The AF-S 6000mm F4E FL VR arrives !!
Ok guys, after a delivery nightmare service with no one knowing where the lens was delivered, I finally tracked it down to the Post office who swore they didn't have it ......... nonetheless it's here now.. (BTW. Use DHL for delivery, they don't suddenly give the job to another company who then changes the delivery number and drops it off at a he most convenient pick up point without informing you) ..
The lens is in very good condition with only a couple of marks of use ...... at 3.81 Kgs nude it still is heavy but hand hold-able ......... I'm out of condition so I'd better get back to at least doing some press up exercises.
Focus is very fast without being instant.
VR. The lens comes with a one year guarantee which I may have to call upon ..... as I noticed a slightly strange behaviour with the VR ..... it looked to be working fine .... then the image jumped three times in the finder ...... clunk clunk clunk ....... will have to see about that!
Weather is hot and the sun is overhead... so I will have to wait until I find a good opportunity to catch some birds and other testing subjects .....
I certainly will be doing a rough and ready review of the lens and a comparison to the now elderly AF-S 500mm ED IF F4D (27 years old and non VR) as well as FL tests of the true FL length of the Nikkor vs the Tamron G2, bokeh etc.
Are we photographers mad ??
Ok, after further testing I can say the Vr system is defective !!
On two D500s and the D750 .
When switching on the camera and using BBF the VR kicks in and all looks fine ..... release the BBF button and the image in the viewfinder does three "super huge audible/visible leaps" .... repressing the BBF does not restart the VR and the image is unstabilized and also de-centred .
The only way to get the VR to kick in is ..... when the camera has gone to sleep .....
repressing the BBF restarts the VR again ......... release it and you get the three large jumps/ audible cluncks.
It must be said that there are three states of VR .....
#1 ... camera off ...... no power .....here the stabilizing element is just hanging in a state of "non alignment".... the lens is effectively badly aligned/ de-centered .... sharp images cannot be had here ....
#2 ...... camera on ..... normally the lens is in standby mode ...... the stabilizing element is now in "non VR" magnetic suspension, although not stabilized ..... is however perfectly aligned and sharp images can be had ....
#3 ..... camera on as well as BBF .... camera fires up with VR functioning to produce sharp images ........ (working normally)
The fault that I have is with the second category .... there is "no standby mode" .....
If the VR is working (within the limited parameters of this lens) the lens is aligned .....
...... if the lens drops out of VR ....... the stabilized element hangs (non active) and the images are just de-centered.
In the past I had exactly the same issue with the Nikkor AF-S 70- 300mm VR lens ....... I posted here about it .... I also have responded to a few threads about the problem .....
It must also be said that I also have two other VR Nikkor lenses that work fine .......
So what to do ?? .....
The lens is guaranteed for one year .... but is unusable in it's present form .... so a repair needs to be effected straight off the bat ..... and "only" by Nikon IMHO !!
I will speak to the seller first thing in the morning ..... I couldn't accept a third party repair ........ it's either pure Nikon or nothing !!
... I thought this time pay up, get a no compromise lens ........
The lesson :
......... there are no non compromise lenses !!
Your thoughts BC ??
07-30-2019, 06:30 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-30-2019, 06:34 AM by Brightcolours.)
No thoughts. The store has a good reputation, and I have no experience with the ways Nikon's VR can get faulty or temperamental. My Nikon days were in the pre-AF era.
I'd go for a warranty repair by Nikon for that pretty awesome lens.
Video through the OVF :
https://www.dropbox.com/preview/MVI_0388.AVI?role=personal
First clunk .. BBF on .......... three clunks .. VR going back to standby (which doesn't function)....... (the shaking is me holding the camera)
Pretty brutal !!
Ok, I have finally received the AF-S 600mm F4E FL VR back from Nikon service ......
...... I will test it when the day cools down, a quick VR test shows it works fine ...... there's heatwave going on here at the moment .... so will try it later !!
![[Image: C600F137A5AD488BAE988DA44275DBAD.jpg]](https://g2.img-dpreview.com/C600F137A5AD488BAE988DA44275DBAD.jpg)
![[Image: 7F4A02F6DC5E4926A6B26716D59EFC30.jpg]](https://g2.img-dpreview.com/7F4A02F6DC5E4926A6B26716D59EFC30.jpg)
