Finally ready to buy a Nikkor 300mm 2.8, but...

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HalfWayToThere

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After many years of pondering the purchase of a Nikkor 300mm 2.8, and waiting for the money tree in the front yard to produce enough fruit, I'm ready to pull the trigger. I have no doubt that I'd thoroughly enjoy many years of use, but I can't help but feel seriously conflicted about my timing. With the obvious shift to mirrorless, it maybe (?) doesn't make sense to invest heavily in F-mount lenses anymore. Especially a $5500 one. I know you can buy an adapter that lets you use that lens on a mirrorless, but it feels "hacky" to me. And I've seen a number of reviews saying that there are some issues with speed/focusing F-mount lenses on the mirrorless products. The effect this setup has on image quality and overall performance is a bit of an unknown to me too.

...and what if I want to use a teleconverter too? Yeah, feels very hacky.

I'm still shooting with a D700 that is working perfectly, though who knows if it'd go another 10 years. I don't have any desire to switch to mirrorless. Even if DSLRs disappear entirely, I could ensure another 10-15 years avoiding mirrorless by buying a new DSLR now. Or right before they disappear. I'm not in the market for another body, but buying a new one would let me punt the ball pretty far down the field until I'd be forced to switch.

I'm going back and forth on this, which is a shame because I've waiting so long to get to this point. I wouldn't mind hearing opinions of the members here, either for or against investing in this lens right now. Thanks!
 
If you're undecided, a cheap D800 or D810 would give you 3x more pixels than your D700 and allow you a lot of space to crop using a shorter and much cheaper lens you may already have...
 
You could always buy second hand then if you need to scratch a mirrorless itch you won't lose much. I moved from Nikon to Sony recently and one of the reasons was using lenses that were adapted. It is a bit of a pain imo. I think there are a good few years with top quality DSLRs being available new and some are fantastic value second hand like a D850. If I were you I would buy second hand and get a D850 and 300mm F2.8 and some teleconverters for a chunk less than £5500 and the ability to sell for not too much loss at a later date.
 
Depends on your age and health as well circumstances catch you out as you get older , I went many years using mid to top range canons and Nikon’s quite happily ,then bam 2 years ago massive heart failure . After a few months I got out again and realised I could no longer handle the weight .
It was then a case of packing in or finding a alternative . I switched to Olympus and what a fantastic system no regrets at all
 
Going second-hand is certainly an option if the savings are attractive. I'll shop around. I'd be more inclined to buy the lens second-hand, than the body though. Especially if the DSLR's demise is not far off. I would want a new body, in the hopes that I'd get a handful of additional years out of it (compared to buying used).

Retune, the shorter and cheaper lens I have now is a Nikkor 135mm, which is great for portraits, but requires far too much post-processing for anything shot outdoors. It also doesn't have as much reach as I'd like. I very much want to get into a nicer and more modern prime for those reasons.

Black fox, I hit 50 years old last year. Still in decent shape, but true that you never know what curveball life is going to throw at you.

Thanks for the replies!
 
You can get excellent condition 300mm F2.8 VR2 lenses for around £3k second hand. A new D850 is under £1900 imported. The 300mm F2.8 hasn't been updated to FL so there are positives and negatives there. The most obvious negative is that the lens came out in 2009 so the early versions will be pretty old. The good news is that it is the current lens so service parts will be available for a good few years. The super teles from Nikon are very sharp and so although this is an older design it is a fantastic lens. My old pre VR 400mm F2.8 is still very sharp and quick to focus. It will be interesting to see if the super teles will be updated or if Nikon throws all their lens design into the new mirrorless mount. I suspect this may be the last 300mm F2.8 F mount which will help it keep its value particularly second hand.
 
I feel you may have pondered too long. Yes, you'll get years of service out of it but mirrorless is a siren song and once the pros start to go that way and prices drop accordingly while performance rises exponentially the market for very expensive fast lenses for DSLRs will shrink and your investment will drop faster than Donald Trump's golf course income. You are too late, let the GAS go and spend your money on something else.
 
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HalfWayToThere said:
Retune, the shorter and cheaper lens I have now is a Nikkor 135mm, which is great for portraits, but requires far too much post-processing for anything shot outdoors. It also doesn't have as much reach as I'd like. I very much want to get into a nicer and more modern prime for those reasons.
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If you had, say, a 70-200 f/2.8 (which can be found for under £1000 secondhand), then a DX-size crop on a D800 would give you >15MP images with an equivalent angle of view to that 300mm on the D700. Or of course various DX bodies would give you 24MP. This isn't quite the same thing as having a 300mm, of course, but I think I'd find it hard to justify forking out for a lens like that if I were sticking with a D700.
 
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I dont think pros will be switching to mirrorless anytime soon. You only have to watch the top level sports photographers / wildlife togs who are still using DSLRs because they're superior to mirrorless with lag free OVF, as opposed to a laggy EVF. DSLRs will be in existance for many years to come and utilised by the professionals until Mirrorless really cleans up - it's still a new technology in that respect. I'd expect another 10 years at least before all you see is pro sports togs with Mirrorless Cameras and Lenses.
 
smr said:
I dont think pros will be switching to mirrorless anytime soon. You only have to watch the top level sports photographers / wildlife togs who are still using DSLRs because they're superior to mirrorless with lag free OVF, as opposed to a laggy EVF. DSLRs will be in existance for many years to come and utilised by the professionals until Mirrorless really cleans up - it's still a new technology in that respect. I'd expect another 10 years at least before all you see is pro sports togs with Mirrorless Cameras and Lenses.
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I might say five years as pro camera makers are going to push ahead with vigour to avoid losing out to the mobile phone camera market (which is surely already putting a big dent in general camera sales), but in any event the OP is thinking of spending five and a half grand on a lens; going to have to get an awful lot of use out of it before prices start to tumble be it five OR ten years. Time flies by.
 
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