Depth of Field

Back on the topic of the Nikkor 18 - 200, here's a shot showing depth of field at extended zoom:

F 5.6 ... 200 mm ... 1/60 sec

These are the same shot. The first image has been compressed to save bytes. The second image is a crop; if you click on it you will see it at 100% relative to the original.

This shot was taken on a windy day - I missed the moment when the leaf was fully vertical but am nonetheless impressed by the lens's auto-focus working with the moving target.

Having used the lens for a couple of months now, I really like the large aperture bokeh at extended zoom, though the narrow depth of field does require precise attention to focus, as the following shots show:

F 5.6 ... 120 mm ... 1/160 sec

Despite the shorter zoom, the area of sharpest focus is at the intersection of bricks between the leaves. Ho hum... boring.

F 5.6 ... 200 mm ... 1/200 sec

This time the leaf is in focus and the brick blurs slightly. Once again an uncompressed crop to show the detail at 100%.

Dizzy Ducks (actually geese)

This time, a couple of dizzying shots using the 18 - 200 mm lens.

The bokeh gets noticeably more intense at greater zoom, in this case exacerbated by the reflected light, the moving water and the slow shutter speed (VR accommodates camera vibration, not a moving environment).

At an extreme this could be used to make deliberately artsy photos. A faster shutter speed and polarizing filter would have flattened the photos into dull shots of geese.

F 5.6 .. 135 mm .. 1/30 sec
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F 5.6 .. 200 mm .. 1/30 sec

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More (18 - 70) River Shots

A little later that afternoon, still with the 18 - 70, I took a series of shots varying the aperture.

The interesting thing here is the comparison with the 18 - 200 mm lens in terms of bokeh and vibration blur. I'll have to take the two lenses out and do an apples-to-apples comparison of identical shots.

Notes:
F5.6 - bright (red, yellow) colours render best but bokeh is distracting.
F9 - probably the best shot overall: you'd get a similar effect using the camera's landscape program.
F14 - slower shutter speed results in obvious vibration blur: 18 - 200 VR would solve this.

F 5.6 .. 70 mm .. 1/125 sec
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F 9 .. 70 mm .. 1/100 sec
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F 14 .. 70 mm .. 1/50 sec
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F 14 .. 70 mm .. 1/30 sec
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Nighttime Harvard Square

Out again with the new lens yesterday evening (again a little late, but that just creates great test conditions).

Of note: these shots focused on "the garage" sign, and were handheld after dark. For the two landscape-oriented photos there's a distinct difference in crispness in the lettering at the centre of the shot, while the non-central elements appear similar. In the first shot slight blur is due to vibration; in the second it is depth of field/bokeh.

In the portrait-oriented shot it's worth noting the detail of the reflection at the lower left and the legibility of the unilluminated street signs. This used a relatively slow shutter speed, so moving traffic and pedestrians are slightly blurred. VR did a great job again.

F 9 .. 28 mm .. 1/3 sec
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F 5.6 .. 28 mm .. 1/8 sec

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F 10 .. 36 mm .. 1/4 sec
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Nikon 18 - 200 mm Lens

Before the next exotic trip I want to get to grips with the new lens. Yesterday I took it for a spin, and here are the results:

All photos Nikon D70, Nikkor 18 - 200 mm lens.

Busa Farm, Lexington MA USA

This sequence was taken standing on the same spot, using the same f-stop (aperture priority), in bright daylight (auto white balance). The original full-size photos are hosted by Pixamo.

Of note: very crisp focus, bokeh increases dramatically with zoom. Almost no bokeh at wide angles.

F 5.6 .. 150 mm .. 1/1250 sec

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F 5.6 .. 80 mm .. 1/1250 sec
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F 5.6 .. 26 mm .. 1/2000 sec
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