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[Music]
Jared polin froknows
photo.com and this is a review of the
Nikon 200 to wait a second this is
actually a 180 to 600 it's a five six to
six point three so Nikon kind of lied to
everybody they put 200 to 600 on the
road map and they hit us with a 180 to
600 which is kind of interesting because
if you remember the Nikon roadmap said
200 to 600 and this so happens to be a
surprise now what's funny is I only had
a couple of days to use this and Nikon
is as always worried that I'll be seen
on TV when I take it to the Phillies
game they had tape all over the lens I
didn't know that it was a 180 to 600
until I looked at the lens hood and I
saw 180 and I was like 180. where's that
coming from nonetheless this is
basically replacing the 200 to 500 F
mount lens that was a straight 5.6 this
being a five six to six three is that
that big of a deal and the answer is no
for a variable aperture lens that is a
small variable that's going on that's
about a third of a stop it's not that
big of a deal but like I said I only had
a few days to test this out I took it
out to the Philadelphia Zoo where I do
my normal rounds of photographing the
gorilla the flamingos and the eagle
because this is basically a wildlife
style lens that's going to give you big
reach for not a lot of money and we'll
get to that by the end of this video I
also took it out to the Philadelphia
Phillies game because having a 180 to
600 millimeter Zoom is pretty versatile
when you're trying to capture sports but
does that five six to six point three
make the background not look that good
we'll see when we get in to the images
but let's take a look at the outside of
the lens this is a pretty big lens now
the 200 to 500 five six was an external
zoom lens so as you turned the zoom ring
you were zooming all the way out when I
turn the zoom ring here it's all zooming
internal now I do have the lens hood on
which does make it look a little bigger
but I do recommend that if you are
shooting photos you probably should have
the lens hood on at all times that is
one of my biggest recommendations ever
now I just talked about going from 180
to 600. this is not that big of a throw
what I mean by that is it from throw is
how long does it take you to twist from
one area to the other kind of like
Chubby Checker going you know doing
doing the twist which was in
Conshohocken in Philadelphia I knew
that's where Chubby Checker is but it's
about 70 degrees so that is not that
long of a throw which is very good I say
that because Canon has this 100 to 500
and the throw is fairly long you gotta
twist quite a bit to get from 100 to
500. now Sony has a 200 to 600
millimeter Zoom as well and their throw
is one of the shortest throws that I've
ever felt going from 200 to 600 not that
much further off from this so Nikon did
a good job with that it is a nice design
it feels nice in the hands but is it
hand holdable I say that because you
have a removable tripod collar right
here for people that need to put it on a
monopod in terms of weight you are at
4.72 pounds or
2140 grams which is lighter than the 200
to 500 F Mount that Nikon had even
holding it like this right now and today
was leg day hashtag leg day it wasn't
even arm day and this does get heavy oh
yeah I should also mention that I use
the Nikon z9 this is what I chose to
take out to test it on because well it
has a bigger battery which means more
power and the built-in grip for going
vertical and I don't have a grip right
here for the Z8 but as you know they are
basically the same exact cameras some
minor tweaks based on firmware but that
is about it so when I was at the zoo I
handheld it but it definitely does get
tired I found myself holding it like
this when I was walking quite a bit
because it just does get pretty heavy
now when I shot Sports I was on a
monopod because it was much easier it's
a longer game you're not going to hand
hold it for that long so if you're out
in the wilderness and you're walking
around maybe you'll use a monopod if
you're just going to shoot here and
there and then put the camera down and
the lens down a little bit you may want
to try to hand hold it but that's up to
you and I think at just under five
pounds it's still a pretty heavy lens
for most people now in terms of filter
thread you have a 95 millimeter filter
thread 95 millimeter lens cap right here
you've got the lens Hood when you're not
using it it bayonets back here you also
have four programmable buttons around
the lens for whatever you would like
that to do you also have this custom
control ring which doubles as your
manual focus when I put it on the camera
it was manual focus it's what it
activated which I actually don't like
because when you touch it it switches
into manual when you do that and then
you have to reactivate by pressing the
shutter halfway down to get it to
re-engage for your continuous autofocus
in terms of handhold ability you get
five and a half stops of VR when you
pair it with either of these cameras now
of course this is a z mount lens so you
can put it on any of the Z Mount cameras
and we all know how the autofocus is on
those older nikons but on the Z8 and the
z9 you're going to have a much better
time getting stuff in Focus because
those focusing systems are pretty good
now where do you go from five six to six
three well at 300 millimeters you go to
F6 at 500 millimeters you find yourself
at 6.3 which is a little different than
your 200 to 500 which is 5'6 all the way
through but like I said it's a third of
a stop and you're not really going to
run into much of an issue because it's
