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Jared Polin FroKnowsPhoto.com and this is a real world review of the Nikon 300mm F4E
VR lens.
Now this is a small lens.
It’s so small that it almost feels like it’s a 24 to 70 but only a little lighter.
To have a 300mm F4 VR in your bag that does what it does is really amazing.
Put it in comparison to a 300 F2.8 and how large that is at five or six pounds and then
you grab something like this which is a hell of a lot smaller, it’s going to come in
handy whether you’re a photo journalist, whether you shoot sports, whether you shoot
nature.
Even if you want to handhold some video.
So I want to run it through its paces and tell you what I think.
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So I want to take this lens inside to shoot the Liberty Bell.
Now I have to keep in mind it’s a 300mm on a full frame body.
What kind of shots can I get?
I think I’m going to have to focus on the details.
Well we’ll just have to go and see.
[Music]
All right so I was absolutely right the detail shots was what I had to shoot.
There's really not much else you can do with a 300mm in there.
You have a lot of people hanging around.
I can shoot portraits of the people but what's the point of shooting a really tight headshot
at the Liberty Bell if you don’t have the Liberty Bell in it?
But I got some awesome detail shots of the bottom of the bell.
The thing that cracked the bell in the first place, got pictures of the crack, got details
of the text that’s in there.
Even tried to get down on low angles to try to you know get people on the other side of
the bell to see if I could get some interesting shots.
So again with a lens like this you’re going to be shooting a lot of detailed shots.
So you just have to find them.
For example we went over to the sunflower patch and I saw some bees flying around and
I tried to capture them.
I don’t know how I did, I hope I did well.
But you just have to find shots like that.
[Music]
To be or not to be.
That be the question.
[Music]
So the next thing I want to do is take a walk over to Independence Hall and see what kind
of pictures I can pick up.
I’m thinking the detail shots are going to be great.
We have the clock up there, we have the bell, we have the spire at the very top.
But we also have people hanging out so that may give me the ability to get some cool pictures.
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So one thing you need to remember when you’re using a longer piece of glass like this, this
is a 300mm.
Now the rule of thumb if you’re on full frame is that you don’t want your shutter
speed to be slower than your focal length.
That’s where you start to run into some issues with some blur that’s happening because
of your motion.
Now the VR is going to come in handy and help you there so if you have the VR on you can
shoot at slower shutter speeds but it’s a good rule of thumb to be at no less than
320 if 1/320th of a second if you’re shooting on full frame and if you’re on DX maybe
1/500th of a second because remember this lens on a DX body is going to be 450mm.
[Music]
Guy with a selfie stick is always lovely.
Oh guy shooting with an iPad.
[Music]
Wow this is unbelievable.
So if you’re shooting on a DX camera and you put this 300 F4 on there its going to
be 450mm.
The shots that I am getting of people at a distance and filling the frame with its just
insane.
To have a lens this small we get that much reach is unbelievable.
So if you can afford it this is a lens that I would throw in the bag at all times.
Just to have the reach when you need it whether you’re full frame getting a 300mm or whether
your DX getting it at 450mm equivalent this, this is unbelievable what I’m getting right
here.
[Music]
A lot of kids taking my picture, taking this picture.
[Music]
Wow!
So there you have it.
There I switched into full frame so you could see both of them at the same time.
One’s at 450mm equivalent on DX and one is full frame at 300mm, amazing!
What an amazing lens that we have right here.
The sheer ability to snipe what we want to snipe from a distance is unbelievable.
Really enjoying it.
Now let’s move onto something else.
[Music]
So the VR in this lens is absolutely incredible.
It’s great for stills and it even comes in handy for video.
To handhold a video at 300mm and still have it be stable is unbelievable.
All right guys so what I’m doing right now is I’m shooting this clock up here at Independence
Hall.
Now I’m shooting it at 300mm.
VR is on, VR is off.
Look at that, see how that’s moving on, boom, stabilizing, off.
One more time, on, off and on.
But this D4S lets me do a 2.7 time crop mode.
So what I’m going to do is go ahead and put it into 2.7 time crop mode because that
is going to give us the equivalent of an 810mm lens.
I’m handholding this so lets see how it does.
Pretty stable, 810mm right here equivalent.
Now let’s just take VR off to see how good this VR is.
VR is off, look at Shaky McShakerson going on right here.
We’ll put VR back on, boom!
Unbelievable!
That is 810mm because this camera lets me do 2.7 times crop mode, unbelievable VR, unbelievable
capabilities that you have with these two combinations.
Really, really loving what this lens lets me do for stills and for video.
So as we wrap this real world review up I want to remind you that this is just one particular
situation where you could use this lens.
But there's so many others whether you’re shooting weddings, sports, nature, portraits,
this lens is going to be fantastic.
I can see taking this with me throwing it in the bag because it’s much quicker and
easier to use than my 300 2.8, that’s $5000.
This is still expensive at $2000 but it may come in handy because it gives you amazing
reach, great VR and it’s just an all-around fantastic lens.
So that’s it, that’s another real world review, Jared Polin FroKnowsPhoto.com.
See you.
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