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NIkon 300mm f4 af-s collar (1 Viewer)

A

AdamW

Into the wild...
I have recently purchased a Nikon 300mm f4 af-s lens, and am considering buying the kirk collar replacement for it that most people recommend.

However, at what shutter speeds will it become noticably sharper on a tripod when I use the Kirk version? I pretty much solely use the lens for wildlife photography, so I cant see wanting to drop to speeds below 1/400 or 1/320. (I also have the 1.4 teleconverter glued on there most of the time.)

Most people are talking about affecting speeds at 1/60 and slower, so not sure if I should make the purchase.

Would be good to hear some thoughts.
 
I have the RRS replacement foot for my 300 f/4 AFS. It is much better built than the foot that comes with the lens. I've read enough about issues that I never even tested it with the Nikon foot.

You'll love the 300 f/4. It's exceptionally sharp and works very well with the 1.4 teleconverter. It's pretty good with the 1.7 and 2.0 teleconverters if you have enough light.

I've also used the 300 f/4 AFS with the Nikon V1. It makes a very good birding lens - equivalent of 810mm at f/4 and light enough to carry and handhold.
 
If you mount the lens on a tripod you can take sharp pictures at very low shutter speeds that you couldn't manage when you are hand holding however there is a big proviso that your subject stays perfectly still too !
Having never owned or used the 300mm f4 I am not in a position to comment on the Kirk foot. I replace the foot on my 500mm with a Kirk as neither of the ones supplied were fit for my purpose but on the 300mm f2.8 I just added a Wimberley plate which was a cheaper option.
It depends on what tripod head you have of course but one thing to be careful about when choosing replacement feet and plates is to make sure they double up as decent carrying handles too.Make sure there will be room to get your fingers around the lens foot, with some Nikon options you can't.
 
The foot on this lens is attached to the collar, the problem is that the collar is narrow in width and can cause the lens to flex within the collar.The replacement collar by Kirk is reputed to stop this from happening
.Adding a plate to bottom of foot does not resolve problem.
Suggest OP, tries the lens at a selection of shutter speeds and see if his lens is suffering from any flexing, the common and cheap solution used by many is to cut a wine cork to size and wedge between lens and foot.
Regards, and yes it does work.
 
I've had that lens for 4 years and never found the need to change the factory collar and mount. It's been used with tc's and for macro extn tubes. I may be a minority but can't recommend a change
 
As I4ani suggests, the Kirk foot is designed to deal with the flex from the narrow collar by adding a second contact point, which cradles the barrel of the lens. It does work well, and if you have a very rigid tripod, I think it's worth the trouble and expense. The downside to this arrangement is that the lens with the Kirk foot is awkward to hold off the tripod, because the front of the foot is closed off.

Yes, you don't want to drop your shutter speed below 1/320, but if you need to, you can (subject movement excepted).

regards,

Jim
 
Duke Leto said:
I've had that lens for 4 years and never found the need to change the factory collar and mount. It's been used with tc's and for macro extn tubes. I may be a minority but can't recommend a change
Click to expand...

Same here Steve. I use the 300mm f4 for it's handhold ability with either the D800 and 1.7tc or the Nikon1 V1 on it's own. I find that even without vr it is very steady at shutter speeds above 1/500s. Never used it on a tripod, only handheld or monopod.
 
Thanks all for the responses, some really useful info.

I had heard noise about the cork trick before... as suggested I think I will do some experiments on the tripod at different speeds with and without the cork to see what sort of difference I get. Might influence the decision on the kirk collar.

Will do some tests this weekend!
 
Adam you don't actually say if your suffering from a problem, you can shoot a seriously low speeds if the technique is good, neither what tripod or head its mounted on or for that matter which body.
If you can post a few examples of where you believe the collar may be affecting your photography along with the exif info it may help the members assist further.
 
I spent a little time this weekend experimenting with the lens on my brother's tripod/ballhead (For reference the body was my Nikon D7000 and I was also using the TC-14e II, making vibrations even more obvious).

My original post was a bit of a leading question, as I am about to purchase a tripod and ball head setup and was debating whether to get the collar as well to complement a particular setup.

