Here is a great rumour to sink your teeth into.

A buddy whose neighbor works at Nikon's office in So. Callifornia (don't you love that connection?) says that the reason Nikon has not replaced its aging 400mm f/5.6 lens is that it is working on a 400mm f/5.6 Silent Wave Image Stabilized version of this lens. Sometime before 2001!

-- Stanley McManus (Stanshooter@excite.com), December 17, 1998

Answers

You need to share this info. with the Nikon-Digest crew too. This kind of information will really get the juices flowin' over there! And I was just right before going out and getting that third party AF 400/5.6. Now I'm forced to wait a little longer. Thanks for the rumour.

-- Jim Bridges (jcbejb@worldnet.att.net), December 17, 1998.

Interesting, but judging from the prices of the new AF-S zooms, I think I will never buy an AF-S lens. I was wondering (in a deleted mail in photo.net) whether anybody knows whether the Nikon AF-S technology is generally expensive, such that it is impossible for Nikon for offer AF-S technology for competitive prices?? A 400/5.6 which is nearly as expensive as a 300/2.8 is probably not very interesting.

-- siegfried (boes@first.gmd.de), December 18, 1998.

I am not sure I would not go out and purchase another brand's 400mm lens because of this rumour for several reasons. First, it is just that, a rumour. Granted it makes sense in view of the current situtaion in Nikon's lens lineup, but there is not official word. Also, the predicted arrival time is about 2001! That's quite a wait especially if the rumour tunrs out to be false. Second, the price of this lense will undoubtedly be much higher than a 400mm by Sigma, Tamron or Tokina. I notice that Tokina's 400mm f/5.6 sells for under $500 mail order and Moose Peterson claims it is sharp and competes in focusing speed and accuracy with the Canon 400mm f/5.6 USM lens, when he uses it on his F5. He uses it to photograph flying birds an especially hard subject to shoot.

-- Stan McManus (stanshooter@excite.com), December 18, 1998.

From reading Moose's articles i do not believe thats what he was saying. He said it was faster than the sigma, and that was before the sigma hsm came out. Secondly anyone that tells you a non USM or AFS lens is on par in focusing speed with a USM or AFS lens is most likely smoking crack and should be given adequate therapy.

This is not to say the tokina or sigma is crap. Just dont plan on af speed like the canon usm.

-- Altaf Shaikh (nissar@idt.net), December 18, 1998.