The lens with the sunhood reverted and the soft lens hood on it.
The lens with the sunhood reverted and the soft lens hood on it.
The sun hood in reverted and normal position
This is the first lens I own that has been delivered with a book (!) as user manual
There are lots of accessories like this pouch for the removable front lens
Impressions:
The lens has VR (vibration reduction technology) allowing to gain between 2
and 3 stops when shooting hand held. Two modes are available, VR normal
and VR active (typically used when you are in a moving vehicule or
doing panning). I always recommend to keep VR on, even when using
higher shutter speeds, this helps to compose the picture (you see what
you'll get in the viewfinder). On a tripod, the lens is supposed to detect the change and you shouldn't
switch off the VR. I gave it a few tries and it is working as specified.
The lens delivers very crisp pictures even fully
open. AF is fast and does not hunt too much even in low light
situations.
The AF has a manual override to correct the focus manually. It is also possible to lock the AF by pressing one of the three (!) buttons on the lens (close to the sunhood). This is a very useful function, only found on long high end lenses. The AF also features a limiter switch to limit the hunting (full range or 6m to inifinity), making the AF even more efficient.
There are other switches to activate a beep for AF lock. There is a memory set button and the function of the AF buttons can be programmed (activate AF from the lens, recall stored value or lock AF)
I hesitated for a very long time before buying that (very) expensive lens. I was looking for a high quality long lens, hesitating between a prime like the 300 2.8 (combined with TCs) and the best zoom there is, the 200-400 f4. I went for the versatility of the zoom and after a number of pictures, I can confirm that this was the best choice for me.
Here the lens next to a 70-200VR each mounted on a different body, to give an idea of the size.
Pros
- very solid build
- unique (no equivalent in any brand)
- constant 4.0 lens
- lens hood standard (cylinder type)
- clicking mechanism with screw to
lock/unlock - easy to manipulate
- hood: reverse mounting for
transport
- very nice carrying bag
- excellent tripod mount in two pieces with clicking mechanism
- fast and quiet AF (AF-S)
- IF (internal focus)
- no moving external elements
- sharp even fully open (f4.0)
- no significant vignetting, color aberration or distortion visible
- a lot of controls switches available (AF/MF, VR, AF limiter, VR type -
normal/active, 3 AF lock buttons close to the sunhood), memory, recall, beep etc...
- reasonable performance even with TC's (1.4 and 1.7)
Cons
- very heavy (user dependent)
- price ? the most expensive lens in the category
- not very discrete when walking around
(certainly when mounted on a pro-body)
- no real lens hood, only a kind of pouch covering the sunhood
- AF is not as fast as a prime (some hunting is possible)
A few examples
(a lot of examples can be found in the galleries section, see the Quebec 200-400 pictures).
An example with the 1.7TC, the performance is still excellent - here on a D3 camera @650mm FX mode
A simple example
