chris.lawson@sympatico.ca wrote in message <6ejh0m$7jh$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...

>I am on a search for a telephoto lens in the 300-400mm range (I might have
>gone slightly magnification crazy, but that's all part of the love of
>photography). I have had a huge amount of wonderful help from all my brothers
>and sisters with the Nikkor AF 300 F4 IF-ED, and it seems to be very sharp,
>quite portable and certainly a more compact telephoto lens than the F2.8.
>
>I noticed another lens possibility over the weekend on the Nikon home site in
>the USA. It would appear to be an older - but still produced, more portable,
>manual Nikkor 400mm F5.6 AIS. It too looks quite compact (compared to its
>brother displayed beside it, the AF-S Nikkor 400 F2.8 D.) My question of the
>day would be if anyone has used this "bazooka like" manual Nikkor 400 5.6 AIS
>lens? It looks to me to be quite "long nosed". The F5.6 would seem to be
>quite dark, but I am sure that it would be a little more economical than the
>F2.8, and more portable. It is ED glass, and could be sharper. Any opinions
>family? 400mm would certainly bring the world to me.


The 400mm f5.6 Nikkor is an excellent lens, sharp "wide" open, and good
(though s l o w !!!) on converters. It is rather long for easy packing
(though light), and WAY overpriced. BTW, if your 300mm is not long enough,
the 300mm f4 + TC14B converter may be more practical (and far cheaper)
than the 400mm f5.6, and it is still sharp. Another long lens bargain
is the excellent older-version (non-macro) 500mm f8 Nikkor mirror (and
it is also sharp on the TC14/14B converter, giving 700mm). BTW, you will
find a fairly complete Nikkor list (with evaluations) on my web page,
under "I babble"...
---
David Ruether
http://www.fcinet.com/ruether