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anyone have one ? used one ? opinions ?
thanks

I like the sound of that spec...and have seen one...but I have not played with one...for what it is worth mr Rockwell seems to like it!

Yes I've got one. I got the AIS version first which is perhaps slightly sharper wide open but found I needed AF. I think I took about 80% of my shots at the last Narooma Blues festival with it, as shown on the Blues festival site (images on most pages) or here.

On a full frame camera 180mm is almost the perfect focal length. The 180mms were NIKON classics. On the smaller digital sensors 180mm could be an awkward focal length at 270mm effective...too long for portraits and yet not a serious telephoto either.

Murray Foote wrote:Yes I've got one. I got the AIS version first which is perhaps slightly sharper wide open but found I needed AF. I think I took about 80% of my shots at the last Narooma Blues festival with it, as shown on the Blues festival site (images on most pages) or here.

thanks for that link. wonderful shots. wow.
yeah, i have heard that about the ai-s version but like you, lack of AF rules it out.

they are on special at the moment and a new one can be had for $1013 which is pretty darn cheap so was just wondering...

Well you missed out on the zoomar 180mm f1.3 which went on buyitnow for only $18,500 or so (more info here) but it wasn't autofocus anway. An autofocus version would probably cost too much, particularly since you'd have to find someone to make it for you.

I got mine for $600 second hand (the Nikon, not the Zoomar, I'd probably buy a Zoomar for that) though the dollar was stronger then. When I got the D3 I was thinking of the 80-400mm but found it was a bit soft wide open, soft at the longer end and not as fast as primes at many focal lengths. The 180 is also a lot smaller than the 70-200.

I have one Love using the lens and it's perfect on a FF body.

Wide open, it's tack sharp and the lens is perfect for PJ work. It's compact and light.

Only thing that's a worry about it is that there isn't any rear element so the blades are exposed. It's not a huge thing as it's quite a fair way into the lens itself. You just have to be careful when you change lenses.

Here are some sample pics.

Murray Foote wrote:Yes I've got one. I got the AIS version first which is perhaps slightly sharper wide open but found I needed AF. I think I took about 80% of my shots at the last Narooma Blues festival with it, as shown on the Blues festival site (images on most pages) or here.

The one with the ED elements? Same as mine then and yes, it's SHARP. If you have the extension tubes you can use it as a macro lens as well.

Hi Grev

It is indeed, and quite useable wide open. I take it you're referring to Kenko extension tubes because i don't think Nikon makes ones that preserve autofocus. I haven't tried that partly because I only have manual extension tubes. The same definitely applies with teleconverters as the Nikon ones only support AFS lenses for autofocus.

Regards,
Murray

If the specs are the same as the AiS then you should be able to get AFD tubes for preserving autofocus and get great macro.

The AiS range have some beautiful optics, as you can see in my signature!

My macro lens is a Nikon 105mm f2.8 AIS micro. As well as the cheap extension tubes I also picked up a cheap focusing rail although I managed to strip one of the two mounting threads on it. I did quite a lot of macro last year but not so far this year. The idea of picking up a set of Kenko extension tubes has occurred to me though the lens I was thinking of for that was the 300mm f4 AFS rather than the 180mm. I also have a Leitz Elpro 3 55mm two-element macro filter and I've used that on the 105. I have read that you can use a 61mm macro filter on the 300mm without vignetting so I must get round to working out whether I can use the Elpro on the 180mm or even the 300mm with a reducing ring.

Regards,
Murray

I finally got around to checking and I've found by holding it in front of the lens that my (55mm filter size) Leitz Elpro 3 macro filter works without vignetting on either the (72mm filter size) 180mm f2.8 or the (77mm filter size) 300mm f4 AF-S. Autofocus seems OK on the 180mm; it doesn't seem to work very well on the 300mm though that may be because either I'm holding the filter too far from the lens or I'm moving it around.

I've just ordered two step down rings on ebay for about $12 so I'll see how that goes. My guess is that quality will be fine. I can always check against my manual extension tubes.

Regards,
Murray