not that far off and especially if
you're shooting raw you can just bring
it back it's not a big difference for a
variable aperture lens so it's nice to
have 180 to 600. let me show you a quick
example of 180 to 600 this is an eagle
it's a bald eagle at the Philadelphia
Zoo I always go there to photograph the
Eagles and they were screaming they
wanted to be fed and that's probably why
they were waiting near the fence this is
your 180 this is your 600. this is Tac
sharp it is gorgeous now of course the
bird isn't in flight and it's not moving
that's something that you'll have to do
if you're going to go out into nature I
didn't want to go out into nature I
wanted to go to the zoo because it's
easy and I can get nice samples just
like this for you to look at oh and by
the way this was one click to Skittles
and it looks absolutely fantastic let me
jump in here real quick because I want
to show you this photo taken with the z9
and edited with fro Pack 3 starting with
Fifth Element followed by Almost Famous
Canadian tuxedo Capone Eckert King
contrast Mentos November Rain Prestige
Worldwide and Zoolander but check this
out with one click we've got Skittles
from fro pack one and this photo with
the 180 to 600 let's bang it out with
some Skittles as well and go boom look
how amazing that looks in just one click
so look if you want to give yourself a
great starting point speed up your raw
workflow or you're just tired of other
people's presets not working well we
created 15 custom Lightroom presets that
you can check out right now at
fronosphoto.com fro pack three while
you're over there you can play with the
sliders to see the befores and The
Afters if decide to pick them up right
now they are still on sale or if you
want to get the triple play bundle that
includes skittles from fro pack one you
can save even more now let's get back to
the video I always start with the
gorilla I like to go to the gorillas and
there so happen to be one out there at
the time and they were only out there
for about five minutes before they went
back in to sit in the air conditioning
because well they have air conditioning
at the zoo for the gorillas which they
don't actually have in the wild but the
one thing that I noticed here when I was
trying to focus and you can see with the
evf footage is that it found ear it went
to ear AF not animal iaf I did turn on
animal iaf but let me tell you this
isn't the only camera system that does
it the Sony's gonna do it the Canon is
going to do it because it's looking for
a difference in contrast and what you
see is that it finds the ear because
well that's brighter than the eyes which
are in set back a little bit with the
gorillas so that's not a Nikon issue
that's something that happens with all
of the systems so it handled everything
fairly well this is at 600 millimeters
as well but what if you want more can
you put teleconverters on to this lens
and the answer is yes you can put a 1-4
on there you could put a 2x on there now
what you're going going to get with the
1.4 converter is an 840 millimeter lens
at F9 now with a 2X converter you're
going out to 1200 millimeters at f13 and
I do not recommend that you waste money
on teleconverters to put on this lens
now we did a great video which was a
side-by-side comparison showing you with
with the teleconverter and without a
teleconverter but just cropped in
personally I don't like to crop my
images but I rather see you get a
sharper better image from cropping than
put a teleconverter on your camera lose
out on your aperture and your f-stops
and end up having a higher ISO and then
images that are not as sharp we've shown
it we see it in the video you can check
it out you have a Z8 you have a z9 I did
it backwards because the z8s here and a
z9 is here you have these cameras that
have 45 megapixels I rather see you crop
after the fact than worry about doing it
with a a teleconverter because the
quality is going to be better in terms
of close Focus you can get within 7.9
feet to get your minimum close Focus if
you're gonna try to be really close to
something to get the shot you also have
nine blades for your aperture now I
always walk over to the flamingos
because well they're beautiful they have
a nice vibrant color and that's why I
like to capture them this one is at 600
millimeters as well I love the fact that
we have the reflection of another
Flamingo behind it the water always
looks like it ghosts away and it almost
looks like a painting that looks awesome
as well as the drop of water dropping
from the bill of this Flamingo then I
continued and I wanted to shoot super
tight I wanted to get that eye in Focus
as this Flamingo was walking because
look how awesome the water looks behind
it we zoom in on the eye and this one is
absolutely tack sharp but I will tell
you that there are times with this
system that you do end up with if you do
a burst of shots that a couple are going
to be they might be close to in Focus
but they're not perfectly tax sharp
whereas this one is absolutely tack
sharp and I think a lot of you guys who
have the Nikon system have seen exactly
what I'm talking about where when you
zoom in you're like
I can't tell and then you look at one
that is absolutely attacked and you're
like that is absolutely Tech so
sometimes it's going to be hit and miss
with the system now that brings up
something interesting here because Nikon
also has this 100 to 400 millimeter lens
now this is considered an S line this
also has different type of Motors the
180 to 600 has the STM Motors this has
two Motors and we believe they're the
magnetic type that go back and forth
meaning this should focus slightly
