right before we jump into this video if
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[Music]
free Jared poen fronos
photo.com and this is a review of the
Nikon 28 to 400 MM F4 to f8 VR lens the
Nikon Z Mount system this in essence is
that one lens to rule them all oh oh now
I say that because it's a super zoom
that goes from 28 all the way out to 400
and this will work on any of the z-mount
cameras whether it's fullframe or
cropped sensor now when I went out and
photographed with this lens I personally
used it on the Nikon z9 now most people
people aren't going to be putting a lens
like this on a z9 they're going to put
it on a smaller lighter less expensive
camera because this isn't the lens that
a professional photographer is going to
buy for professional work now of course
you can get professional results with
anything if you know what you're doing
but this type of lens is more geared
towards someone who isn't happy with the
results they're getting from their cell
phone or little Point shoot camera but
wants something better and they want it
in one lens so what did I photograph
well I went out and photographed women's
lacrosse out at Temple University I also
went out and photographed some pickle
ball because it's the hottest sport
around says anybody that plays pickle
ball and also I went and photographed a
couple of kids with permission in a
little park because that is the type of
thing that you're going to capture with
this lens everything from Sports and
action to the birthday parties to kids
just playing around and hanging out but
now let's take a look at the outside of
the lens and tell you how it feels it is
a pretty small light and compact feeling
lens it doesn't feel cheap it doesn't
feel overly expensive but it does feel
pretty nice in the hands it weighs in at
1.6 lb or 725 G and it is 5.6 in long or
14.2 CM when it's collapsed but it's
more of a grower less of a shower
because as you zoom it it extends all
the way out to this which is clearly
like 27 in long but yeah it zooms out to
this so it is compact but just know that
it's an external zooming lens so that is
what you get when you zoom it it's not a
terrible on lens option for travel
because you have such a large range and
it feels pretty good in the hands now
this is your lens Hood the lens hood is
meant to cut down on stray light coming
in you should put this on every time
you're taking pictures one it protects
the side of the the lens if you dink it
on something but also it stops stray
light from coming in and I just like to
have the lens Hood out at all times
there's not a lot of switches or buttons
on this lens you have one control ring
down here that when you put it on your
camera the first time you get it is
going to be set default to being manual
focused I personally turn that off
because I'm always accidentally hitting
it and switching into manual when I want
it to be in continuous autofocus that's
one thing that I Chang and there's also
a lock here for your ring it's only
going to lock in when you're at 28 mm
that's just so that it doesn't zoom out
or do any zooming when you are moving or
walking or it's in your bag but with
that said it's not like I'm getting lens
creep lens creep is where you hold a
lens upside down and it just starts
zooming on its own I don't think this
lens is ever going to creep so that
switch is kind of useless I wouldn't
personally use it but that is the
outside of the lens and it feels nice
and balanced when it's on a camera now
remember when I said that this is an F4
to f8 what that is is a variable
aperture this is a variable aperture
lens meaning when you're at 28 you are
at the F4 but as you zoom that aperture
is going up it's cutting down on the
amount of light coming in and when you
get all the way out to 400 you are at f8
but let me tell you where the apertures
change at 28 mm you're at F4 at 35
you're at 4.5 at 50 it's going to going
to be 5.6 105 f6.3 and at 200 mm is
where it goes to f8 so all the way from
200 to 400 it's at f8 so understand that
you're cutting down on the amount of
light coming into to the camera as you
zoom which means you're going to need
brighter light situations when you're
going to shoot at a distance this lens
is really not designed for shooting
indoor anything indoor basketball any
type of sport under not great lighting
because once you get past that 50 mm
you're going to have to jump that ISO up
so high that you might not be happy with
the quality that you get with all of
that being said this is more of a lens
that you set on your camera and then you
set the camera to either Auto or
aperture priority or program mode you
can shoot manual but understand that
when you go from F4 to f8 there's a lot
of changes you need to do and for most
situations and most people buying this
full auto or aperture priority is going
to be a better option because the
camera's going to do a lot of the work
for you it's going to change all of the
settings and just allow you to focus on
taking the photos and not having to
worry about changing any of those
settings so this is really one of those
basic beginner type lenses or for people
that don't care about photography that
much but want to get better results than
what their iPhone or any phone is going
to give them this is going to help them
do that and really just set your camera
to Auto and just start shooting so now
let's jump into some of the images the
first thing that I photographed was
women's lacrosse at Temple University I
actually like photographing women's
lacrosse more than men's lacrosse
because they're only wearing these
little eye guards and not a full helmet
which means I can get better face shots
that are much cleaner so let me show you
what 28 mm looks like this is 28 mm I
