Nikkor-Sigma-Tamron tested on D3

[belgiumreporter]

After the announcement nikon is to discontinue the 70-200 2.8 VRII lens (because rumours and test say it isn't a very good lens)

i thought i'll test a few lenses in the 200MM range to try to get a comparison of just how bad my nikkors are.

This is what i've got within hand reach, its a very mixed bag but i was curious at what i would get with these rather diffrent lenses all set at 200MM.

i've mounted them on the D3 as full frame most likely will bring out the worst in these lenses.



I have to say i've allways been very pleased with the"old" nikkor 80-200 but maybe i'm biassed towards it, we'll see....



These are the tested lenses







Nikon ED AF Nikkor 80-200 1:2.

Sigma 70-200 1:2. macro HSM

Nikon Nikkor 200mm 1:4 AE MF

Nikon Micro Nikkor 200mm 1:4 AE IF MF

Tamron AF Aspherical XR LD IF 28-300 1:3.5-6.3 Macro



This is the test scene.







Now lets have a closer look at the center, all test lenses wide open all set at 200MM















The nikkor 80-200 delivers even at 2.8

The sigma is a disapointment wideopen

The micro nikkor is good at 4 but lacks some contrast ( one however must realise this lens performs best for close ups)

The nikkor 200-4 is best of the bunch, a bit sharper and better contrast than the 80-200.but one stop slower.

The tamron is the worst zoomed to 200mm it max aperture is 1:6 even at this aperture there's no sharpness nor contrast,

it isn't really fair to compare this to the others, but it shows what you can expect from a 3th party budget hyperzoom.



One of the things people were complaining about on the nikkor 70-200 VRII is the "focus breathing" wich is what makes the 70-200 not really a 200mm at the long end but more like a 160mm.

Neither the old 80-200 nikkor and the sigma 70-200 suffered from this problem, in fact all tested lenses gave the exact the 200mm angle of view.



Stay tuned for more test images from the test lenses, corner performance and stopped down, coming soon...

[belgiumreporter]

The corner scene






Results at 100% all lenses wideopen.
upper right corner














The nikkor 80-200@ 2.8 and the micro nikkor@4 allmost the same.

The sigma 70-200@2.8 not up to any of the nikkors.

Nikkor 200 Ai mf @4 again the best.

The tamron 28-300 at 200mm@f6 terrible...

[belgiumreporter]

Center @5.6 this aperture is the big leveler all nikkors perform allmost equally the sigma stil a(little) bit "soft"

When i keep zooming in beyond 100% the nikkor 80-200 is (and this is very subtle) the sharpest of the lot.









this is my 400th post hope i'm not boring all you camera collectors as i am going for a whole lot more :-)

[raybar]

Where was your actual focus point, and what was the distance from the camera?

I ask because the images include things at various distances. I can only guess, but it looks like it might be 10 or 12 meters from the front edge of the scaffolding to the window glass in the brick wall.

In particular, I am wondering about the corner scenes. Were you focusing at the corner of the image to see how sharp the lenses could be at the corner? Or were you focusing somewhere in the center to see how well focus held in the corners?

(This is my ninth post. I will never catch up with you.)

[belgiumreporter]

Jul 25, 2016 9:29:38 GMT -5 raybar said:

Where was your actual focus point, and what was the distance from the camera?

I ask because the images include things at various distances. I can only guess, but it looks like it might be 10 or 12 meters from the front edge of the scaffolding to the window glass in the brick wall.

In particular, I am wondering about the corner scenes. Were you focusing at the corner of the image to see how sharp the lenses could be at the corner? Or were you focusing somewhere in the center to see how well focus held in the corners?

(This is my ninth post. I will never catch up with you.)

The focussing point was allways in the middle of the scene (the white brick wall with the windows).

I focussed manually until i got a sharp image on the focussing screen and got focus confirmation.

I didn't bother to focus peak (maybe i should have) the white brick wall is just at infinity, so everything in front of it falls out of focus (exept when it comes whithin hyperfocal distance when stopping down).

Your guess about the distance from the front of the scaffolding is allmost right but more like 20 meters (remember the compressed view of tele lenses).

I didn't change focus for the corners, just moved the camera a bit to the side without changing anything, so the corner you see is what you would get after choosing a central focussing point, all in the same plane( the micro nikkor should perform in theory the best here as it is corrected for flat surface close up work)

[belgiumreporter]

Corner @ 5.6, not much diffrence, the 200 Ai mf maybe just marginally better.

[belgiumreporter]

Finally @ 11 all lenses performed pretty much the same as @ 8 only exeption is the tamron that finally showed some sharpness is the middle of the image, corners still were poor.

I didn't go as far as to see at what f stop diffraction kicked in.



The results from the tamron@ f11

[belgiumreporter]

Finally have a look at the results from my nikon coolpix P600 zoomed in to 220mm ( as there are no markings on the lens i had to do some guess work when shooting the scene, only afterworth the exif gave information about the focal lenght inthis case 39,4mm witch equals 220mm in full frame)

The lens was wide open wich gave f5.3 in this case.









And on this bombshell i'll end this test.


PS. this wasn't a very conventional test as i compared some very diffrent optics that all have their own purpouse, the only real competition was between the nikkor80-200 2.8 and the sigma 70-200 2.8 so see for yourselve and conclude what you will...