faster but the question is why would you
spend like twenty seven hundred dollars
on a lens like this when this one is
16.99 you get more bang for your buck
you get more reach but why is this an S
and this isn't an S is still Beyond me
and I'm not sure why Nikon did away with
the gold ring next we went out to the
Philadelphia Phillies they were playing
the Los Angeles Dodgers I love going out
to the games to get images because when
the coaches on the bench pre-game that's
a good opportunity for me to see them
getting in interviewed and also get some
good shots this is what your 180 looks
like we can zoom in looks nice and sharp
it's fine the colors look good you get
great stuff off the z9 especially when
you shoot raw next I banged into 600
millimeters just to get the coach and it
looks fine colors look good Clarity
looks fine just know that you're gonna
get 600 millimeters at F 6.3 this looks
really good now I like to shoot from the
third base dug outside when I'm at the
Phillies game because it gives me a nice
clean shot for those left-handers up at
bat now right here this is Freddie
Friedman this is at 600 millimeters
which means you're at 6.3 now this is an
image that I did with a 600 millimeter
lens at F4 just so that you can see a
slight difference in the background now
the next shot is Freddie Freeman where I
did horizontal so you can see me switch
from vertical to horizontal and we're at
400 millimeters now the thing is most
people buying this lens are not going to
spend the money to get a 402.8 you're
not going to spend the money to get a
600 F4 because honestly you don't need
it to have a 1700 lens that allows you
to get the birds that allows you to
shoot sports that allows you to do the
things that you want to do with a huge
Zoom range of 180 to 600 is really all
you need there are always going to be
trade-offs that's just the nature of the
Beast like right here with Bryce Harper
up to bat I like to go a little wider to
get the stands in the background so that
if he hits an awesome shot like this one
from the World Series where you hit a
home run and you can see everybody going
nuts in the stands that was at 200
millimeters at F 2.8 there's not
terribly too much of a difference here
at f56 even though it looks very
amateurish to have everything in focus
in the background when you're trying to
do this this just shows you what you're
capable of getting when you're at 180
millimeters let me jump in here real
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there's another position I like sitting
at the Phillies game and that's inside
Third Base which is close to home plate
now generally speaking if you don't have
a 28 to 70 or a 70 to 200 it's going to
be more difficult to photograph from
that area but having that 180 we're able
to get a shot like this of a player
sliding across home plate what I like to
have been slightly wider would I like
the ball to have been there by the time
the ball got into the frame the guy had
already slid through the entire frame so
180 isn't exactly the isn't wide enough
for this but it got the job done here
because I have the whole player sliding
head first but I would like to see a
little more context like the ball coming
in but that's just the nature of what we
had here and then finally Bryce Harper
batting about to hit a ball he did not
hit a home run here they got shut out
nine nothing in this game he actually
fouled this one off but 180 from this
angle looks absolutely fantastic so
having the 180 to 600 was very good to
have five six to six three really wasn't
that big of a deal because it's only a
third of a stop but there are two more
tests that are extremely important
that's a sniff test as well as the wind
tunnel test let's see how it sniffs
oh yeah smells like the chalk line down
first base
don't snort it you don't want to do that
like Michael Irvin did and then he went
to jail he was a uh he didn't actually
go to jail but he was snorting the line
never snort the line do not snort the
line win tunnel test I'm not even gonna
well all right we'll stand it up got to
be very careful here because if I blow
this over uh Nikon's gonna knock on the
door
well that's a brick that absolutely
passes the wind tunnel test because it
stops the wind in its tracks so as I
said earlier Nikon has a 100 to 400 does
this render that useless that's a four
five to five point six would you rather
have more bang for your buck or
something that is a little more compact
that's for you to obviously decide but
if you're a nature wildlife photographer
this is going to be the lens that you
want to look at now at six three you do
have to be aware that in lower light
situations you're going to have to bump
your ISO up higher which is going to
cause a little bit of extra noise and a
little bit of extra grain and of course
a loss of dynamic range so you're going
to have less poppy colors keep that in
mind if you're going to try to use this
indoors or in low light situations
that's just the nature of the Beast now
Sony has a 200 to 600 that's two
thousand dollars this is seventeen
hundred dollars right off the get-go if
you're someone who has a Z8 a z9 you do
Wildlife photos go order this lens the
there's a link down below it's an
affiliate link that helps us out but I
think you should go purchase this if
you've been waiting because there's
nothing to worry about this is going to
get the job done 180 was a nice little
surprise the five six to six three not a
big deal they did a really nice job
making this lens so nice job Nikon I
think they're going to sell a ton of
these so that's it guys thank you very
much for watching Jared polin
franosphoto.com
see ya