I would love to see the performance of the old Nikkor 800mm f/5.6 AiS lens here some time … still quite affordable and I wonder how close or how far it would be in terms of resolution
I used the nikkor 800 f5.6 ais with the d500, d850 and Z9. The lens resolves pretty well. Stopped down to f8 for great sharpness. The challenge is manual focusing with such a narrow depth of field at 800mm. I was struggling even with the z9 but once in focus, the photo is very sharp. You can have a look at my review and sample photos here youtu.be/8e-m8jZotr0
Sam Tebbutt
April 9, 2021 6:05 am
I have recently purchased the Nikon 800mm f/5.6e and I can confirm that it lives up to it’s legendary status. Nothing I’ve ever used in the past can get close to what this lens can deliver. I photograph small birds and water fowl and it really is a weapon. The detail and the overall sharpness and contrast is unparalleled and it’s great fun to use. The sniper of lenses!
Alex
January 18, 2021 9:17 am
Perfect dereview！How the lens performs on D850？How it compares to 600 4.0E？
wilco
June 16, 2020 8:59 am
Does anybody experience with latest 600/4 FL TC vs 800/5.6 FL?
Yes the 800 was a clear winner naturally. But the 600 f4e + TC is a bit more manageable and packable. Tried with D500, D850 & D5. 800 was a rental
Also compared to 400mm FL + TC20 and the 800 wins – in all cases use the bare lens where possibly – bare 600 beats 400 + TC14. But 400 is a lot more flexible again.
Hope this info helps. Would love Nasim to do a premium glass comparison both bare & with tcs Nikon 800 fl 600 fl 500 fl & pf 400 fl 300 vrii & f4e pf 180-400 fl tc 120-300 fl
Sigma 800 500 sport
Although likely take up too much time, would be amazing resource.
Psychwolf
May 10, 2020 11:33 am
Why are you travelling in the midst of a global pandemic? I hope you didn’t fly to get there. Also, this lens is ridiculously expensive for people who don’t intend to make a living off of photography alone. To me, the value of this lens is far lower for hobbyists, in fact I’d say value is 2 of 5 overall if you look at price, so give value more consideration than you are. I’d suggest offering some alternative ideas to get comparable quality for those of us who have to let this lens go to eBay a decade later. For example, would connecting a high quality ED doublet, triplet or quad APO of the same or lower cost work just as well since quality brands employ similar tactics on the glass, minus that fancy zoom. In my experience they work far better in some cases and cost a fraction of the price, but require adapters and reducers along with some extra steps in processing..
steve c
January 28, 2020 6:33 am
Hi Nasim, Great review on this lens. I used this article part of my decision to get the 800mm. I spend every weekend, probably 15 hours a week shooting birds. I just bought the Nikon 800mm E, I was using the 600mm E for the past 2 years. I really love the 600mm and the detail is provides, but I wanted a little more distance for birds. I have had used it 3 times now and I am having a difficult time getting clear crisp pictures of birds where you can see the fine feathering. I did not have difficulty with the 600, also using with 1.4x, but with the 800 it appears the the feathering is merging together sometimes and is not the clear. I know in your article you said you had some frustration in the beginning. What did you do to help resolve the issue? I want to make sure its me and not the lens. Thank you
Steve, the biggest issue was the atmospheric haze, which was what created all the issues for me. In your particular case, your lens might need to be calibrated t your camera body. Make sure to AF Fine Tune it before you take it out next time…
Hi Nasim, After a few weeks of testing, I am pretty sure it is atmospheric haze. I was shooting owls for the last month which took place in last hour of daylight or cloudy and was not getting any issues, pictures were sharp. But when there was bright sunny days, even close to the end of the day or even earlier in the morning, there was many days where I could not get anything in focus. And you can see the background did not look smooth, it looked like jagged lines. Most of my shooting was through open brown fields which seems to generate more heat. But I could not actually see the waves. What is strange is that I am getting this problem many days while using the 800mm, but I am not experiencing using the 600mm, even with 1.4x. Its a bit frustrating being its so expensive, I expected same results as 600mm just getting more distance. But shots the I got that are sharp, I am extremely happy with. Nasim, thank your responding and all of your info.
Hi Steve if it is not too late take your camera and body to a Nikon service centre or NPS and ask for a process called Lens Registration. I had this calibration performed along with my TCs and my 600 went from great to incredible. AF Fine Tune is good but this is Nikon full lens calibration.
daniel dolpire
May 8, 2017 9:12 am
Hi Nasim, I have been using the 800mm lens for 2 years now. A recent problem, the lens focusses then after i change the focus to a different scene it just does not want to focus! yet i can hear the internal mechanism turning! what should i do?
Ian Mackenzie
March 23, 2017 3:13 pm
Lovely article Nasim – thorough , objective and informative. One small point though, the 800/5.6 Fl isn’t the first Nikon to come with a TC – you forgot the 300/f2 that came with the dedicated TC-14C all those years ago!
Chris
February 12, 2017 9:26 am
Hi Nasim, Thanks for the great review! I’ve just taken the big step of getting the lens! I have spent the first day in the garden with it and fine tuning it with lens align. Immediately I had the IMPRESSION that the images were a little bit soft. So I decided to take a picture of a scene at 800mm and then roughly the same scene with my Nikon 70-200 2.8 vr ii @200mm. I always got what seemed to be sharper images with the latter lens (I’m obviously much closer with the Nikon 70-200mm than with the 800mm). I’ve tried everything: VR on, VR off, using a remote shutter trigger, various shutter speeds, AF modes. The 800mm was always on a sturdy tripod. Just to give you an idea, the scene was at 2m distance @ 200mm and around 4 times that for the 800mm. Because DOF so small at such distances, I even tried series of shots with varying AF fine tune settings to make sure I didn’t fine tune the lens incorrectly. Am I missing something really basic here? Or could there be a problem with the 800mm lens?
Hi Chris, Have you resolved this issue, I just picked up my lens and I am having the same issue. I was wondering what you did to solve the issue.
NikonFanboy
June 13, 2015 1:51 pm
Hi Nasim,
Thanks for the detail review. Its again a great read. Another question i wanted to ask you is, when the lens is tested on Imatest, could you actually make out visible difference between those 3000 lw/ph lenses and 2000 lw/ph on MTF50. I assume full frame camera is attached to theses lenses like D800E or D4s. Is there an exponentional difference when using on the field? Let assume the New Nikkor 400mm FL ED VR attached to TCE20III compared to Nikkor 800mm F/5.6 FL ED VR. There seems to be quite a large difference between the 2 lenses. NikKor 800mm triumphs in all aspects on Imatest lab test. As said above the difference between the 2 is 2000 lw/ph with 400 + TC2EIII and 3000lw/ph on 800mm f/5.6.
I would love to see the performance of the old Nikkor 800mm f/5.6 AiS lens here some time … still quite affordable and I wonder how close or how far it would be in terms of resolution
I used the nikkor 800 f5.6 ais with the d500, d850 and Z9. The lens resolves pretty well. Stopped down to f8 for great sharpness. The challenge is manual focusing with such a narrow depth of field at 800mm. I was struggling even with the z9 but once in focus, the photo is very sharp. You can have a look at my review and sample photos here youtu.be/8e-m8jZotr0
I have recently purchased the Nikon 800mm f/5.6e and I can confirm that it lives up to it’s legendary status. Nothing I’ve ever used in the past can get close to what this lens can deliver. I photograph small birds and water fowl and it really is a weapon. The detail and the overall sharpness and contrast is unparalleled and it’s great fun to use. The sniper of lenses!
Perfect dereview！How the lens performs on D850？How it compares to 600 4.0E？
Does anybody experience with latest 600/4 FL TC vs 800/5.6 FL?
Yes the 800 was a clear winner naturally. But the 600 f4e + TC is a bit more manageable and packable.
Tried with D500, D850 & D5.
800 was a rental
Also compared to 400mm FL + TC20 and the 800 wins – in all cases use the bare lens where possibly – bare 600 beats 400 + TC14.
But 400 is a lot more flexible again.
Hope this info helps.
Would love Nasim to do a premium glass comparison both bare & with tcs
Nikon
800 fl
600 fl
500 fl & pf
400 fl
300 vrii & f4e pf
180-400 fl tc
120-300 fl
Sigma
800
500 sport
Although likely take up too much time, would be amazing resource.
Why are you travelling in the midst of a global pandemic? I hope you didn’t fly to get there. Also, this lens is ridiculously expensive for people who don’t intend to make a living off of photography alone. To me, the value of this lens is far lower for hobbyists, in fact I’d say value is 2 of 5 overall if you look at price, so give value more consideration than you are. I’d suggest offering some alternative ideas to get comparable quality for those of us who have to let this lens go to eBay a decade later. For example, would connecting a high quality ED doublet, triplet or quad APO of the same or lower cost work just as well since quality brands employ similar tactics on the glass, minus that fancy zoom. In my experience they work far better in some cases and cost a fraction of the price, but require adapters and reducers along with some extra steps in processing..