set the camera the Nikon z9 to aperture
priority I set my ISO up a little higher
so I could have a faster shutter speed
but a lot of people out there you might
just set it to full auto where the
camera is going to pick a shutter speed
it's going to pick your aperture and ISO
and you're just going to shoot that's
all right if you do want to learn
photography better then I have a ton of
videos that could help you do that of
course there's that Orange Box over on
fronos photo.com that I mentioned
earlier put your name email address in
it hit send it I'm going to send you a
free guide when you do that but this is
28 mm when you zoom in 400 look at the
temple sign the temple logo on the wall
look how much it brings it into you into
into the zoom I mean 28 to 400 is a
massive zoom and thus why I call this
what Stephen one lens to rule them off
that's right one lens to rule them all
cuz you got wide angle at 28 and you can
go all the way out to
400 let me jump in here real quick
because I want to show you this photo
taken with this new Nikon lens and
edited with our presets called fro Pack
4 let's start with blu's Clues followed
by Brooklyn c41 Coppertone DeLorean High
sea Kaleidoscope saltwater taffy and
thick but my all-time favorite from fro
Pack 1 is called Skittles with one click
we go boom but check this out exclusive
and all new to fro Pack 4 are adaptive
presets X1 X2 X3 and X4 I'm going to
click on the face enhance one right now
because I want to show you something
pretty cool she likes to have different
color hair from time to time so I'm
going to click on mask look at all the
masks that we already create for you
automatically with one click I'm going
to go ahead and click on hair and let's
say I just want to go ahead and change
it to Pink to match her her outfit I can
go ahead and do that and let's also go
and click on Iris because we can change
the eyes we can make them pop just a
little bit more so that they come out
and don't look so deep in Shadow so look
if you want to speed up your raw
workflow give yourself a great starting
point or you're new to presets and you
want some that just work and make
everything so much easier we created 14
all new custom Lightroom presets that
you can check out right now at fronos
photo.com Pack 4 while you're over there
you can play with the sliders to see the
befores and The Afters and if you decide
to pick them up right now they are
currently on sale or if you want to get
the Grand Slam bundle that includes FR
Pack 1 2 3 and four and of course
Skittles and the Adaptive presets you
can save even more now let's get back to
the review now when it comes to shooting
the action how's the the autofocus the
autofocus on a z9 is going to work
tremendously well I think this is going
to focus very well on basically all of
Nikon's newer cameras and their future
cameras that they release the autofocus
was fine I didn't miss very much and
part of that is because when you're
zoomed all the way out at f8 it's going
to be much harder to miss your focus
because you don't have such a narrow or
shallow depth of field now with that
being said when you have a subject like
this running directly at you down the
field look look at the background look
at how much you can see that shed and
those people sitting there yes they're
out of focus there's what they call Bok
in the background and you can do that
with your cell phone and do it fakely or
with one of our presets X4 you can add
fake background bokeh that you can do
after the fact if you want but at least
you have some of this background blur
happening but the difference is this is
a 400 MM f2.8 photo where you can see
that the background is completely
complely obliterated and the subject is
nice and isolated but the difference is
$111,000 right so this is good enough
good enough in certain situations is
good enough now in terms of action it's
nice to have that Zoom range I found
myself more at the 200 to 400 range when
shooting Outdoor Sports if you're going
to shoot soccer you're going to shoot
baseball you're going to shoot football
anything out on any of these fields even
softball you're going to get a ton of
range to reach reach out and grab the
subject whether you want those wide
angles of the kids sitting on the bench
before the game in a group cuz you can
do that at 28 or you want to get the kid
out at second base or shortstop at 400
millim and fill the frame you have the
ability to do that so as we zoom in on
this photo I'm I'm happy with the
results that I was able to get all I'm
looking for is can I get nice focus is
it sharp can I bring the colors out and
the answer to that is yes now I only
have one more example to show you here
but I got a ton of really cool lacrosse
shots that I was happy with whether it
was a little wider or a little tighter
the results are really good from what I
was able to capture so the last photo
right here I just loved it because it's
a 400 MM all the way zoomed out and even
though they're not filling the frame
fully there's so much going on there's a
lot of action that it works one of the
best advice that I can give any parent
looking to photograph their kids
outdoors in any sporting situation is
get your ass out of the stands and get
down on the field and sit and shoot
remember if you do get permission to
shoot on the field you shut your mouth
you are not allowed to coach you are not
allowed to yell at the officials you're
not allowed to talk to the players you
are there to take pictures so shut up
and shoot your pictures and have fun now
let's move on to pickle ball the fastest
growing sport in America according to
all pickle ball players which I don't
think it's the fastest moving sport or
the fastest growing sport anyway so in
this case I'm not going to need to to
