Nikon 400 f2.8 G VR and 500 f4 G VR Veiling and Softness Wide Open on a D810

[Gary Irwin]

My 500VR started to suffered from CA over 75m or so, but this shot doesn't look all that far. It's well known that the 500VR sharpens up at f5, but that f4 shot is too soft. Assuming you focus-tuned the lens to your camera I'd say there's definitely something wrong with the lens.

[Erik Lund]

Seems like bad focus, front focus perhaps? impossible to tell from one shot...

[PedroS]

 
That's not good...
But then tripod can be excluded as from 5.6 and up to f8 the photo comes to life.
From my experience with these lenses I'd say a focus trouble. Try to do it manually at f4.
Shoot lots of photos moving the focus back and forth. If you happen to have one stellar culprit is found, if not... you know...

[Sören Hese]

Make a series of shots with a "lensalign" target. To me this looks like a front/back focus problem. Make sure you have a ruler and a focus target perpendicular to your shooting direction:
http://www.whibalhost.com/lensalign/how-lensalign-works.html

First focus using life view and than without life view with the central focus point and compare
If you find a difference than crank up the AF-calibration values a re-measure everything.

Regards!
Sören
 

[Andy]

Nick,
don't know if this helps to narrow down on the root cause, but here is an image with the AFS 500mm/4 VR and D800E for your reference

Similar setup like you: Gitzo 3-series, Wimberly, D800E
f4, 1/320s, ISO 100, distance approx 40 meters

(klick here for full size D800E image)


100% crop



rgds,
Andy

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Make a series of shots with a "lensalign" target. To me this looks like a front/back focus problem. Make sure you have a ruler and a focus target perpendicular to your shooting direction:
http://www.whibalhost.com/lensalign/how-lensalign-works.html

First focus using life view and than without life view with the central focus point and compare
If you find a difference than crank up the AF-calibration values a re-measure everything.

Regards!
Sören
 

Testing long lenses in this manner requires a very long distance, comparatively speaking. Many will find their living rooms inadequately sized

[Sören Hese]

Yes! Björn is right  - better go into a park or into your garden :-) and bring a long ruler with you - I made a custom version with 2 m length and glued a photographed copy of the pattern from the 30 cm-ruler on it. Worked nicely. S.

[Nick Scavone]

Thanks for the post Andy. I sent mine back. Too expensive a used lens to accept what appeared to be a flawed lens. Will continue looking.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

There is a lot of water below the line of sight and a very great distance. If the bird is small enough to fit in that hole, to get a good image you'd want to be 100x closer. The water evaporating from the lake/sea is enough to cause significant image sharpness loss. In any case one should aim to be close enough so that the main subject occupies a large part of the frame so that you won't need to crop more than just a compositional tweak.