When photographing wildlife, whether shooting bears in Alaska, or capturing birds in flight, one of the most important factors in choosing a lens is its focal length. Generally, the longer the lens (in focal length), the better. Unlike landscape and portrait photography, where you could get away with a cheap lens and still get great results, wildlife photography pretty much requires high-quality, fast-aperture telephoto optics. This obviously translates to a high price tag, with the lowest end of the spectrum averaging between $500 to $1,500, and the highest-quality / best reach lenses costing as much as $10,000+. Without a doubt, wildlife photography is a very expensive hobby to have (unless you are so good that you can sell your pictures and make good money), especially once you add up all the gear and travel costs.

1) Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR

If you want to get into wildlife photography on a tight budget, the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR is the lens you want to get. It is a great buy that will get you to 300mm at under $600 USD. Its autofocus is pretty good in daylight and its versatile zoom range of 70-300mm is great for large animals and perched birds. The lens is light and compact, making it easy to carry it around when scouting for wildlife in parks and wildlife spots. It is capable of producing relatively good bokeh, especially on its longest end, although its sharpness performance also drops quite a bit at 300mm. Having VR is a definite plus when hand-holding the lens.

In daylight conditions the Nikon 70-300mm VR can overall produce great results, but its performance does suffer in low-light situations – something to be expected from a slow variable aperture zoom lens. Unfortunately, the Nikon 70-300mm VR cannot be used with any teleconverters, so its range is limited at 300mm.

Here are some sample images from the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR:

See my old Nikon 70-300mm VR Review for more information on this lens.

2) Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

The next step-up from the 70-300mm lens is the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, a superb lens not only for portraiture, but also for wildlife photography. While its rather short on the long side, it is one of the few Nikon lenses that works with all current Nikon teleconverters. The Nikon TC-14E II makes it a 100-280mm f/4 lens (1.4x focal length multiplication), the Nikon TC-17E II makes it a 120-340mm f/4.8 lens (1.7x) and the latest Nikon TC-20E III doubles the focal length to 140-400mm (2.0x) at f/5.6. A truly versatile lens indeed. The latter combination needs good light for reliable AF and should be stopped down to f/8 for best results (there is some sharpness degradation at f/5.6).

Unlike the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II is a very sharp lens from 70mm all the way to 200mm. It sports some of the best Nikon technologies, including fast AF, Nano Coating and VR II.

See my detailed Nikon 70-200mm Review for more information on this lens.

3) Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S

The next lens is one of my all-time Nikon favorites, the Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S. It is a pro-level lens with superb optics and very fast autofocus. Optically, it is a world better than the Nikon 70-300mm, better than the Nikon 70-200mm VR II + teleconverters and pretty close to its much bigger and heavier brother, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II.

I love this lens because it is light (compared to the big 300mm+ guns below), compact, sharp, capable of producing beautiful bokeh and works extremely well with the Nikon TC-14E II 1.4x teleconverter. In fact, I have my TC-14E II permanently glued to this lens, because it performs so well wide open at f/5.6 (the 1.4x TC slows the lens down from f/4 to f/5.6) and gets me to 420mm. This is the lens I prefer taking with me on a plane when travelling. It does have a couple of annoyances that I hope Nikon fixes on a future version of this lens. First, the lens has no VR. Second, its lens collar is not designed for good stability and you will have to replace it with a better one. Third, it has no rear optical element, all the way to the lens diaphragm, so you will have to be careful when shooting in dusty conditions (that’s another reason why I keep the TC-14E II mounted on it).

When hand-holding a telephoto lens with no VR, you always have to make sure that your shutter speed stays fast enough not to cause camera shake. Always remember that the longer the focal length of the lens, the more prone it is to camera shake. A general rule of thumb is to keep your shutter speed faster than the focal length of the lens. So if your focal length is 300mm, then your shutter speed should be faster than 1/300 of a second. If you use a DX camera, then don’t forget to multiply the number by 1.5x, which in this case would be around 1/450. Obviously, it all depends on your hand-holding technique. If you have very strong hands and a good hand-holding technique, you might be able to get great results with much slower shutter speeds, while those with shaky hands might need to increase the shutter speed even more to get acceptably sharp images. I explain all this in detail in my “how to photograph birds” article.

