Manual focus lens practice

I'm anxious to get out and try this 135mm f2.8 manual lens at the races. This thing is supposed to be an f2.8 but I noticed that I have to use a slower f-stop than I do with my other fast lenses under the same conditions. Apparently this lens is rated at f2.8 but in testing it appears to be faster than it's rated. That's a good thing for night racing shots. Depth of field looks good, all but the last photo were taken at iso200, f16, 1/320th auto white balance. The clouds thickened up a little when I was setting up for the last shot so I had to set the f-stop at f8.

This lens is entirely manual, the Nikon digital camera metering does not function when used with this lens. All settings must be set on the camera and if I'm shooting flash that has to be set manually as well. The manual focus is smooth and precise as you can see in these test shots. I took six test shots, these five turned out and the sixth was a little out of focus. That's a good average for a manual focus lens. Of course the action will be quite a bit faster at the track than it was for these still shots but based on my limited test results manual focus is not going to be a liability on this lens. This is a niche lens, it won't be used all night but it will be useful in some lighting and distance situations.

My lens lineup for 2009 is going to look something like this:

500mm fixed f8 manual lens used for long outside the track shots over the top of the fence with available light.

70-300mm f4.5-5.6 auto focus used for outside the track shots and infield long shots in available light as well as fill flash shots till dusk. This lens has produced more magazine and newspaper shots than any other lens I have. It's a budget lens but within certain focal lengths it produces images comparable to professional lenses. If I am careful to stay within those parameters this can be a very productive lens. I especially like how quickly it locks into focus for head on shots. Like they say in racing, "it ain't the chrome that makes it go."

135mm f2.8 manual lens (this was today's test lens) can be used from dusk through B Mains for single car shots with flash. Not a good victory lane lens but it's going to be awesome for closely cropped single car shots.

85mm f1.8 auto focus my workhorse lens used at night for flash action shots, 4 wide salute and victory lane at some tracks. Nikon makes an 85mm f1.4 but that lens is over $1,000, this one was gray market (no US warranty) and cost me less than $400 delivered. F1.8 is plenty fast, open it up and slow the shutter down and this baby does a great job of catching those 4 wide salute to the crowd shots.

28-105mm f2.8 auto focus used for Feature races and victory lane as an alternative to the 85mm at some tracks depending on how roomy victory lane is. This was my most expensive lens at over $800 and probably the biggest disappointment. In retrospect I'd have bought a Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 for approximately the same price. Last fall I discovered that when I put this lens on I need to turn the iso one speed faster and it does a much better job. I had the 85mm on then switched to this one for victory lane and thought I'd try some adjustments to see if I could get better performance. I was pleased with the results and now I know that I can use it during the Feature if victory lane has tight quarters.

As you can see, I'm not crazy about zoom lenses anymore. There are some situations where I have to use them but I shoot the majority of my photos now with prime lenses. If this manual focus lens produces the desired results (it appears that it will) I am going to add more of them to my collection. Some of the Cedar Lake banquet slide presentation outside the track shots were taken with the 500mm manual lens from up on the hill. All of my film camera shots up through 2003 were taken with manual focus lenses and all manual camera settings. Last season I finally gave in and started using shutter priority early in the evening when the sun starts going down. The reason for that is because the lighting conditions change so rapidly that it's difficult to keep up with adjustments. Aside from that half hour or so when the light is changing all of my settings are done manually. I prefer that because I feel like I can control things much better.

Here are the samples: