Has anyone purchased the gray market 300mm f4?

I traded in my 18-300mm (DX) lens when I upgraded from a D5100 to an FX body.. And Adorama insisted I give serious thought to purchasing the gray market version with 3 year Mack warranty. I ended up taking their advice but am still within the 30 day return window.

I am not worried about resale value.. As I plan to keep this lens around for a long time. Are there any other downfalls I'm missing?

I'd be grateful for some input..

I had dust on my Nikon D600 after less than 1000 shots and before I ever even changed the lens. Something is up with Nikon and dust. Either a shutter design or something else. I even had 2 hot pixels and ended up returning. I'll probably end up re-buying but i'm worried about these issues. Even the reviews are pointing them out:
http://learningcameras.com/reviews/4-dslrs/75-nikon-d600-full-review

i tried the '' clean sensor of the menu'' and i had more black spots ! i contacted nikon and they confirmed that the sensor needs to be cleaned, so i took the camera today to the service centre kingston ,london .the service was just great and they have done it while i was waiting .
the whole process done within 4o min.
thank ou msmoto for your reply .

I too am interested in one of the Variable ND filters and like many have stated I don't much care for the price(s).

Is there anyone here who can facilitate a group buy and perhaps help us all save a little?

Also, what about the Lee Big Stopper? No one has commented on said filter.

adamz said:
msmoto - I would love to see the 80-400vr replacement, but though I'm half Your age I may not live to that particular moment :)

Ha...I don't have the patience to wait around for the next best thing. Maybe change my mind if they do actually ever update any of these long awaited lens updates, but so far I have only seen new lenses and no updates really.

msmoto - I would love to see the 80-400vr replacement, but though I'm half Your age I may not live to that particular moment :)

At present I would be reluctant to purchase any VR lens as the VRIII technology is here, I cannot imagine Nikon not putting this into the next generation lenses. And, with the competition out there, this may occur fairly quickly, possibly within twelve months for the majority of the VRI lenses, such as the 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6.

I find that the longer end fixed lenses and the 200-400mm zoom can have a longer than normal wait period. I do think that the 300/F4 should be more common though, I waited I think about 4 months for a 400mm after I ordered it.

I have always used my local camera store, Adorama, B&H, and only amazon if they had a sale that nobody else could beat.

I have always wondered about the variable stop filters, at this moment I have an ND4 and an ND16.

One day I might just buy or rent if I can one of these.

@ sary

Shoot an exposure of a plain white sheet of paper, camera focus at infinity, paper at about two feet. In post processing, increase contrast to full and then post image. This should show the problem more clearly than a 10 second exposure.

here is the link to see the mark

thank you for the reply msmoto , how can i post a pic as attachment ?

Now that we are in the correct thread...just a little note. Unless I am in an extremely dirty venue, I do not clean lenses. Some have never been cleaned in several years except to possibly blow dust off. And the rear element is never touched unless some unfortunate event occurs and a piece of dirt or smudge gets on the glass.

The pro Nikon bodies do seem to have a tendency to accumulate oil spots. After about 10,000 clicks I cleaned my D4 sensor which had over 70 oil spots, by count, and I have not had another in the past 7,000 clicks.

And, Sary, welcome to NRF. Maybe you could post a photo showing the spot..... or what a while and see if more accumulate.

sary said:
hi guys i've just noticed a mark (same size and location) in some of my pictures taken with my d800 , i've tried differents lenses but still same thing .i do clean my lenses before and after use .has someone experienced same issue please ? is something to do with the sensor .it happens on 3/4 out of 20 pictures !
thank you

I wanted to resurrect this to see if anyone has had a chance to purchase and use any of these. I'd been thinking of buying a straight 10 stop ND filter, but noticed that B&H is having a killer deal on the Tiffen 2-8 stop variable filter. I don't have a lot of experience with Tiffen filters (the only one I own is a 58mm ultra clear that I keep on my 50 1.4g) as I mostly use Marumi filters on my better lenses. Anyone have a point of view? B&H isn't taking orders until later today and the deal lasts through 12/20.

The reviews on the site were pretty instructional. Some complained of an "X" across the image at higher stops. Others warned of color cast. Others said it didn't really work at shorter focal lengths. Some however, were over the moon. Not really psyched to drop $400+ on a Singh Ray, although I do know you get what you pay for.

As always, thanks for the valuable input.

I cannot speak about American dealers, as I'm not in the states, sorry no recommendations.

Thanks for the timely reply! Would you recommend a site other than Adorama or BW Photo? Their prices seemed much more competitive than Amazon. If Adorama is the best price I can get (not interested in 'gray market' item), I'll just pay the difference from trade-in.

Usually shipping times for the lens is a week or two, you'll just need to place and order and wait. A number of big retailers have them in stock, so I doubt production has stopped.

Has anyone else thought of purchasing this lens, lately?

I traded in my Nikkor 18-300mm to Adorama and was hoping to purchase a Nikkor 300mm f/4 as a replacement. But Adorama and BW photo have been sold out of the lens for at least a week, if not longer.

Is this a sign that Nikon has depleted their stock and we may see a VR version soon? I don't know if I should wait for news in the near future. Or jump on the AF-S version of the Nikkor 300mm f/4 when Nikon supply more stock to these companies...

R8R said:
"14 Bit" .........
"Lossless compressed". = 41.3 MB
"Compressed" = 35.9 MB
"Uncompressed" = 74.4 MB

"12 Bit" ..........
"Lossless Compressed" = 32.4 MB
"Compressed" = 29.0 MB
"Uncompressed" = 57.0 MB

The whopper is TIFF: 108.2 MB
o_O

These file sizes vary, though, depending on the image. I mean the compressed ones.

@Geoff_K if you have a smartphone...like the iPhone...just get the iPhone App by Nikon and download the manuals for your cameras for all the ones you want. :D

http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Learn-And-Explore/Article/fyu1ffrj/Learn-And-Explore-for-the-iPhone.html
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/manual-viewer/id468999172?mt=8

@ Geoff_K Tape....you mean all forty hours of it? LOL

It is on my iPhone and computer. Actually very easy to reference and search. There is way too much information to remember...

I leave mine in 14bit. I changed it to 12 when I started shooting with it and decided to try it at 14. It didnt seem to make much difference in my computer editing time, so I left it at 14.

I cannot say I noticed a difference however I was not really looking at an image difference, just if it would make a noticeable difference in my editing time. I leave it at 14 for the same reason I leave it at 36MP.

R8R, do they have it on tape ? ;- >

I had the same problem when new. Cleaned the sensor after about 1800 shots and it's been fine from then on. I have to blow off a dust spot every now and then but the self clean normally does the job.

Nikon should clean it under warranty. I just did it myself.

msmoto said:
Great R8R, I guess I did not look at the manual close enough. I will pass this along.

You only read to page 435 huh? You do remember that as a Nikon fan, you need to read every manual cover-to-cover, even if you don't own the camera.

Start with all the Coolpix models and work your way up.