One question that I get a lot from our readers, is which combo to get – the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II + TC-20E III, or the Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S + TC-14E II. I have both and I certainly prefer the latter combo (300mm f/4 + TC-14E II). First, as I have already stated earlier, the 70-200mm + TC-20E III should be stopped down to f/8 for best sharpness, while the 300mm f/4 + TC-14E II is sharp wide open, so there is a stop of advantage right there. Second, AF speed and accuracy with the 300mm f/4 + TC-14E II is much better – you will get a lot more consistent results. What about VR (or lack thereof)? When I use the Nikon 300mm f/4 lens, I always keep the shutter speed fast, knowing that I do not have VR. It helps to shoot with a good low-light camera like the Nikon D700 or Nikon D3s that can handle high ISO, because I can set Auto ISO to regulate camera ISO when light conditions change. I definitely prefer faster and more accurate AF to VR.

Many of my wildlife photographs that I posted as wallpapers on this website have been shot with this lens. See my old Nikon 300mm f/4 Review for more information on this lens.

Some image samples from the Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S:

What about the Nikon 80-400mm VR lens? Forget about it – its AF is slow in comparison. I have tried the 80-400mm and would not consider it for fast-action photography, especially birding.

4) Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II

The next big jump (in terms of size, weight and cost) gets us to the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II – a phenomenal lens, one of Nikon’s best lenses to date. It is a workhorse tool used by professionals for sports, wildlife and portrait photography. I used the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II for several months and I was very impressed by its performance, especially when coupled with teleconverters. In fact, Nikon specifically released the TC-20E III together with this lens, which makes this lens almost like a “reference” lens for use with teleconverters (with the TC-20E III, the lens becomes a 600mm f/5.6 lens). It is loaded with Nikon’s latest technologies like VR II and its optics are simply outstanding. AF performance is top notch, with super fast and accurate autofocus acquisition, even in low-light situations.

I have been shooting with the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR lens for the last 4-5 years and I can assure you that the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II is overall a better lens to buy (unless you shoot large animals from a close distance, like bears in Alaska). I bought the Nikon 200-400mm for its zoom capabilities, but the lens turned out to be heavier, bulkier and it just does not tolerate anything longer than the TC-14E II. This leaves me with 560mm of effective focal length to work with on the long end, which seems to be very close in terms of IQ to the 300mm f/2.8G VR II @ 600mm. But its biggest problem is not the 40mm shorter focal length – it has one major weakness, which only shows up when you photograph anything at a distance. Up close, the 200-400mm creates beautiful images, but as soon as you start shooting subjects over 50 feet or more, its autofocus accuracy goes down the drain. Mind you, this does not typically happen when shooting lone birds in the sky, but primarily when there is something immediately behind the subject. For example, when I was photographing bears in Yellowstone, 8/10 times I would get grass behind the bear in focus. When I first noticed this behavior 3-4 years ago, I thought that it was just my bad camera/focusing techniques. I tried reacquiring focus, using only the center AF point and tried all kinds of tricks and the problem did not go away. I then thought that something was wrong with my lens, so I calibrated it like crazy, only to find that there was nothing wrong with it. Then I read complaints from other 200-400mm owners on various forums, who reported exactly the same problem with this lens and that’s when I realized that it was the lens that was the problem. I tried the 300mm f/2.8G (along with 400mm and 500mm lenses) in very similar conditions and they do not have the same problem. For this reason alone, I would not buy the 200-400mm again. I have been recommending the 300mm f/2.8G to our readers instead for a while now.

See my detailed Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II Review for more information on this lens.

5) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR

The next best wildlife lens is Nikon’s heavyweight super telephoto bazooka, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR. This is the lens that will get you to 800mm at f/5.6 with a 2x teleconverter! Weighing a whopping 4.6 kilos, it is almost as heavy as Nikon’s longest 600mm f/4 lens (more on the 600mm below) and almost twice as heavy as the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II. It is a massive lens for a reason – its large aperture of f/2.8 requires huge glass elements to transmit so much light into the camera. Similar to the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II, it also works exceptionally well with all teleconverters, including the Nikon TC-20E III.

Due to its massive size, this lens requires a good tripod setup. Forget about trying to hand-hold it, even if you have arms as big as Schwarzenegger’s. It has very impressive optical features and it delivers exceptionally good-looking images, especially at its maximum aperture of f/2.8. However, its weight and size are its biggest enemy. This is not the lens you would pack in a backpack for hiking.

A summary on which super telephoto lens I would recommend and my thoughts on 400mm f/2.8, 500mm f/4 and 600mm f/4 lenses is provided at the bottom of this article.

See my detailed Nikon 400mm f/2.8G Review for more information on this lens.

6) Nikon 500mm f/4G VR

The Nikon 500mm f/4G VR is sort of a “sweet middle” between the 400mm and 500mm lenses. Due to its slower f/4 aperture, it is actually a much lighter lens than the 400mm f/2.8G VR (by almost a kilogram) and only slightly heavier than the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR II. This is the only super telephoto lens that I would even consider hand-holding for short periods of time. Optically it is an insanely sharp lens, I would say about the same as the Nikon 600mm f/4 below. Again, not much to complain about in terms of optics and features.

