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Vintage

Shoot Nat Geo Style Photos with a Beautiful, Vintage Nikon Lens

Chris Gampat
No Comments
07/31/2021
3 Mins read
16.05.17-8e3de7e29d62a6ee4c8a070993c43a2f

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Back in 1994, I think a lot of us weren’t paying attention to photos Nat Geo posted on the web. Sure, their website was a convenient way to get their articles, but nothing could touch the quality of their magazine. And we’d like to believe that optics like the vintage Nikon 500mm f4 D Nikkor ED AF-I lens shot those iconic photos. Launched in 1994, this vintage Nikon lens has held its value surprisingly well. And we shouldn’t expect anything less from the Rare Camera Store collaboration.

Welcome to the Rare Camera Store: a joint initiative of The Phoblographer and the wonderful folks at Blue Moon Camera. We work to bring you some of the coolest and rarest items for a great price.

This lens was one of the first generations of super-telephoto lenses with autofocus. That means photographers used it for sports, birding, wildlife, and more. As much as some folks will insist that digital was taking off then, it’s not the case. In 1994, most folks were still shooting film. As such, most photo gear from back in the day was also pretty heavy. In fact, this vintage Nikon lens is just under 10lbs. So if you’re going to go shooting with it, get ready to deal with a lot of weight. 

The Rare Camera Store is selling this lens in great condition for $1,800. Here’s what the Blue Moon camera listing is saying about it: 

“This Nikon 500mm f4 D  may be just the lens you need for excellent telephoto bird or sports photography work.  With outstanding reach and a fast f4 maximum aperture, this lens gets you into the thick of it from quite a distance while maintaining faster shutter speeds.  It features Nikon’s ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass for improved image performance and has a reputation for being sharp and crisp in its images.  It makes use of 39mm drop-in filters, has its own tripod foot on a rotating collar, and heavy duty strap lugs attached to the lens barrel.”

There’s a lot you can do with a lens like this. Nikon loves to push the fact that you can adapt their F mount lenses to the Z camera system. So you can obviously do that. However, you can also put it on a bunch of other camera systems. I’d personally stick it on a Fujifilm XT4 with a Nikon F to Fuji X adapter. Combine this with the Classic Chrome film simulation, and you’ve got a winner. We did this with Fuji’s own 200mm f2 lens a while back and adored the look.

The Nikon 500mm f4 D Nikkor ED AF-I Lens will become a 750mm f6 basically. That’s incredible, right? In fact, we took to Flickr to see what that would look like. This image was shot with a Nikon D500, which has an APS-C sensor the same size as Fuji’s. Now imagine that with the Fuji Classic Chrome look. It’s quite irresistible, especially since Fuji doesn’t have the glass available.

Also, for what it’s worth, this lens wasn’t made for many years. That’s what makes it even more appealing. 

Please check out this listing, and if you’re interested, also take a gander at this listing of a great Nikonos camera.

500mm 500mm f4 birding classic chrome fujifilm lens Nat Geo Nikon 500mm f4 D Nikkor ED AF-I Lens sports vintage Nikon lens
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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