Hi,

I believe this lens came out in 1987. Does anybody know if there were any changes made to its design over the years. I dont believe its optical design was ever changed, but I have heard, that some say later models autofocused slightly faster.? Any opinions.

Thanks Bill

-- Bill Haslam (937607@ican.net), May 13, 2000

Answers

There are no changes from 1987 to the current production model according to the Nikon System Handbook. However there are speculations that Nikon may upgrade it to the AF-S model. The Nikon 300mm F4 is an excellent lens but just a tad slow even with the F100.

-- Gil (g_il@yahoo.com), May 13, 2000.

Bill, I've had a 300 f/4 for at least 8 years...while it is slower than the 300 f2.8 I and S models, it was fast enough for me to get sharp flight photos of Osprey carrying their lunch back to the nest. It's a darn good little lens, depending on your intended use, you may not have to worry too much about its focusing speed. As you probably already know, if you really need the instant focus speed of the fast lenses with built-in drives, the cost significantly jumps up. Also, weight goes up and handling ease goes down. It seems to me that ultra fast focus speed is overkill for typical uses...except for highly active or high speed subjects, how many parts of a second are really important.

-- Robert Smith (glle@rcn.com), May 14, 2000.

Just an anecdote for your consideration.

I shoot sports part time for a local weekly paper, using a Nikon F3 and 300/4.5 EDIF lens. The daily paper uses a Nikon N90s and 300/4 ED AF. Their photographer and I often stand next to each other at games and chat between inning or during other lulls in the action. There have been numerous occassions when something would happen on the field (this is baseball season in the U.S.) and I'd fframe, focus, and fire off three or four shots, then hear Pablo say "Did you get that? This thing was hunting for focus and I missed it."

This comment is specific to the N90s and 300/4 combination. I've heard the N90s isn't the fastest focusing camera around, especially compared with the F100 and F5. I'm waiting for Nikon to release a 300/4 AF-S before I replace my 300/4.5. The 300/2.8 would be handy for football, but the price keeps me wondering how much I really need that one f/ stop.

-- Darron Spohn (dspohn@photobitstream.com), May 19, 2000.

I have had the Nikon 300mm/f4 AF for over 10 years. For a non AF-S lens, its auto-focus is actually quite fast, probably because of IF (internal focus). Back in the early 1990's, I used it with my F4 body, whose AF is even more ancient than that on the N90s (F90x). AF hunting has never been a problem with the 300mm/f4 (although my F4 hunts a lot with the first-generation 80-200mm/f2.8 AF zoom, which isn't IF).

Using it on modern Nikon bodies, I am quite happy with the AF speed on the 300mm/f4. I have some AF-S lenses now and I don't think they are that much faster. To me, the main advantage of a (future) 300mm/f4 AF-S is that you can add a TC-14E on it and maintain AF. The lack of that capability is probably the mainly drawback of this non AF-S version. Otherwise, a 300mm/f4 is both much lighter and much cheaper than a 300mm/f2.8.

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), May 19, 2000.