Unlike the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR, the Nikon 500mm f/4G VR only works well with the TC-14E II teleconverter, giving an effective focal length of 700mm at f/5.6. Unless you shoot with the new Nikon D4 that can handle autofocus up to f/8, forget about using either the TC-17E II or the TC-20E III on this lens. I tried them both on the D3s and I was disappointed. Not just because I was getting softer images, but also because AF with the TC-17E II is very inaccurate and manual focus with the TC-20E III at 1000mm is very painful and cumbersome.

I will soon publish a detailed review of the Nikon 500mm f/4G VR lens, along with more image samples.

7) Nikon 600mm f/4G VR

And lastly, I present you the Cadillac of all Nikon super telephoto lenses: the Nikon 600mm f/4G VR – the longest, the heaviest, the bulkiest and the priciest lens of them all. This is the lens that many wildlife photographers get, especially those that photograph birds. It goes without saying that you need a good support system for this lens – a very sturdy Gitzo Systematic series tripod with a Wimberley Gimbal head is what I would get to hold this monster. Couple it with a professional camera body like the Nikon D3s, and we are talking about a whopping 6.5 kilograms here!

Again, your only choice for longer reach is to use the Nikon TC-14E II, which will give you 840mm of effective focal length to work with at f/5.6. Neither the Nikon TC-17E II nor the new Nikon TC-20E III work reliably well with the 600mm f/4 lens. Yes, in good light you can get some decent results with the TC-17E II, but the lens will occasionally hunt. As for the TC-20E III, AF is very unreliable and all over the place. Lens hunts even in good light with the 2x TC.

Nikon 400mm f/2.8 vs Nikon 500mm f/4 vs Nikon 600mm f/4

Choosing between the three Nikon super telephoto lenses can be difficult, given the weight/size considerations and how many different combinations you can do with teleconverters to get to a certain focal length. While you can do all kinds of math to see what you would get with each lens and shoot charts to see which combination wins, at the end of the day, it is all about which lens gives you the longest focal length with the least amount of problems like weight, size and transportation considerations. What is optically better? The Nikon 400mm + TC-20E III @ 800mm, the Nikon 500mm + TC-17E II @ 850mm or the Nikon 600mm + TC-14E II @ 840mm? The Nikon 600mm + TC-14E II performs the best wide open with the 500mm + TC-17E II coming in second and 400mm + TC-20E III coming last, but when all three are stopped down to f/8, those differences pretty much go away. The most important factor to consider is not how a lens performs sharpness-wise when shooting a test target from a distance, but how reliably its AF functions in mixed light environments. How good is sharpness if you cannot even lock AF on your subject? In this case, the Nikon 600mm f/4 is always going to be the top choice. As for 400mm f/2.8 vs 500mm f/4, the 400mm will give you more options and working AF with all three teleconverters, while the 500mm has a weight/bulk advantage. In summary: if you need the reach, you get the 600mm f/4. If you want to be able to hand-hold a lens, you get the 500mm. And lastly, you get the 400mm f/2.8 for its versatility – if you want to be able to use all three teleconverters with working autofocus. If your plan is to always use a tripod, then either get the 600mm f/4 or the 400mm f/2.8, depending on your budget. Here are the price differences between the three lenses:

1. Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR – $8,199
2. Nikon 500mm f/4G VR – $8,399
3. Nikon 600mm f/4G VR – $10,000

As you can see, the price difference between the 400mm and the 500mm lenses is minimal, while the 600mm is priced significantly higher.

Now with the upcoming D4, things might change quite a bit. If AF accuracy on the Nikon D4 is indeed better than on the D3s when teleconverters are used (with working AF at f/8), then the Nikon 500mm might be a better choice over the 400mm (850mm with TC-17E II and 1000mm with TC-20E III vs 800mm with TC-20E III) for reach.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

1) Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G

I want to start out with a lens that I have a love and hate relationship with. On one side, the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G is one of the sharpest lenses ever produced by Nikon. It has phenomenal optics (center to corner, throughout the frame and aperture range), beautiful colors, super fast autofocus and an extremely useful focal range for wide-angle photography. On the other hand, it is a heavy, bulky and expensive lens that cannot accommodate filters. Sadly, not just circular filters and filter holders but pretty much any kind of hand-holdable filter. Its round front element shape and the built-in lens hood just make it impossible to use filters. Sure, you can buy a filter holder system from Lee and other manufacturers for this lens to accommodate filters, but it is not cheap and you would have to purchase a set of large 150mm filters, so forget about using your existing filters. I really wish Nikon allowed us to use small replaceable filters close to the lens mount, just like on telephoto lenses and this lens would have been irreplaceable.

