through the Nikon F-Mount - Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 and TC-14EII review

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 and TC-14EII review

March 11, 2012

April 5, 2015: Update appended.

This lens was introduced in 1999 and is today one of the oldtimers in Nikon's lens line. While many photographers are waiting for a successor which offers VR, I still enjoy this lens that I frequently use. I bought my sample just after my first D700. Most of the time I use it in conjuntion with the TC-14EII. This combination makes a marvellous 420mm f/5.6. For me, that is the Micro-Nikkor for shy insects!

1700 grams of top-notch glass!

I wouldn't use this lens without the tripod collar because of these screws!

My DIY stabilisation of the tripod mount.

About the tripod mount...

A lot of criticism about the tripod mount of this lens can be found on the Internet. Even though my sample is a relatively new one I'm sad to say that I have to agree: the tripod mount is poor. In the range from about 1/2 to 1/30 sec. the images are blurred, see examples below.

Most of the time I use this lens hand-held. Therefore this is not a main problem for me. My first thought was just to remove the tripod collar in order to save some weight (the collar weighs 160 grams). But that's not a good idea because beneath there are four protruding screws which are posing an injury risk. Besides, for handling - especially if the lens is mounted on a bigger DSLR - the tripod mount can be an advantage. And in the field I often use the tripod mount as a carrying handle for the complete unit.

Kirk Enterprises offers a replacement for the collar (for about 160€), which is reported to have no blur problem, but I have not tried it yet.

I help myself by stuffing something between the lens barrel and the tripod mount if I want to use the lens on a tripod. The grip of one of my screwdrivers has just the needed size. Otherwise I would use a slightly wedge-shaped piece of wood or something like that for it.

Specifications:

10 elements in 6 groups (TC-14EII: 5 elements in 5 groups).
Closest focus is 1.45m. Maximum magnification is approx. 1:3.5 (1:2.5 with TC).
The distance between the front of the (extended) hood and the subject at closest focus is 1.12m.
AF by SWM.
Weight including caps is 1480 grams for the lens and 220 grams for the TC.
Filter size is 77mm (non-rotating).
Built-in hood, lockable.
Length from the camera's lens mount is about 222mm (245mm with TC).
Diameter is about 90mm (not counting the feet of the tripod collar).

Positives:

Pro-built quality.
Very good lens hood.
This lens has an aperture ring, thus it is usable on older camera bodies.
Reasonably fast and reliable AF, even with TC.
On the D700 the optical performance is on a very high level at every distance, even with the TC14EII.
No focus breathing.
With the TC it's nearly a Micro-Nikkor!

Drawbacks:

The shaky tripod mount.
The Bokeh is overall ok, but sometimes a bit busy in the transition zone, especially in conjunction with the TC-14EII.
If I have not used this lens for a few days it squeaks a bit during the first AF actions.

Alternatives:

AF Nikkor 300mm f/4:
The predecessor of the AF-S lens has a very good reputation, too. But it has some practical disadvantages in comparision to the AF-S: closest focus is 2.5m (very good, but not as good as the 1.45m of the AF-S), no TC with AF (from Nikon) and no M/A mode. Nevertheless for many purposes this lens is a cheap alternative.
AF Nikkor 80-400mm f/4-5.6 D VR:
I've never tried this lens. It was the first Nikon lens with VR. In terms of optical performance is seems to be not a real alternative, for example have a look at the review on photozone.de. And it has the same type of tripod mount.
AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 G VR, AF-S Nikkor 200-400mm f/4 G VR:
I guess these are great lenses. But they exceed my budget for both money and weight.

Update April 5, 2015:

Over the last months I have tried to get more reach out of the AF-S 300mm f/4. I tried the TC-20EIII teleconverter and a CX camera. The 300mm does not like 2x converters optically while the image quality of the 300mm in conjunction with the high pixel density of my Nikon 1 V2 is stunning. Too bad, the combination of a 1 camera and an F-Mount Nikkor has AF-restrictions (only the centre-sensor is available). Nevertheless I decided to use the 1 V2 in conjunction with the 300mm more intensively in the future. More details about my findings can be found in my getting more reach article.

Due to the crop factor of 2.7 a 300mm lens on a CX camera has a fullframe equivalent of 810mm. Using such a combination hand-held is generally problematical and the AF restrictions intensify the problem significantly. The new 300mm f/4E PF VR is not a solution for such applications, despite VR the problems will be broadly similar. Thus, a stable tripod solution is needed. Because I do not plan to buy the PF lens for now, I invested 180 euros in my good old 300mm and bought a NC-300 tripod mount from Kirk Enterprise Solutions.

The end of shaking: AF-S 300mm f/4 plus Kirk NC-300 tripod mount.

Of course, my reason for buying the Kirk mount was the shaking-problem of the original mount. And yes, it is gone. But I was surprised to get more advantages:

Rotating the lens in the mount (e.g. for switching between horizontal and vertical orientation) is way smoother.
An Arca-Swiss style quick release plate is integrated.
The Kirk mount lies better in my hand when working hand-held.

It was an error not to buy the Kirk mount years before.

Hey Nikon: how about outsourcing the production of tripod mounts to Kirk Enterprise Solutions?

Sample images:

European robin in winter. D700 @ISO1600, 300mm, F5.6, 1/320 sec., hand-held.

Dragonfly at the banks of the river Ems. Nikon D700 @ISO800, 420mm, F10, 1/640 sec., hand-held.

A bumblebee on my apple tree. Nikon D700 @ISO800, 420mm, F5.6, 1/250 sec., hand-held.

Cormorant at the Rheine-Centre lock of the river Ems. Nikon D700 @ISO1600, 420mm, F8, 1/800 sec., hand-held.

Evaluating corner sharpness of the AF-S 300mm at the closest focus, see 100% crops below. No post-processing was done, the image is just raw converted by Nikon Capture NX2.

100% crops of the lower right corner at F4, F5.6 and F8.

Evaluating corner sharpness of the AF-S 300mm in conjunction with the TC-14EII at the closest focus, see 100% crops below. No post-processing was done, the image is just raw converted by Nikon Capture NX2.

100% crop of the upper right corner at F5.6, F8 and F11.

The problem with the tripod mount. Captured with the D700 + MB-D10 on the tripod at 1/8 sec..

100% crop of the image above. On the right the same crop, but the image was taken with the help of my screwdriver.