The Bottom Line: Measurably sharper, with better contrast and truer color than the Nikkor 80-200 f2.8. A solid "Pro" lens that is very sharp at f2.8 and exceptional at f4.
Howard_Creech's Full Review: Nikon Nikkor AF 180mm f/2.8D IF-ED Lens
Old time photographers often talk about the wonderful optics of the past; the Leica, Zeiss, Schneider, Nikon, and Canon lenses from the golden age of photojournalism. For the most part those musings on magical old glass are more mystical wish and dream fulfillment than fact. Today’s computer generated lens formulas are far more accurate than the mechanical slide rule calculations of the old days. Modern lens manufacturing techniques are more precise and modern lenses feature superb anti-reflection coatings, rare earth glass elements (to correct optical aberrations and improve performance), and space age materials that significantly enhance weight and durability considerations. However the old myths refuse to die and in a few rare cases they weren’t myths. Some of those old time lenses really were magical in what they could do. Nikon’s AF 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF is the latest incarnation of one of those legendary lenses, a professional level optic based on the first lens ever designed specifically for sports photography.
Historical Background
In 1935 Germany’s Nazi government directed lens maker Carl Zeiss to design a lens to be used at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The very first “sports photography” lens was a fast high performance telephoto created to effectively showcase German “Master Race” athletes in action. Jesse Owens (and several other athletes) easily proved that the Nazi’s master race theory equation had failed to consider some important human factors. The new lens was another matter entirely. The revolutionary Carl Zeiss 180mm f2.8 Olympia Sonnar was a big hit with photographers at the Berlin Olympics. It offered absolutely incredible performance, lightning speed, and much more reach than any other available lens. The mid thirties were the day of slow plate cameras, chemical flash powders, and 35mm rangefinders. Rangefinder cameras are excellent for close in work but don't perform as well at distance because they are usually limited to lenses between 35mm and 135mm. The 180/2.8 Zeiss lens coupled with the new Kine Exacta (also German) 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera and the Zeiss Contax I Rangefinder provided a completely new set of tools for sports photographers and photojournalists. The 1936 Olympics were the venue that defined the superior quality of German Cameras and optics, a reputation that persists to this day.
Cold War Politics
After World War II, the Zeiss works in Jena ended up in the Soviet occupation zone and became a part of the post war East German camera industry that was centered in and around Dresden. The years immediately following World War II saw the fall of the "Iron Curtain" and the birth of the “Cold War”. East German cameras and lenses were at the very center of the political and propaganda conflict. Exacta cameras and the world’s first pentaprism SLR, the Contax D changed the face of 35mm photography. Single Lens Reflex cameras offered through the lens (TTL) viewing, the ability to use lenses longer than 135mm and wider than 35mm, and significantly improved flexibility. Rangefinders like the Leica and Contax I &II cameras had dominated 35mm photography for almost 30 years. Suddenly SLR cameras built in communist East Germany were on the leading edge of the exploding popularity in 35mm photography. Thousands of western photographers (both pros and amateurs) bought Practica, Pentacon, and Exacta cameras. Many famous photographers, including Jimmy Stewart (as the professional photojournalist confined to his apartment with a broken leg) in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller “Rear Window” bought and used Exacta and Contax D cameras. The camera Stewart used (with a 300mm Hugo Meyer Telephoto lens) to spy on neighbor Raymond Burr was an Exacta VX.
In 1956 Pentacon introduced the Pentacon Six, a tough affordable medium format camera that featured a selection of superb Zeiss lenses (all pre war formulas) manufactured in the old Zeiss works at Jena. The Pentacon version of the Zeiss Olympia Sonnar (offered in Exacta bayonet, Practica M42/Screwmount, and Pentacon breech/bayonet mount) was basically the same lens designed for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The lens weighed about three pounds, focused to just under 5 feet, and with the addition of improved post war anti reflection coatings offered photographers one of the best photojournalism, sports, portrait, and “street” lenses ever made. As an added benefit, the lens was so tough and durable that photographers of the day claimed that in case of fire, the Olympia Sonnar could be used by trapped shooters to batter down walls, allowing the photographers to escape from the burning building, and get the event on film. The 180/2.8 Olympia Sonnar was in almost continuous production from 1936 until the early nineties. This lens has a legendary and romantic history that other optics can’t even begin to approach. The lens was a successful propaganda tool for both the Nazi’s and the Communists. The Olympia Sonnar (and other East German cameras and lenses) generated much needed hard currency for the East German government; money that was used to pay for spying on the west and to finance East German purchases of much needed western technology. The 180/2.8 Pentacon Sonnar was last used by Russian combat photojournalists to document the Communist invasion of Afghanistan and the Soviet Union's 10-year struggle against Afghani freedom fighters.