If you do not heavily rely on various filters like I do, then you will never be disappointed with this lens – yes, it is that good. If ability to use filters is a must, the only other full-frame lens from Nikon I would consider would be the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR lens (see my Nikon 16-35mm VR Review). If you are a DX shooter, the Nikon 12-24mm f/4 is superb.

Here are some sample images from the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G:

See my detailed Nikon 14-24mm Review for more information on this lens.

2) Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G

Year after year, the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G has been my #1 most used workhorse lens for landscape photography. While its performance is not as impressive as on the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G, especially in the corners at large apertures, it just needs to be stopped down to f/5.6 and smaller to unveil its true performance. It has a lighting quick AF, beautiful color rendering, extremely useful zoom range on full-frame cameras and it takes filters! But similar to the 14-24mm it also has a few problems – it is bulky, heavy, expensive and has no VR.

Ever since the superb Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR (see my Nikon 24-120mm VR Review) has been released, I have been thinking more and more about switching to it. I have not done it for one major reason: lens build and weather sealing. The Nikon 24-70mm is built like a tank and has suffered all kinds of abuse from me. I have dropped it, exposed it to sub-zero / extremely hot temperatures, used it in very windy and dusty environments, exposed it to extreme humidity and the list goes on and on…it has survived it all and it is still performing like a champ. I honestly do not think the 24-120mm would have survived all that.

I would not recommend it for DX shooters, because it has a not-so-useful 36-105mm equivalent focal length due to the 1.5x crop factor, so something like the Nikon 16-85mm VR would be a great low-cost alternative. I had a hard time picking my favorite images from this lens, because there are too many, so here are a couple from this year:

Most of the landscape wallpapers on this website have been shot with this lens. See my detailed Nikon 24-70mm Review for more information on this lens.

3) Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

I’m sure you saw this coming – how could I not have the whole “lens trinity” with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II in this article? I was once approached by another photographer, who asked me what lenses I typically take with me when photographing landscapes. When I showed him my lenses and told him that I rarely leave without my 70-200mm, he was rather surprised. He thought that the 70-200mm was too long for landscape photography and asked me why I would even bother taking this bulky and heavy lens. I showed him a couple of pictures from the day before that I shot with the 70-200mm lens and right after he saw my images, he told me that he would buy it as soon as he returned home.

Landscape photography is not always just about capturing wide-angles and endless panoramas. I find myself often discovering interesting subjects that my 24-70mm is not long enough to capture and that’s when I switch to the 70-200mm to get close and tight. The Nikon 70-200mm is not just a portrait lens as you probably have come to known it – its optical performance is phenomenal for pretty much any kind of photography. The only thing you have to be careful about when shooting landscapes, is not to include any foreground elements that are close to you, or you will have a hard time getting everything in focus, unless your goal is to isolate a subject. The lens is ideal for shooting overlooks or other subjects from a distance. Every once in a while, I use the 70-200mm to shoot large panoramas as well. The only downside of this lens is its bulk and weight.

Here are some image samples of landscapes that I have shot with the Nikon 70-200mm lens:

If you have a DX camera, I would skip this lens and rather have a two lens kit comprised of the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR and Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR, which would cover most of your needs. These two lenses are also great for full-frame cameras as a lower-cost alternative to the Nikon “trinity”.

See my detailed Nikon 70-200mm Review for more information on this lens.

4) Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E

The Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E is a special-purpose wide-angle tilt/shift or “perspective control” lens that is ideal for landscape photography. One of the biggest challenges of landscape photography is to bring everything from the closest foreground element to the farthest object in the background into perfect focus. While stopping down the lens certainly helps, you will often find yourself in situations, where you have to emphasize a foreground object by staying very close to it and yet stopping down the lens will not provide sufficient depth of field to capture everything in focus. In addition, stopping down lenses beyond f/11 on full-frame cameras and beyond f/8 on cropped-sensors cameras reduces image quality due to an optical phenomenon known as diffraction. Hence, it is often not a good idea to stop down too much. One option is to use a focus stacking technique, where you take a series of images focused at different points and then use post-processing software to combine those images. However, focus stacking only works well if your scene is very still and none of the objects are moving, so wind and immediate changes in ambient light could spoil the result.

