The above image shows two 180mm f2.8 lenses, on the left a manual focus version and you can see an image created with this lens here which is the swimming image near the bottom of the post (traditionally when covering a football match a 300mm was used to cover the half of the pitch you were nearest and a 180mm was for corners). A 180mm takes an image that’s approximately one sixteenth of what a 50mm standard lens sees, making the images created with it stand out, especially subjects that are closer, becuse the wide aperture of f2.8 makes a shallow depth of field and a sharp subject stands out from a de-focused background (we’ll be talking about this in another lens post soon). The quality of Nikon lenses in this focal length have been some of the best examples of lens performance ever designed and when they upgraded the lens to autofocus the optic quality was just the same. But the lens above on the riight is the mark 3 which improved the build quality over the earlier autofocus versions of mark 1 & 2 which made the lens much more durable and longer lasting.
Over the years of being a professional photographer my lens choices have changed over time due to a few different factors, sometimes personal choices and sometimes working methods. when I was younger I felt the wider the lens the better but over time and a different appreciation of image creation and a new love of lenses with a longer focal length (I think this changed with the advent of PCE lenses for the Nikon digital system, which meant I started to use digital cameras the same way I used large format film cameras, you can read about PCE lenses and lens choices here).
The reason for the upgrade to autofocus is simply an ease of use, also the focusing screens on a digital camera aren’t user friendly for manual focus lenses so it made sense to up grade to a autofocus version. The image below was for Newcastle High School for Girls, the focal length of 180mm is a bit tight in a class room enviroment but when you can get away with it, it’s worth the effort.
Seeya mb