Hi Nasim,
Great review on this lens. I used this article part of my decision to get the 800mm. I spend every weekend, probably 15 hours a week shooting birds.
I just bought the Nikon 800mm E, I was using the 600mm E for the past 2 years.
I really love the 600mm and the detail is provides, but I wanted a little more distance for birds. I have had used it 3 times now and I am having a difficult time getting clear crisp pictures of birds where you can see the fine feathering. I did not have difficulty with the 600, also using with 1.4x, but with the 800 it appears the the feathering is merging together sometimes and is not the clear. I know in your article you said you had some frustration in the beginning. What did you do to help resolve the issue? I want to make sure its me and not the lens. Thank you
Steve, the biggest issue was the atmospheric haze, which was what created all the issues for me. In your particular case, your lens might need to be calibrated t your camera body. Make sure to AF Fine Tune it before you take it out next time…
Thanks Nasim,
I am going to try that out.
Hi Nasim,
After a few weeks of testing, I am pretty sure it is atmospheric haze. I was shooting owls for the last month which took place in last hour of daylight or cloudy and was not getting any issues, pictures were sharp. But when there was bright sunny days, even close to the end of the day or even earlier in the morning, there was many days where I could not get anything in focus. And you can see the background did not look smooth, it looked like jagged lines. Most of my shooting was through open brown fields which seems to generate more heat. But I could not actually see the waves. What is strange is that I am getting this problem many days while using the 800mm, but I am not experiencing using the 600mm, even with 1.4x. Its a bit frustrating being its so expensive, I expected same results as 600mm just getting more distance. But shots the I got that are sharp, I am extremely happy with. Nasim, thank your responding and all of your info.
Hi Steve if it is not too late take your camera and body to a Nikon service centre or NPS and ask for a process called Lens Registration. I had this calibration performed along with my TCs and my 600 went from great to incredible.
AF Fine Tune is good but this is Nikon full lens calibration.
Hi Nasim, I have been using the 800mm lens for 2 years now. A recent problem, the lens focusses then after i change the focus to a different scene it just does not want to focus! yet i can hear the internal mechanism turning! what should i do?
Lovely article Nasim – thorough , objective and informative. One small point though, the 800/5.6 Fl isn’t the first Nikon to come with a TC – you forgot the 300/f2 that came with the dedicated TC-14C all those years ago!
Hi Nasim, Thanks for the great review! I’ve just taken the big step of getting the lens! I have spent the first day in the garden with it and fine tuning it with lens align. Immediately I had the IMPRESSION that the images were a little bit soft. So I decided to take a picture of a scene at 800mm and then roughly the same scene with my Nikon 70-200 2.8 vr ii @200mm. I always got what seemed to be sharper images with the latter lens (I’m obviously much closer with the Nikon 70-200mm than with the 800mm). I’ve tried everything: VR on, VR off, using a remote shutter trigger, various shutter speeds, AF modes. The 800mm was always on a sturdy tripod. Just to give you an idea, the scene was at 2m distance @ 200mm and around 4 times that for the 800mm. Because DOF so small at such distances, I even tried series of shots with varying AF fine tune settings to make sure I didn’t fine tune the lens incorrectly. Am I missing something really basic here? Or could there be a problem with the 800mm lens?
Hi Chris,
Have you resolved this issue, I just picked up my lens and I am having the same issue. I was wondering what you did to solve the issue.
Hi Nasim,
Thanks for the detail review. Its again a great read. Another question i wanted to ask you is, when the lens is tested on Imatest, could you actually make out visible difference between those 3000 lw/ph lenses and 2000 lw/ph on MTF50. I assume full frame camera is attached to theses lenses like D800E or D4s. Is there an exponentional difference when using on the field?
Let assume the New Nikkor 400mm FL ED VR attached to TCE20III compared to Nikkor 800mm F/5.6 FL ED VR. There seems to be quite a large difference between the 2 lenses. NikKor 800mm triumphs in all aspects on Imatest lab test. As said above the difference between the 2 is 2000 lw/ph with 400 + TC2EIII and 3000lw/ph on 800mm f/5.6.
Is this difference large enough to own them?
thanks in advance.