I picked this new lens up from Massdrop at a price that could not be ignored. It is making me realize just how much my old Nikon 70-300mm G lens sucks.
I took the new lens to the hydroelectric dam last weekend mounted to my Nikon D7000. I mostly shot from a monopod using the 2nd image stabilization mode and the camera autofocus in 3D-tracking auto mode. ISO 200, Shutter-priority mode, 1/800s.
Now here is where I show off the sharpness of this new lens. Looking below is a photo that I have processed with RAWTherapee, but left it uncropped. Main point of interest is in the lower-left quadrant.
Now exact same image with same processing settings, but was cropped as I did for most of the other pics. I have the lens at full 600mm extension. I expect from my older cheap lenses to look pretty soft near the corners, and the photo should be unsalvageable. But it turns out that I can crop it and still have acceptable sharpness.
Right now the only bad thing about the new lens is the fact that I do not have a tripod that can support this lens without getting a case of the shakes. Alway have something new to buy, right?
BF Hammer - the new and improved screen name of Chris L