Trying out the Nikon 70-210mm f/4-5.6 AF lens

I got this used Nikon 70-210mm f/4-5.6 AF


My Nikon D610, 70-210mm Zoom Lens, and GPS

lens last Thursday and came up with a fairly close location to try it out.

I discussed it before, but I got it from B&H after some research. It was last produced by Nikon around 1999. It's pretty much all metal and weighs about 1.5 pounds. I couldn't find a "D" version; this is a non-D version. No VR, ED, etc.

Coupled with the D610 and my Manfrotto RC5 plate (also shown), it makes for a substantial mass! This pic also shows my after-market GPS unit on the hot shoe. I like this pic!

Off to a Shoot!

I've always thought the Salt River Canyon area where U.S. Highway 60 crosses it is pretty spectacular. It's located about 2-1/2 hours from my home in Phoenix, north of Globe, AZ about 40 miles or so (here's a link to Google Maps showing the location relative to Globe, AZ). I've taken pictures there before, including a few from a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted more.

I've been reading a book by David duChemin that I really like, called "Within the Frame". At one point he was discussing a picture with the sun coming up, partially hidden by a building. I got the idea to try to do the same thing with the sun coming up over a mountain top, taken from down by the river.

A few weeks ago when I went through there I saw someone had driven down by the river. I wasn't previously aware of an access road so I zoomed in on Google maps and found it. I figured I could try it too.

I also used the Photographer's Ephemeris for the first time to see where the sun would be coming up, as well as the time. I've known about the site for some time but hadn't actually used it before. It said the sun would be up at about 6:00 AM. I decided I wanted to be there about 5:00 AM, which meant I needed to leave home about 2:30 AM. So, at about 2:00 AM I gathered my 3 camera bags (tripod bag, Amazon Basics camera backpack, and LowePro fanny pack bag), and my dog Elmer, asked my wife if she wanted to go (surprisingly she said no), and headed out.

We stopped and fueled, then headed out I-10 to catch the U.S. 60 and we were on our way. Unfortunately we came across an accident that had the highway shut down just west of the tunnel near Devil's Canyon. We waited maybe 20 minutes before we got to move. Then it was back to the Explorer eating some miles (I have to say, I really like my Explorer. I'm not much of a car guy any longer but my Explorer continues to be exactly what I need in a vehicle including dependable and comfortable).

Waning Crescent Moon north of Globe, AZ

Before we got to our destination, maybe 20 miles north of Globe, I noticed the sliver of a moon (waning crescent). I debated on whether to take the time to try to shoot it, and the shooting won out. I wish I had found a better location to pull off of the highway, but I still like this image.

The place I stopped was an entrance that had a chain link fence gate across it. It had about a 10 inch gap between the two halves of the gate and I easily had enough room to shoot through the gap.
Then, back on our way to the Salt River...

I have to say I enjoy driving in the early morning; I used to do it often when I was stationed in the Navy in San Diego and Long Beach, CA - driving straight through to the Portland, OR area to see my kids.

We got to the river about 5:30 AM as it was getting pretty light, found the access road, and headed down it. There are signs on the road that you're supposed to have a permit from the Native Americans - it's on a reservation. There wasn't anyone there to buy the permit from, though. (I planned to buy it on my way out but no one showed up at all).

The dirt road wasn't too bad but it is rocky in places. I decided to just stay by the bridge instead of going to where I'd seen the vehicle earlier. I don't know if it was a good decision or not.

I was surprised, pleasantly so, at how cool it was. My wife had left a sweatshirt in the Explorer and I was able to get in on. It was chilly (must have been down in the 70's!).

Due to the recent rainfall there was more water in the river than I'd seen before. But, it was dirty water. It just didn't seem very attractive to me. I did end up trying a polarizer but that does nothing with muddy water.

Salt River

While waiting for the sun to come up I tried a number of shots, none of which I really cared for. The opposite bank of the river has a visitor center (closed for construction at the time I was there), with a trail along the bank that has railings. Looking east up the river there's a big concrete structure on the bank, ruining that side of the picture for me (perhaps if I'd gone up river farther it wouldn't have been an issue).

In the picture at right, I composed it to keep the structure out of the shot but there's barely any of the right bank and it just looks kind of mistakey to me.

Looking down river there weren't a lot of good shots either, in my opinion. You had to be tight in order to keep the bridge structure out of the shot, and even then, once the sun came up the shadow of the bridge ruined the shots for me.



