendering. Impressive sharpness for what on the surface seems like a consumer zoom and not a pro zoom. That crop wide open on the long end is really telling. On a cheap lens that would be so full of purple fringing you wouldn't see the bird hardly at all.
i think was a very pricey lens new. I am not sure when the first 80-200mm f2.8s came out.
Quote from KankRat on July 3, 2021, 5:30 pmAlong time ago this was the only telephoto I had. I was waiting to take a shot of a green heron nail a fish - hence the SS uneccesarily high at 1/3200. I snapped this shot out of boredom because the heron was doing pretty much nothing. Later as I was editing the shots and saw this one. I was like...holy cow that looks real. It looks really good for how high the iso is (3200) and again, no crazy editing.
Click on the image and check it out in Flickr.
That's a nice shot!