During the mid eighties, while I was living in Germany, I bought a Pentacon Six Camera just so I could use the Carl Zeiss Jena 180/2.8 Sonnar. I shot images with this heavy somewhat ugly lens all over Europe. The lens was a superb performer with unbelievable resolution, exceptional contrast, wonderful bokeh, and incredible color fidelity. The Carl Zeiss Jena 180/2.8 was an almost perfect portrait lens, as well as one of the finest street photography optics I have ever used.
Nikon’s 180/2.8
The Nikon 180/2.8 was introduced in 1970 to fill a need expressed by news and combat photographers shooting the Viet Nam war. Nikon’s engineers were inspired by 180/2.8 Olympia Sonnar, as were their competitors at Olympus who offered a 180/2.0 version of the Sonnar. Imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery; the Nikon 180/2.8 is a Sonnar type design with a positive group in front, a negative group in the center, and a weak positive element at the rear. Nikon engineers modernized the design, substantially improving on the already legendary resolution, contrast, and color rendition. The Nikon lens featured modern anti reflection coatings and computer designed correction for chromatic aberration.
There have been five Nikon versions of 180mm f/2.8. 1970-1981 (AI and non-AI, manual focus, no ED element) This lens was initially introduced for the legendary Nikon “F” professional camera and was used extensively by combat photographers in the closing years of the Viet Nam conflict. From 1981 to the present Nikon has offered the updated AI-S (manual focus) version of this lens. This version can still be purchased new for manual focus Nikon cameras like the FM2n and the new FM3a, however Nikon has discontinued further production. In 1988 the first AF version of the 180mm f/2.8 was introduced. Many professional photographers hated this lens and complained bitterly because of the poorly damped, too thin, and badly placed manual focus ring. There was a lot of complaint about Nikon’s heavy use of polycarbonate/plastic components in its construction, too. This was the first **internal focus lens ever manufactured by Nikon. Less than a year later, Nikon introduced the AF-n 180mm f/2.8 ED-IF (metal barrel, wider manual focus ring) which replaced the first AF version. The present: AF 180mm f/2.8 ED-IF was introduced in 1993 and the current "D" update was introduced last year.
During the mid nineties, while I was living in Japan, I had my first opportunity to use the Nikon Nikkor 180/2.8. A U. S. Air Force photojournalist friend loaned me his MF version of this excellent lens to shoot Okinawa's colorful Obon festival. I used the lens for several days shooting colorfully costumed dancers, clowns, and drummers celebrating the annual return of their ancestors. I used the lens during the day and after dark as well. I was amazed when I saw how sharp and clear my slides were, the 180/2.8 was measurably better than the180/2.8 Zeiss Olympia Sonnar I had used in Germany. The AF 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF is the first AF version of this lens I have used. Demand for the 180/2.8 Nikkor declined sharply after Nikon introduced it’s groundbreaking 80-200/2.8 Nikkor professional zoom. Most modern photographers prefer zoom lenses rather than primes (single focal length) lenses, which is too bad because prime lenses always offer superior optical performance, which means better resolution, better contrast, and truer color fidelity. Many professional photographers consider the AF 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF to be Nikon’s very sharpest lens.
Technical Specifications
Focal Length: 180mm
Maximum Apertures: f2.8
Minimum Aperture: f22
Construction: 8 elements in 6 groups (1 *ED element)
Diaphram: 9 blades
Internal Focusing
Minimum Focusing Distance: 5 ft/1.5 mtrs
Filter Size: 72mm
Manual/AF switch
Built-in Lens Hood
Street Price Range: $550-$800
In the Field/Handling and Operation
I have a good friend who sells and distributes photographic equipment. He is also an avid photographer and the two of us often get together to shoot and check out interesting new cameras and lenses. My friend has an interesting photographic passion, he loves to shoot weird and unique restaurant signs and he plans to eventually assemble and publish a book of the photographs. We spent an absolutely beautiful Saturday afternoon searching for a place he had heard about from one of his suppliers. The problem was that the supplier (who lives in New York) didn’t know exactly where the place was or what it was called. All he could remember was that it specialized in excellent barbecued ribs, featured an outdoor beer garden, and had a gigantic “life sized” fiberglass moose standing right out in front. We made a few calls and found someone, who knew about the moose, “That’s Joe’s Barbecue, it’s somewhere out on Preston Highway”. So, off we went in search of the Holy Grail of restaurant signs, a gigantic life sized fiberglass moose.
