Internal AF motor speed, D90,D300s,D700,D3s

cletus

Hi kids,

Does anyone know if there is any appreciable difference in how quickly the D90/300s/700/3s can focus a non AF-S lens?

Or, do I just need to bite the bullet, sell my 15 year old push-pull 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D and buy a 70-200 f/2.8 AF-S VR-II?

borrowlenses.com

The 80-200 is pretty fast on those bodies -- however, the VRII is faster. It's the difference between a millisecond and a nanosecond.

ziggy53

cletus wrote: »

Hi kids,

Does anyone know if there is any appreciable difference in how quickly the D90/300s/700/3s can focus a non AF-S lens?

Or, do I just need to bite the bullet, sell my 15 year old push-pull 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D and buy a 70-200 f/2.8 AF-S VR-II?

Among the sports shooters, and limiting the test to sports lenses, I have noticed that they rank the cameras approximately (fastest to slowest):

D3S
D3
D700
D300
D90

Part of AF speed comes from the AF sensor, the image processor and then the AF motor. It is presumed (but Nikon never says) that the D3 series has the strongest "and" fastest AF motor (torque and velocity). These cameras are "designed" for professional use and that includes support for older AF-D lenses.

Oddly, the same ranking seems to hold for AF-S lens usage, indicating that the AF sensor and image processor have been "tweaked" somehow between very similar AF systems. (I am seeing varied results between the D3 and D3S with some users declaring the D3S is actually slower than the D3, but more folks do claim the D3S is faster. It is likely that the D3S is is only slightly better for AF.)

I truly believe that the AF rankings are partly the way they are because that's what Nikon wants, and they reward the owners of the most expensive cameras with appropriately better AF performance.

Matthew Saville

Absolutely a difference in speed. In fact some say that recently Nikon has dumbed down the AF-D motor in newer flagship bodies, compared to the likes of the original F5 and D1H era bodies. THOSE bodies had massive, powerful AF-D motors and the AF was incredibly fast even on sluggish lenses like the 80-400 AF-D VR...

However I'm not sure if that is true, maybe the 3-series DSLR's are just as fast.

One thing is for certain, Nikon may not have perfected their AF-S technology yet, if videos like these are true:

http://nikonrumors.com/2010/10/09/nikon-af-s-85mm-f1-4g-lens-hands-on.aspx

(Scroll down and watch the Youtube video of the AF test. Definitely slower, but allegedly with the advantage of LOTS more accuracy. Hmmm...)

=Matt=

cletus

Matthew Saville wrote: »

Absolutely a difference in speed. In fact some say that recently Nikon has dumbed down the AF-D motor in newer flagship bodies, compared to the likes of the original F5 and D1H era bodies. THOSE bodies had massive, powerful AF-D motors and the AF was incredibly fast even on sluggish lenses like the 80-400 AF-D VR...

Hmmm, sounds like I need to get the F5 out of the closet and do some side by side tests.

I think there is one last SCCA autocross coming up in a few weeks. It might be worth sending a little money borrowlenses way to rent a 300s and a 70-200 f/2.8 AF-S VR-II and see how different combos of body and lens perform. Hey maybe in the interest of slack-jawtific testing they'll lend me a 3s for free