Sun rising on Salt River

As for the sunrise, I did get some but the problem with it was that the highway is carved into the mountain side that the sun is rising over, giving it a nice scar along the face. Another poor shot. Oh well, you don't know these things unless you're there trying to shoot them. I don't know if I'll try anything more there in the future (at least at the river itself) because I think I got what I could and it was pretty minimal.

But, as we headed back, I did get some shots from the view points along the highway. I wish I'd seen them with the actual sunrise to see if there was any better golden hour shots but I could only be in one place at a time, I discovered.

Elmer and I took some shots at a few of the view points / pull outs. I found one pull out that has a great shot of the river, maybe from 500 or 600 feet above it. But, just like at Horseshoe Bend, I couldn't make my feet go close enough to the edge to shoot it. In fact, I got heebie jeebied enough that shivers were going up my back and I had to grab on to the Explorer and drive away. Even driving I still had the creeps. Man I wish I could man up. I could probably have laid on my stomach for the shot - there wasn't anyone else around. But just looking over that edge, from probably 5 feet back, makes me wimp out.

A stop or two later I did force myself to get back out, plus the pull out had some dirt berms along the edge making me feel more secure somehow. We took some pics and then headed home.

What about the lens?

As for the lens, I used it for most of my shots. I am pretty pleased with it after looking at the results at home. I don't see any thing that makes me want to return it.

It is a push-pull zoom, the first one I've had. In fact, I didn't even know such a thing existed. It was actually one of the features that made me hesitate getting it. I'd read someone say that he had issues (it was actually a different lens) with trying to shoot up or down from horizontal - the lens would creep. He'd set the zoom / focal length, but before he took the picture the lens would have slid down hill changing the composition.

If the one I got ends up having that problem I'll have to deal with it or get a different lens. But for now I didn't detect any of that and I did try it.

The auto focus worked fine. The complaint with the non-D version is that the auto focus is slow. It may be, but that really only matters when you're shooting moving subjects. Fortunately for me the landscape stayed put while I photographed it.

Other complaints about the lens are lack of contrast and color saturation. I don't see any problem there and I tend to prefer more than actual or normal contrast and color saturation. CaptureNX 2 did just fine with the lens.

I can't really comment on any distortion because the scenery did't have a lot of straight or parallel lines.

I like the zoom range. Perhaps a 300mm would be nice, but when you look at the difference in the field of view it's only a few degrees and really not that much of a consideration (at least on the FX format). I did end up trying a wider lens for some shots, but that wasn't any fault of this lens and I don't mind swapping a little bit. Galen Rowell did it.

I actually like the heft of the camera with the lens. It just seems more professional, solid, heavy duty, etc. On the other hand, I didn't really carry it far. But when I do carry, I can and do leave it on the tripod at times, or in my LowePro fanny pack which I really like. Most of my shooting is on a tripod and not hand held which also factors into dealing with the weight, but without VR I think the lens will mainly see use from a tripod.

I didn't see a big issue with vignetting either, and I took a 3 image pano. Photoshop does have a vignette correction when stitching the images, but even without that I didn't really notice a problem on the individual pictures.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this very cheap full frame zoom. I like the range (I don't think the gap between my 50mm and the zoom's 70mm is significant - I'm sure I can make do with one or the other even though that is a 40% gap with respect to the 50mm). I only paid about $110 for the lens plus a 62mm Tiffen polarizer and I'm digging it!

Some comments

One comment I'll add is that I did try to take a 2-3 second exposure of the river to get the milky (chocolate milky in this case) look but didn't have enough filter to do it easily. Fortunately the polarizer helped a bit, maybe a stop, and then I used the extra stop of the D610's ISO which I hadn't done before. It all worked, but if I keep the lens I think I'll get a set of Tiffen ND's. And, the shot just wasn't very good or pleasing otherwise so I guess I didn't really care that much.

I also want to say that it was great getting out again, me and my dog. Every time I use the D610 I like it more and more. I used the interval timer to take pics as the sun was coming up over the mountain top. I have the grid turned on in the view finder and I find I don't do much, if any, levelling in post production (I don't use a bubble level or the build in camera level either).

Finally, even though the pics weren't that good, I enjoyed the drive and the experience including just seeing the sun come up on a location I hadn't seen that happen before. I'll always remember the small bats that were flying around under the bridges when we got there. The pics may not win awards but I had an award winning morning!