With the arrival of the Nikkor Z 28-400mm f4-8 the question arose as to whether it could be a replacement for both the Nikkor 24-200mm f4-6.3 and the Nikkor Z 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 VR S in a travelling bird photographer’s kit. The hope being that it could cover a wider range and out to 400mm with a 1 stop penalty in maximum aperture but a big gain in weight savings and cost.

My Nikkor Z 28-400mm arrived a few weeks before I had to commit to a decision around packing for an extended photography/holiday trip and the weight savings would have been a real benefit. I frantically did some testing and initial impressions were very positive with very good image quality for the superzoom. The next stage of testing was to use it during our Wildlife Masterclass as boat based bird photography is the one area I cannot compromise.

On the boat the range of framing options for one lens were amazing but 2 things stood out to me. Firstly I missed the 24-28mm range for documenting activity on the boat and secondly the AF was just not fast enough to get reliably sharp image sequences of pelagic birds in flight in low light. Sequences shot with the 180-600mm (and previously with the 100-400mm) were reliably sharp while the 28-400 gave far fewer sharp images in a sequence and the lens was noticeably slower to lock focus on a subject.

For me, the 28-400 is an excellent walk around lens but when it comes to birds in flight it is just not quick enough to reliably replace the 100-400 in a travel kit. I will need to stick with a 2 lens solution which will be the 24-200 and 180-600 or, as I have packed for my planned trip, a 3 lens kit comprising the 28-200, 100-400 and 800 with 1.4x TC