I just picked up a Tokina RMC 400 f5.6 manual focus lens on E-Bay. I paid $100 for mine, in very nice shape. There was another one at the same time, even nicer, with leather case @$155 buy it now, with the reserve later reduced. It didn't sell. Can't beat this lens for the bucks. It's a prime 400mm lens, internal focus. Range is f5.6-f22. Focus on distant objects is a very short turn, and it's reasonably sharp. Goes right onto Nikon digital bodies. On my D300, you can set the camera for the focal distance and f-stop, and the camera will give you correct f-stop readings in the EXIF when you change them. On the APS-C digitals, it's a full 600mm. WooHoo. Here are a couple of sample pictures. The bird is about a 50% crop. It was taken from about 75 feet away. I adjusted the contrast and used unsharp mask, as I normally do on most of my pictures. Bokeh was better before sharpening. I also picked up an 80-200 zoom version of the same lens for about half as much, but it's not worth writing home about. The prime is way nicer. They also make a higher grade SD version with special dispersion glass, but from what I've read in the Nikon blogs, there isn't much difference and you'll pay twice as much.
Oops, forgot. Minimum focus is about 10 feet. I tried my 72mm close-up on it, which brought it down to about 3 feet, but the DOF becomes VERY narrow and it won't focus past that point at all. You have about a 2" window and even slight motion blurs it out.
Oh yeah, built in hood, about 5" long that slides over the lens when not in use..
Oops, forgot. Minimum focus is about 10 feet. I tried my 72mm close-up on it, which brought it down to about 3 feet, but the DOF becomes VERY narrow and it won't focus past that point at all. You have about a 2" window and even slight motion blurs it out.
Oh yeah, built in hood, about 5" long that slides over the lens when not in use..