By using a tilt/shift lens, you can tilt the focus plane in such a way that you could bring the entire scene in perfect focus even at large aperture values. The lens physically tilts up, down, left and right to give you full control over depth of field. There are several potential issues with using this lens. First, it is a manual focus lens. Second, it is a fixed focal length lens, which means that you will have to move around to compose your shot. Third, it only properly fits pro-level DSLRs like Nikon D700 and Nikon D3s and has limited movement on smaller DSLRs. And finally, it is not an easy lens to use and you will have to learn how to properly use the tilt/shift capability and compute depth of field depending on the tilt position. Once you master this lens, it is hard to find anything else that could beat it. Needless to say, its sharpness, contrast and colors are top notch.

Here are some of my image samples from this gem:

See my detailed Nikon 24mm PC-E Review for more information on this lens.

5) Nikon 24mm f/1.4G

If you are looking for the sharpest lens Nikon has ever produced, check out the Nikon 24mm f/1.4G – it is practically flawless in terms of optical performance. This is one lens that I would not hesitate using on any camera body, even the upcoming high-resolution full-frame Nikon DSLRs, because it is one of those lenses that will out-resolve any sensor out there. Aside from its astounding sharpness, contrast and colors, it has a very wide aperture range from f/1.4 to f/16, giving you the versatility to use it for multiple photography needs – from landscape photography to portraiture (especially low-light situations).

Some photographers initially complained about autofocus issues with this lens, but I believe that they might have gotten some bad samples from the first batch, because I have shot with three different samples by now and I did not have any AF problems whatsoever. Lola and I rely on this lens quite heavily for our photography work. Here are some image samples from this beautiful lens:

See my detailed Nikon 24mm f/1.4G Review for more information on this lens.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Nikon 400mm f/2.8G ED VR

One question I constantly get from our readers and I am sure many others wonder about, is which one of the super telephoto lenses to buy. The Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II and the Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR II are the cheapest of the bunch under USD $7K, while the 400mm, 500mm and 600mm lenses are between $8.5K to $10.5K. A person spending $7K on a lens wonders if it is worth adding another thousand to get a longer, but less flexible lens, while another person might wonder which one of the long telephoto primes is the most practical on the field. It can be a tough choice, given how much positive feedback each lens gets from different photographers. Some swear by the zoom flexibility of the 200-400mm f/4 to photograph bears in Alaska, some will never use anything but the 600mm f/4 for their work and others argue that the 400mm f/2.8 is the best of the bunch, because it has the best optics and works well with all teleconverters. I wrote this review for the sole purpose of answering these questions and my analysis over the course of several months during which I worked with all these exotic lenses (except for the 600mm f/4 VR, which I could not obtain on time), along with test scenarios, was put together to provide as much valuable information on each lens as possible, to make it easier for our readers to choose the right lens for their needs. My conclusion on which lens I would personally pick is provided on the last page of the review.

Before I start talking about the lens in more detail, I would like to clarify that there is no “Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR II” as some blogs and websites claim – the current model’s exact name is “AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8G ED VR” as stated on Nikon’s website. So there is only one 400mm f/2.8G lens with vibration reduction out there that came out in 2007 and it is the same one I am reviewing. The current 400mm f/2.8G already has VR II built in, which is probably why people keep messing up and using the VR II name. Nikon only puts the number II at the end of the lens’ official name (which happens to be right after the word “VR”) to indicate that it is a second revision of the previous-generation lens. For example, both the original Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR and the Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR were updated with a second (II) version to include VR II and Nano Crystal Coat, so their model names changed to “AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II” and “AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II”, respectively. The last digit is not an indication of VR II technology, but rather the revision of the lens.

1) Lens Overview

Nikon’s current line of exotic super telephoto lenses includes three monster lenses – Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR, Nikon 500mm f/4G VR and Nikon 600mm f/4G VR. All three were updated at the same time in 2007 to include the latest Nikon technologies such as VR II (Vibration Reduction II), ED (Extra-low Dispersion) and N (Nano Crystal Coat), when Nikon announced its first full-frame DSLR – the Nikon D3. Before 2007, none of these lenses featured vibration reduction / image stabilization and Nikon was clearly lagging behind its main competitor Canon, which had image-stabilized versions of its super telephoto lenses since as far as 1999. It is hard to understand what I mean by the word “monster”, until you get to actually play with the Nikon 400mm f/2.8 and compare it against other telephoto lenses. It truly is a massive and a heavy lens, due to its complex optical design (14 lens elements in 11 groups) with large glass to give you that f/2.8 maximum aperture.

