Sometimes a Massive Lens is Just a Massive Lens
Whoa. Nikon has announced a massive new 800mm f/5.6 telephoto. The previous big boy in their lineup is the now small-seeming 600mm f/4.
f/5.6 might not seem fast enough for a lens that can practically reach out and touch the moon, but there are three things to keep in mind.
First, a modern DSLR like the D4 or D800 can shoot perfectly sharp shots at ISO 1,600 or higher. Wildlife photographers — the obvious market for Nikon’s new gotta-have-it — aren’t still stuck shooting Ektachrome at 64. Second, I’m assuming the beast will have Nikon’s respected Vibration Reduction system. Nikon claims VRII can make up four stops, and I believe them.
Finally, f/stop is the ratio between the diameter of the aperture in the lens and the focal length of the lens (800mm, in this case). Can you imagine how much glass would be required to make an opening big enough for f/4 at 800mm? You’d have to mount the thing on an armored personal carrier.
No word on price, but its 600mm “baby” brother is going for $9,800 new on Amazon. So I suspect the new lens will cost… more.
Steve,
The main objective lens is 142mm that’s 5.5 inches. Considering that a telescope for astronomy with that size objective and quality costs 5500.00 and that’s with no auto-focus, and no VR, then it makes sense that it would be in the 12 to 15k range.
Of course, you know you want one….
Want? No, I need 800mm for my son’s soccer games. He’s not on a team or anything, but he could be. Someday. Maybe.
Jeebus. You could register that thing as a lethal weapon.
I’m waiting for them to come out with a system that can integrate the images from a number of smaller diameter lenses. A software solution as opposed to the expensive single scope high dollar material and manufacturing methods use presently???
Now I want someone to do a remake of Rear Window.
The Nikon 800mm is ready for its closeup.
http://www.filmforum.org/images/content/films/rear-window-original702.jpg
DSLRs usually have sensors that are much smaller than full-frame, and the effective focal length will be much larger than 800 mm due to the cropping factor.
Image stabilization, tripods and cable releases become mandatory with these things.
People spending ~$15k for a single lens are not shooting amateur/semi-pro DX format cameras. Period.
Actually many of them are using these exotic long lenses on high-end APS-C. For wildlife and birding the number of pixels on the target outweighs the AF and noise advantages of the D4. The D7000 is the current long-lens king from Nikon for wildlife and birding and whatever the D300s successor is will takeover that slot. You’d need to use a D800 to match the D7000′s long lens performance and the higher framerate of the D7000 generally outweighs that.
D4′s are more of a sports shooting camera, and you don’t need an 800 for most sporting events (the exception is in really large venues, this 800 introduction was right before the Olympics for a reason, there will be copies of the new 800 there for NPS members and the big press pools).
Me, being a Nikon fanatic, is duly impressed by the engineering feat accomplished by the glass manufacturer. But the need for such equipment eludes me. We possess the requisite equipment to accomplish the task such a lens in designed to do. Our feet and our mind. This lens is for the truly lazy among the photography community or those that wish to make images of snow flakes falling upon the mountain tops that we cannot climb to ourselves. A solution in search of a problem…
We possess the requisite equipment to accomplish the task such a lens in designed to do. Our feet and our mind. This lens is for the truly lazy among the photography community or those that wish to make images of snow flakes falling upon the mountain tops that we cannot climb to ourselves.
Except in the real world that’s often simply not true (the first part – the second part hints at the actual issue).
Some places you can’t get to, either because you’ll disturb wildlife, there’s private property in the way (I speak not so much of celebrity paparazzi types, who are scum taking pictures of someone’s house from a mile away, as of people who want wildlife shots on the other side of a private field.), or there’s impassable terrain. And of course the sports photography, where you’ll be ejected if you walk out on the field where you shouldn’t be.
And then there’s candid portraiture (again of the non-asshat variety), where it’s really handy to be able to get a portrait-sized crop naturally from a distance. Yeah, you can walk up – but the moment can pass, and your obvious presence is a factor in the un-posed-ness of the image.
(Hell, I’d rather dial in a zoom than walk across a muddy field, myself.)
If you feel special sticking with a 50mm prime, more power to you – just don’t preach about it.
Let me know when they make a camera lens that can watch alien fleet movements in space. Or give me Superman’s X-Ray vision. Lord knows, we need to film Anne Hathaway with that.
Actually. Nikon’s long offered an 800/5.6, just in the pre-AF AI-S version. The new one just adds a few little conveniences like AF and VR to the deal.
Nikon’s king telephoto remains the 1200/11 IF-ED AI-S.