In short, I found anything from 1/60 and faster pin sharp on the stock Nikon collar using mirror-up mode. However, there was definite softness when using the standard shutter release setting 'S' - (I was using a remote shutter release in each test to remove vibrations from me pressing the button by the way)

I am not sure if getting the kirk collar would reduce the vibrations in 'S' mode, however when I tried 'Q' mode (quiet) it was pretty much as sharp as mirror up in every instance, and you also dont lose the viewfinder in this mode.

Therefore, I think I am going to hold off on the collar and just purchase a new tripod and ballhead. Using quiet mode (arguably better for bird photography?), I definitely am happy with the sharpness above 1/60 (my standard shutter for bird photography is 1/500 anyway).

However, I guess the question is: Is it because of the collar that 1/200 in quiet mode is sharper than 1/1000 in 'S' mode.
 
Hi,
I have a D7000 and have always found that 'mirror up' is the way to go with slow shutter speeds. I do believe this is a quirk of the D7000 as I've read others talking about it also.
I too haven't gotten the Kirk for my 300 AFS.
'S' mode @ 1/1000 should be sharp but I find that 'mirror up' always offers superior sharpness. But for non static shots this isn't always practical.
 
Mirror up can require a couple of seconds for vibration to settle, so it is not a panacea. And certainly with long lenses and active subjects it's just not practical. The 300 f/4 with the Kirk or RRS collar and integrated foot is noticeably sharper than with the stock foot.

The D7000 has a very large number of pixels compared to other cameras - in the crop area it is equivalent in density to the D800. That means it has the resolution to show vibration unnoticed on other combinations.

The distance from the camera to the subject can make a difference in results. While you should expect sharp images, distant subjects are not going to be as sharp as subjects within 100 feet.

One thing you might try is keeping a hand firmly on the lens barrel to reduce vibration. I've tested the 300 f/4 with teleconverter against the Tamron 200-500. The Tamron has a very long barrel and is prone to vibration. While the Nikon 300 is sharper, the Tamron makes a very good showing with a hand on the barrel, but without a hand on the barrel the images are very soft.
 
Two things that most people underestimate concerning sharpness is what’s between the lens and the subject, and enlargement factor.

Take a damp, overcast December day in the UK and the images are invariably flat and lifeless, moisture is in the air, light is bad. The images have no highlight and the mid-tones converge into shadow.

But a month later with the frost and bright mornings winter sun the images sparkle. There’s crispness to the images, they look sharp.

All digital cameras have a maximum enlargement factor, which briefly depends on resolution, go beyond what the camera can cope with and your images look unsharp. Now that’s not to say that these are not sharp, they probably are, but you have enlarged beyond the tolerance of what can be resolved.
 
Personally I cannot see where your coming from with this ,I use a d7000 with the 300mm f4 plus the 1.7tc virtually full time for wildlife photography and have only felt the need for a tripod at gigrin farm ,for the red kites .
The set up is perfect if you have any exposure problems simply set the camera to auto iso in a/v mode with a minimum shutter speed above 1000th second ,this will ensure pin sharp images virtually all the time,if your taking bird shots you simply won't need a long enough exposure time to warrant a tripod or collar with this rig .
Even when stopped down to f16 for pseudo macro (with the focus limiter on) I can still get sharp shots handheld with this
 
the black fox said:
Personally I cannot see where your coming from with this ,I use a d7000 with the 300mm f4 plus the 1.7tc virtually full time for wildlife photography and have only felt the need for a tripod at gigrin farm ,for the red kites .
The set up is perfect if you have any exposure problems simply set the camera to auto iso in a/v mode with a minimum shutter speed above 1000th second ,this will ensure pin sharp images virtually all the time,if your taking bird shots you simply won't need a long enough exposure time to warrant a tripod or collar with this rig .
Even when stopped down to f16 for pseudo macro (with the focus limiter on) I can still get sharp shots handheld with this
Click to expand...

I agree with you, although 1/1000 is a luxury in some situations (wooded areas etc), and for static birds you might be able to get close to the "danger area" in shutter speed for some using a tripod. I think for me it is just knowing that slower shutter speed limitation is there - although it is not often that this focal length and shutter is really needed as you say.

But yes, the combo is fantastic. The lens and the teleconverter are the two best camera-realated purchases I have made. Managed to get the photo below yesterday with the combo - if anyone is considering getting either, don't hesitate.

8063405411_9b95ab478d_c.jpg

On flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamjwakeling/8063405411/in/photostream/
 
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