Its resolution and acuity performance are legendary, right on par with Nikon’s best of the best – the Nikon 200mm f/2G VR II and Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II. Nikon labels the lens as a “Sports and Action” lens for a reason – its super fast autofocus silent wave motor is designed for capturing moving subjects in real time. You will quite often see this lens getting used in national and world sports events such as Olympics, World Cup and Super Bowl, as well as in wildlife hot-spots and concerts around the world. Its large aperture of f/2.8, along with its magical optical design allow isolating subjects with a very shallow depth of field, beautifully rendering the background known as “bokeh“, while retaining maximum sharpness on the subject.

The Nikon 400mm f/2.8G fully works with all current Nikon teleconverters and its low-light capabilities are very impressive. The Nikon 1.4x TC-14E II teleconverter increases the focal length of the lens to 560mm while increasing the maximum aperture to f/4.0, the Nikon 1.7x TC-14E II teleconverter increases the focal length to 680mm and maximum aperture to f/4.8, and the Nikon 2.0x TC-20E III doubles the focal length of the lens to 800mm and stops down the lens by two stops at maximum aperture of f/5.6. What this essentially means, is that while you get more total focal length with the teleconverters, you end up losing some light at the same time. The lens performs equally well on both FX and DX sensors, with a 1.5x narrower field of view on DX sensor, which is equivalent to 600mm without a teleconverter. This means that with a 2x teleconverter on a DX camera like the Nikon D7000, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G would have a field of view similar to a 1200mm lens!

The two letters “ED” in the lens name (the lens has 3 total ED elements) stand for “Extra-low Dispersion”, as explained in my Nikon lens naming convention article, which means that the lens delivers superior sharpness and reduced chromatic aberration or “color fringing” in photographs when compared to non-ED lenses. In addition to the Silent Wave Motor (SWM/AF-S) that provides fast and quiet auto focus, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR also features Nano Crystal Coat and Super Integrated Coating technologies, which reduce ghosting and flare. When it comes to weather sealing, the Nikon 400mm easily withstands dust, moisture and tough weather conditions – usual environments for sports, nature and wildlife photographers.

2) Lens Specifications

Main Features:

1. Super-fast, telephoto lens, optimized for edge-to-edge sharpness on both the Nikon FX- (23.9 x 36mm) and DX-format image sensors.
2. New tripod detection mode reduces vibration that may occur due to shutter release when mounted on a tripod.
3. Exclusive Nano Crystal Coat and a meniscus protective glass element combine to further reduce ghosting and flare for even greater image clarity.
4. Rugged, reliable and lightweight, this lens features a magnesium die-cast barrel and professional-grade dust- and moisture-resistant construction.
5. Fully compatible with Nikon TC-14E II, TC-17E II and TC-20E II (III) Teleconverters
6. Nikon VR II (Vibration Reduction) Image Stabilization, engineered specifically for each VR NIKKOR lens, enables handheld shooting at up to 4 shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible, assuring dramatically sharper still images and video capture.
7. Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor (SWM) enables ultra-high-speed autofocusing with exceptional accuracy and powerful, super-quiet operation.
8. Three Extra-low Dispersion (ED) elements control chromatic aberrations while enhancing color, sharpness and contrast, even at the widest aperture settings.
9. New A/M focus mode provides fast, secure switching between auto and manual focus operation.

Technical Specifications:

1. Mount Type: Nikon F-Bayonet
2. Focal Length: 400mm
3. Maximum Aperture: f/2.8
4. Minimum Aperture f/22
5. Format: FX/35mm
6. Maximum Angle of View: (DX-format) 4°
7. Maximum Angle of View: (FX-format) 6°10′
8. Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 0.16x
9. Lens Elements: 14
10. Lens Groups: 11
11. Compatible Format(s): FX, DX, FX in DX Crop Mode, 35mm Film
12. VR (Vibration Reduction) Image Stabilization: Yes
13. Diaphragm Blades: 9
14. Distance Information: Yes
15. Nano Crystal Coat: Yes
16. ED Glass Elements: 3
17. Super Integrated Coating: Yes
18. Autofocus: Yes
19. AF-S (Silent Wave Motor): Yes
20. Internal Focusing: Yes
21. Minimum Focus Distance: 9.5 ft. (2.9m)
22. Focus Mode: Auto, Manual, Auto/Manual
23. G-type: Yes
24. Filter Size: 52mm
25. Accepts Filter Type: Slip-in
26. Dimensions (Approx.): 6.3×14.5 in. (Diameter x Length), 159.5x368mm (Diameter x Length)
27. Weight (Approx.): 163 oz. (4,620g)
28. Supplied Accessories: Slip-on HK-33 lens hood, CT-404 trunk case, Slip-in filter holder, 52mm screw-in NC filter, LN-1 strap, Monopod collar