use 400 MM as much so for this action
shot I'm only at 290 mm but it's fine
you have a foreground element that is
out of focus cuz that was one of the
opponents in the foreground and you have
my subject at a distance nice and sharp
but look because she's so close to the
background that the fence is going to be
completely in Focus just remember that
that's what you're getting at f8 you're
still can get great results but anything
that the subject is close to a
background at a distance is going to be
super sharp verse if you get up close
with a subject and fill the frame like
you'll see out at the park the
background is going to not be a
distraction I also wanted to show what
28 mm could do close to the subject and
this is what you get you get the subject
about to hit the pickle ball you got the
other player just waiting with the hands
on the knees and then as the action
happens and we transition Val here in
the foreground let's zoom in on Val
she'll be really happy about this she
loves playing pickle ball every week for
hours um she must have had a bad hit and
she was really upset and by really upset
she wasn't really upset but I just I
like that I'm able to capture this wide
shot that shows the emotion and shows
what's going on in the background now to
transition to something a little tighter
try to get a lower angle when you're
shooting these because shooting up at
the subject is certainly going to help
you out the eyes are nice and sharp the
background separation is almost non
existent even though we're at f8 because
like I've already said time and time
again and f8 isn't going to give you the
best results now for people with kids
this is that one lens that's going to be
able to be a great option for everything
from the park to sports like I've
already said so let's take you out to
the park and get the kids playing around
you can see that look the background
even at f7.1 is basically obliterated
that is what we're looking for that is
the difference between a cell phone
snapshot where the picture just looks
boring as hell
because you're just standing up and
taking a picture versus something like
this where we've got a brother and
sister next to each other and they're
isolated that's what you get when you
can reach out 130 mm you can't do that
with a kit lens that is a 24 to 70 we
can go further with this and that's what
it's all about so let's move over to the
slide cuz kids like going to the slide
and not sitting at the bottom and
looking at me they kept running away
they thought it was a fun game to not
let me get the pictures I want and I'm
like God darn it kid let me get the
pictures I want but when they're four
and 5 years old they don't listen I
guess this is your 28 mm and let me show
you what 400 gives you all the way in on
the subject such a huge great range that
you can get now I want to show you an
example of the difference between a shot
like this one of the little girl at the
bottom of the slide which is at
f4.5 and something like an f1.2 lens a
prime 50 mm lens this is the difference
look at the isolation of the subject and
how much the back the background is
obliterated and not a distraction
whereas it is a distraction here with
the little girl now you can see even at
f4.5 there's a little blurriness but
it's not the best of the best with honor
sir but also a 50mm 1.2 is basically the
same price as what this lens is going to
set you back let me cut in here real
quick and let you know know that this
video is brought to you by B&H and their
payoo credit card now remember this low
on cash guy low on cash but still need
to get your boo don't worry well he's
retired so you're going to have to deal
with me this time around so what's pay
boo well it's a credit card that helps
you save on tax that's right when you
use your payo card to make a purchase at
B&H you pay the tax and B&H pays you
back the same amount instantly no points
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saving
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have the option for special financing
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below now let's get back to the video
now before I tell you the price and who
this is for which I've already beaten
that dead horse there's two tests that I
like to do there's the sniff test and
the wind tunnel test Stephen which
should I do first sniff test sniff test
let's sniff
it animal cra
crackers I actually don't like animal
crackers but it smells like the like the
elephant in the animal crackers ooh wind
tunnel test Stephen yeah wind tunnel
test yeah definitely passes the wind
tunnel test all right so this is a
$1300 lens there are other options from
Nikon that are similar in price point
but they are much larger and heavier for
example you've got a 100 to 400 mm Zoom
that is
$2700 that is a big amount of money for
something that's only 100 to 400 this is
28 to 400 and the other option is a 180
to 600 that's
$1,700 and possibly in the future Tamron
might offer a 50 to 400 option that
might be around the same price but you
are not going to find something that's
28 to 400 that gives you this range so
so I've already said a lot of who it's
for those parents that just want to get
better pictures of their kids or of just
just when they travel you don't have to
have kids you just want one lens that
can go 28 at the Eiffel Tower and 400 at
the meme guy miming stuff in the corner
in Paris going oh except they just doing
this so at the end of the day great job
Nikon for putting out an option like
this yes $11,200 is a good amount of
money but the people that know that they
want something that's 28 to 400 this is
the only option you're going to have and
it's that one lens to rule them all
thank you very much for watching Jared
po inros
photo.com see
you