My friend had offered me the use of any lens camera combo in his rental inventory for our quest, so I chose the AF 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF Nikkor (which I have been wanting to review) and an F100. My friend brought along an F5 and a 80-200/f2.8D IF-EF-AF-S Zoom Nikkor. We both loaded up with Kodak Elitechrome 100 slide film. We stopped to photograph an antique limestone Ishidoro (A hand carved stone Japanese garden lantern) in a yard on Taylorsville Road on the way. The Ishidoro stands in front of an old Pine tree. The dark green gracefully drooping branches beautifully frame the weathered gray stone lantern. The ground around the Ishidoro was littered with small pinecones, further enhancing the Japanese watercolor effect of the scene. We shot about half a roll each, with both of us bracketing our exposures and shooting part of the time in fill flash mode (to enhance detail). After we finished with the Ishidoro we rolled onto I-264 West and headed for Preston Highway.
It took us about thirty minutes to find Joe’s Barbecue, it’s just up the road from the Indian Trail Square shopping center. The Restaurant looks like an alpine hunting lodge that has been transported magically to side of super busy Preston Highway. There was indeed a gigantic life-sized color correct fiberglass moose standing right in front of the building. By backing off to the edge of the parking lot I was able to get the moose, one corner on the building, and the “Joe’s Barbecue” pink Neon window sign all into the frame. It was late afternoon by this time and we had some really great oblique winter front lighting on the scene.
My friend had a little easier time with his compositions because the 80-200 allowed him some zooming flexibility. I was obliged to fall back on that old pro photographer trick of zooming with my feet (zoom out by backing up and zoom in by moving forward) Having been on several of my friend's restaurant sign photographic outings (gigantic cement animals and coffee pot & cup at Lynn’s Paradise Café and the six foot neon pickle at Genny’s Diner) I knew we would end up shooting tons of film and wouldn’t stop until it got too dark to work anymore. After the darkness overtook us, we sampled the smoky fare at Joe’s and found it to be absolutely excellent.
We got together again on Sunday morning, and after shooting some “street” images along Bardstown Road, my friend ran the three rolls of slides we had shot while I organized my historical research, background information, and performance notes. After my friend finished processing and mounting the slides we sat down and compared slides from the AF 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF and the 80-200/f2.8D IF-EF-AF-S Zoom Nikkor side by side on a color corrected light box, with a Schneider 6X loupe. The slides from the AF 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF were measurably sharper, had better contrast, and the color was truer (though only slightly). The AF 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF clearly outperformed Nikon’s illustrious 80-200/f2.8D IF-EF-AF-S Zoom Nikkor, no mean feat.
Conclusion
The AF 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF is a compact lens that balances beautifully on the camera. The 180/2.8 doesn't focus as fast as the 80-200/f2.8D IF-EF-AF-S Zoom Nikkor, but it is fast enough for almost any “real world” situation. Manual focusing is absolutely amazing because this lens is actually damped so that it feels like a manual focus lens. There is no noticeable light fall off at f2.8 (much better than the 80-200/f2.8D IF-EF-AF-S Zoom Nikkor which does show measurable light fall off at maximum aperture) no ghosting and virtually no distortion (if you strain your eyes there is a little pincushion distortion, but it is virutally invisible). This is the lens to choose it if you need a fast, compact optic with amazing optical and mechanical quality. If you shoot primarily PJ type stuff, tight portraits, Street shots, or sports then there isn’t a lens available in the 35mm format that will provide better results.
If you’d like to visit the Moose, you can check him out at Joe's Barbecue, 6231 Preston Highway (502) 961-0502. Joe's is a family restaurant that’s been in business for almost sixty-five years ("Older than dirt, established 1937" is Joe’s motto). The restaurant is a big hunting-lodge-style place with an outdoor beer garden and picnic tables. The Barbecue is very good, so if you like Southern style Barbecue, you’ll like Joe's. The menu is extensive, the service is friendly, and the prices are reasonable. Joe’s is an old-fashioned “four star” southern roadside joint, well worth a visit, even without the Moose.
* ED glass: Special rare earth glass elements that allow light rays of different colors to focus at the same point to ensure excellent image quality with less chromatic aberration (color fringing).
** IF (Internal Focusing): lens elements inside the lens barrel adjust internally without requiring an extension of the barrel, in other words, the lens doesn’t change length, which allows for more compact and faster focusing lenses.
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