3) Lens handling

The Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is a rugged professional lens designed to withstand physical abuse in all kinds of environments and tough weather conditions. I hauled it along with me on a trip to Yellowstone and then to snowy mountains of Colorado, so it took everything from 100F heat to 20F freezing temperatures without any sort of protection. The lens functioned flawlessly all along, as expected – that’s the type of protection you get on a $9K lens. Weighing a whopping 10 pounds (almost 5 kilos), the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is the second heaviest lens made by Nikon, after the Nikon 600mm f/4G VR, which weighs a pound more. This weight is no joke when combined with a 3 pound Nikon D3s – that’s 13 pounds of total weight! To top this off, the lens is huge. It has a 6.3 inch front diameter, again second biggest of the Nikon superteles. Take a look at the following lens size comparison (from left to right: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S, Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR, Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR, Nikon 500mm f/4G VR):

Now here is the front element of the 400mm compared to 500mm (Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR, Right: Nikon 500mm f/4G VR):

When you deal with gear with these kinds of dimensions and weight, handling becomes an issue. I am very used to hand-holding the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II and Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S lenses, because they are relatively small and not as heavy. I also often shoot the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II and Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR lenses without using a tripod or a monopod. The 300mm f/2.8 is not bad, as long as I can rest my arms every once in a while. The Nikon 200-400mm f/4 is rather heavy and I prefer to keep it on a tripod when possible, although I have shot with it hand-held quite a bit when chasing wildlife. Right after I opened the 400mm case and took the lens out, I mounted it on my D3s and tried a couple of shots hand-held. Ouch, it was painful. I don’t care if you work out every day or have a very strong body build, this lens will make your arms and your back feel the pain very quickly. In addition, your hands and your body will shake and with the focal length of 400mm you might end up with plenty of blurry pictures, if you do not watch your shutter speed. So, how would you handle this lens? Your best choice would be to use a very sturdy tripod + gimbal-type head with an arca-swiss quick-release system that can handle 15-30 pounds of weight. Gitzo’s 6X Systematic CF series with Wimberley WH-200 are ideal for this. Then you would need to replace the standard tripod foot on the 400mm with one from RRS or Kirk. Once you get the lens mounted and balanced on a gimbal head, turning it left/right or up/down is very easy and intuitive. The last thing you want to do is mount a $10K setup on a $100 tripod. While the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is well protected against occasional bumps, it might not survive a drop from a tripod, so keep this mind and invest in a good and stable tripod system. And if you want to really protect your lens against potential scratches, then I would recommend to get a LensCoat Lens Cover for it. I use LensCoat on my Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 VR and it certainly does a very good job at not only protecting the lens, but also in keeping my hands warm when shooting in colder temperatures. If you have a lighter camera body like Nikon D700, I suggest attaching a camera grip for better balance.

When it comes to manual focus operation, the focus ring is smooth and very easy to operate. When you move the focus ring and reach the focus limit, the ring continues rotation with no resistance in either direction. In addition to the normal AF and a number of other switches on the side of the lens, there is a separate VR ring to turn VR on and off. To be honest, I have never been a fan of these types of rings (reminds me of the ring on the Nikon 85mm f/1.4D), since they have a “plastic” feel to them and seem to easily break. I certainly prefer a switch for VR instead, like on the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G and Nikon 200-400mm f/4G lenses. When the Nikon 400mm was mounted on a tripod at my height, I could not easily see what position the VR ring was on. Gladly VR emits a sound when it activates, so if I did not hear it, I would know that it was off. Had there been a switch on the side, I could easily see it without any hassles. Another switch that I use and change on telephoto lenses is focus limiter. You can set it to “Full” or “∞-6m” marks, which stand for focusing from the closest focus distance of 2.9 meters to infinity (Full) and from 6 meters to infinity (∞-6m). By default, mine is always set to the latter, because it saves a lot of time when the lens hunts for focus in challenging situations. When set to “Full”, telephoto lenses take almost twice longer to go from closest focus to infinity, while the focus limit switch restricts ability to focus on objects closer than 6 meters, eliminating the extra rotations that slow down autofocus. If you photograph subjects closer than 6 meters, then you will need to set the switch back to “Full” to allow the lens to focus.

The HK-33 carbon fiber hood comes in two pieces that attach to each other and then onto the lens. To reduce flare and protect the front of the lens, I suggest leaving it on the lens at all times when shooting in the field. The nice $400 CT-404 trunk case the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR comes in is made of highly durable aluminum and it does a great job at protecting the lens during transport. While the case is very nice, I prefer something more lightweight and compact, like the CL-L2 Nylon Case that comes with the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.

