nikon 80-200/2.8 - which one?

[chrisgeary]

there have been various flavours of 80-200/2.8 released by Nikon over the years. some cost more, some cost less (secondhand). what are the differences between a £350 example and a £450 third edition or something? is the extra worth it?

I'm after a Nikon 80-200 lens with constant 2.8 aperture - I'll use it on a Fuji S2 Pro - I'll ideally want it to work with teleconverters too.

thanks for any advice.

[Radiohead]

TC's are either love them or hate them. The Nikkors are pricey and the 1.4x is reckoned to be the best, closely followed by the 1.7x (which is hard to find in the UK at the moment for some reason).

As for the 80-200mm, personally, I'd go for the AF-S flavour - failing that you might do well to look at the excellent Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 HSM EX.

Link here shows the difference - looks like 1st version was MF, second was AF and third was AF-S. Now superceded by the 70-200mm f2.8 VR.

http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_zo...l#MF80-200f2.8

Excellent review source here

http://www.nikonlinks.com/equipment_...-telephoto.htm

[chrisgeary]

thanks for those links, most helpful! I think its the two ring version I want.

cheers

Chris

[paulc1]

Hi chris, I have got the 80-200 f2.8 afd ed 2 ring version of this lense with the tripod collar and absolutely love it, I wanted the afs version but decided that the extra £500 was too much to pay so i plumped for the 2 touch one.

My mate has got the older trombone type 80-200 f2.8 and it works just as well insofar as the glass is the same, but the older one uses a trombone type focus ring and doesn't have a tripod collar....so the 2 touch is better in my opinion, also the later 2 touch lens has IF so you can fit the petal type lens hood.

downside to this lense is that it is heavy, although I use it on a D70 and am developing new muscles lol.

hope it helps

[chrisgeary]

having done some further research, it seems that the Nikon TCs only work with AF-S or AF-I lenses. I'm not going to buy the AF-S version.

I'm now thinking about choosing the Sigma instead as their TCs work. For similar money, I can get a proper two ring zoom, HSM and TCs that maintain metering and AF. There seems to be DG and non-DG versions. Is there any difference between them other than the image size? It seems you can't buy the non-DG new anymore.

I've read that the Nikon glass is second to none. I have mixed experiences with Sigma - the 28-300 zoom is appalling, but the 10-20mm zoom is awesome! Is the Sigma 70-200 combined with their 1.4x TC a sensible combination?

[paulc1]

I have been looking for a tc to couple with my 80-200 f2.8 ed af nikon and have come to the conclusion from reading on forums that the best one to buy is the kenko pro 300, apparently it is less fussy and works with the older non afs lenses, but its white AAghhh!!!