A bargain?
Was this lens a bargain? Well, I suggest this as being a good budget choice given the price of Nikon lenses in this range. When I compiled the web page and checked it, I discovered that Amazon were offering this on their 'marketplace' new for £359 instead of the usual £549... I couldn't help myself, I clicked and got it air freighted from Scotland the next day....
If you read reviews, this lens doesn't score that many points, it hunts, it suffers lens creep and is heavy... but it is also cheap for what it does....
This is a shot of my Jeep headlight cluster, and, if you move your mouse over the picture, the same shot but with a Kenko Teleplus Pro 300 1.4x convertor....
Now, whilst these shots are not bitingly sharp, they are at 500mm and 700mm respectively in overcast and dull lighting. When you realise I use a D200 and factor in the sensor 'magnification', these shots are really equivalent to 750mm and 1,050mm - that's a lot of focal length for the money. Just in case you wonder, yes, autofocus does work with this combination, if slowly...!
Exif above: f6.3, ISO 200, 1/160 and 1/80
The bush below is at the same settings... exif data indicates f6.3, ISO 200 with shutter speeds of 1/45 and 1/15 with the convertor.
These images are, to re-iterate, at the longest zoom and widest aperture of this lens... and the bokeh is quite pleasing too!
....bargain!