Medium zoom lens:
- Nikon 80-400mm VR: A compact,
close-focusing (about 2.4 meters),
and quite sharp lens. It's superb at the shorter focal lengths and
pretty good at the 400mm end (not quite as good as my old 400 EDIF when
wide open, but close enough so that it makes little practical difference).
The autofocus is a little noisy and slow, but a lot better
than manual focus for 99% of situations. And it has the VR "vibration
reduction" feature that really works.
Telephotos:
- Nikon 400mm f5.6 EDIF: From 1981 until 2001,
my favorite all-around medium telephoto. It's fairly small and easy
to manuver, well-built, and very sharp. I wish it focused closer
than 3.5 meters (too far for small birds), but
I made do with extension tubes. This lens is somewhat
dated (no autofocus or super-fancy computerized metering) but it's a great
'little' optic. With a lot of nostalgia pangs I replaced it with the Nikon 80-400, and then the Canon 100-400.
- Sigma 300mm f4 APO autofocus (Nikon mount): A unique lens that focuses
to about 1 meter -- extraordinary for a 300 mm -- providing 1:3 magnification.
It's sharp and fairly small as well. The autofocus makes some noise and takes some time, but works fine.
This focal length is a bit short for most work with birds, but it's good
for lizards, big butterflies, nests, feeders, and captive situations where
you can get close to your subjects.
- Leitz 560mm f5.6 Telyt (Nikon mount): For a few years around 1970, this
bazooka was built by Leitz to fit Leica rangefinder cameras with
reflex housings. A simple adapter lets you use it on Nikons
or other SLRs. It has a pistol grip with a 'trigger' release
for quick focus (you push and pull the camera body back and forth), thumbwheels for fine focus, and a detachable shoulder
stock for hand-holding (this really works!), a clumsy manual diaphragm,
lots of weight, and really awkward tripod sockets that are surprisingly
weakly attached to the lens barrel. But it is sharp and contrasty,
and I used it from 1972 until a few years ago.
- Sigma 800mm f5.6 EX APO autofocus (Nikon mount): I got this monster for two reasons:
more focal length (you can never have enough, it seems), and autofocus
(a big help for my aging eyes). It is an extremely good, sharp lens
that focuses quickly and quietly.
The downside of this impressive optic (and most other 'big glass'
telephotos) is that there are onerous handling issues: it weighs
almost 5 kg, requires a big sturdy tripod and begs for a gimbal head
(although you can get away with a beanbag sometimes), and is just
plain hulking in all respects. It focuses to about 7 meters -- considerably
better than most 800s but not as close as I'd like -- and works reasonably
well with the Sigma 1.4 X converter (although the effective aperture drops to f8). In summary,
a very good lens as long as you don't have to carry it very far and have a solid tripod.
Somewhat ironically, in 2008 I got a Canon 800 mm f5.6 IS lens, which is a much easier lens to use than the Sigma. The Canon is smaller, lighter, focuses closer, and is optically better. More importantly for getting consistently good images in the field, the Canon has the extremely helpful IS stabilization system.
Macro lenses:
- Vivitar Series One 90 mm f2.5 (Nikon mount): My bread-and-butter macro
lens for 25+ years. When coupled with a Nikon 2X converter it's a 180 mm
that gets to 1:1 magnification, and the combination is extremely sharp
at all but the smallest apertures.
- Sigma 180mm f3.5 HSM autofocus (Nikon mount):
Unlike my trusty Vivitar Series One, the Sigma 180 gets to a 1:1 reproduction ratio without any extra extension. It handles
a 1.4 X converter reasonably well (although you lose autofocus at high magnifications),
and is very, very sharp. I'm a little unsure about the 'need' for
autofocus in a macro lens, but it's useful at 'normal' focusing distances. I did have some problems
with manual focus in the heat and humidity of a Costa Rican forest, but
autofocus continued to work well and the manual focus problem healed itself.
A wideangle, two wideangle zooms, and a 'normal' zoom
- Nikon 20 mm f4: I got this tiny gem on a whim almost 30
years ago and it made me an instant fan of extreme wideangles.
It's not very fast, but it is sharp and extraordinarly
light and compact. Apparently it was a favorite of the late, great Galen Rowell, and I can understand why.
- Nikon 18-35 mm autofocus: Smaller, lighter, and cheaper
than the Nikon 17-35 f2.8, this is a sharp and contrasty
wide-angle zoom. It has a plastic feel, and you need to take it
down a stop or two from wide-open for the best performance (especially
at the 18mm end), but I've got some 13 by 30 inch prints from this thing
that are tack-sharp.
- Sigma 15-30 mm EX autofocus (Canon EF mount): This is the cheapest way
to get into 15mm territory, and has the virtue of the zoom feature as well.
It's a big handful but not particularly heavy; like the Nikon 18-35,
it has something of a plastic feel. I did not use mine for
long (it was replaced by the Canon 17-40 L and the Sigma 12-24) but it is extremely sharp and has surprisingly little distortion.
The major disadvantage for me was the fixed lenshood, which makes it essentially
impossible to use front-lens filters.
- Sigma EX 28-70 mm f2.8 (Canon EF mount): This isn't a very exciting focal length range for me, although I did find occasional use for it in landscape photography. Hence, I didn't want to spend a lot for a Canon L lens, and this optic -- at only 30% of the cost of a Canon 24-70 f2.8L and lighter as well -- was satisfactory for my needs. The autofocus is slower and noisier than a high-end lens (it's not a USM or HSM lens), and the construction isn't as solid, but the optics seem fine. Also, it has the same filter size (77mm) as two of my favorite landscape lenses, the 17-40 and 100-400 Canon zooms. Eventually I replaced it with the Canon 24-105 f4 IS lens.
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