4) Focus acquisition speed and accuracy

Like all long-range Nikon telephoto lenses, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is equipped with Internal Focus (IF), which drives the AF performance to its limits. The lens snaps into focus instantly and silently, thanks to the Silent Wave Motor. Focusing works very well, even in low-light environments. I used the lens on several Nikon DSLRs like Nikon D3s, Nikon D700 and Nikon D7000 and it focused extremely well on all three. With the Nikon TCs attached, the lens generally acquired focus well, except in low-light situations.

5) Lens sharpness and contrast

When it comes to sharpness and contrast, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8 sits together with the legendary Nikon 200mm f/2 and Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lenses, considered to be a sharpness “reference” lens. It took Nikon 25+ years to make it what it is today – a highly regarded work of art and engineering that delivers outstanding images to sports, action and wildlife photographers that need maximum sharpness for print. As shown in the subsequent pages of this review, both center and corner frames are razor sharp at all apertures, which is simply incredible. Contrast is top of the class and colors are stunningly beautiful, definitely Nikon’s best, thanks to the clever optical design of the lens.

Click here to download the full size version of the above image.

6) Bokeh and Vignetting / Light Falloff

One of the strengths of long telephoto lenses is the beautiful, creamy bokeh they are able to produce, due to the shallow depth of field, at even longer distances. The Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is a bokeh champion – it produces exceptionally good-looking background blur, especially wide open at maximum aperture of f/2.8. I primarily used the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR for birding and wildlife photography and I was stunned by the results. The bokeh looks creamy and beautiful and the lens does a superb job at isolating subjects at large apertures. Here is an example of subject isolation and bokeh for a bird shot at f/2.8:

When shooting on FX (full-frame), a moderate amount of vignetting is noticeable at maximum aperture, which gets significantly reduced by f/4.0-f/5.6 and completely gone by f/8.0:

Vignetting on DX is not as evident at large apertures and you can only see slightly darker corners at f/2.8; by f/4, all visible vignetting is gone.

Vignetting is not always bad – in fact, some amount of vignetting at f/2.8 actually looks good when shooting wildlife, drawing the attention of the viewer to the subject. If you want to get rid of vignetting completely, a lens correction profile is already available for all super telephoto lenses in Lightroom 3.5.

7) Ghosting and Flare

Notice how big the double hood on this lens is? Well, it is there for a reason – most long-range telephoto lenses do not perform well against the sun, when compared to wide angle lenses. So, if you shoot against the sun, you might get some large, nasty flares and plenty of ghosting, which is quite normal. The integrated “Nano Crystal Coat” certainly helps to reduce ghosting and flare, but does not eliminate it. Here is an image with the sun above the frame:

Note the reduced contrast of the image when shooting against the sun and sun rays making it into the lens. If you include the sun in the frame, you will surely see ghosts and flares, which is again normal for a telephoto lens of this class.

8) Distortion

Forget about distortion on the 400mm f/2.8 – it is practically non-existent. If you put up straight lines on the wall and shoot some samples wide open, you might see a very minimal amount of pincushion distortion when shooting at close distances, but as soon as the focus point gets towards infinity or the lens is stopped down a little, distortion is completely eliminated. Distortion is even less noticeable on cropped-sensor cameras. Distortion is generally not a problem, because it can be easily fixed in Photoshop or Lightroom 3 using Lens Correction.

9) Vibration Reduction

As I have already pointed out earlier, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR comes with the latest generation Vibration Reduction II system that Nikon claims allows shooting with up to 4 times slower shutter speeds while retaining sharpness. While Vibration Reduction is a very nice feature on any lens, especially super telephoto, you have to be careful about when to employ VR and how to use it in different situations. If not properly used, VR can actually hurt images and degrade image sharpness. This happens when photographers keep VR turned on all the time no matter what light conditions they are in and shoot away without letting VR stabilize. The purpose of VR technology is to fight against different types of motion like hand motion or platform motion. To counter these motions, the lens detects movements and their direction, then makes internal movements against that motion. Hence, if you see a subject and just press the shutter without half-pressing it and letting the lens stabilize first, you might end up with softer images. Furthermore, it is important to understand that VR was designed to work in situations where the shutter speed drops to the point where lens/camera shake causes blur. It was not designed to be used with ultra fast shutter speeds. If you were to shoot the 400mm f/2.8G VR lens hand-held at 1/1000 of a second without vibration reduction / image stabilization, you would rarely end up with blurry images, unless your subject or its parts move faster than 1/1000 of a second. So when should VR be used on such lenses as 400mm f/2.8? There are only few cases when using VR can help in getting sharper images:

1. When shooting hand-held or panning and shutter speed is slow enough to cause camera shake (VR: Normal).
2. When shooting through a car window and resting the lens on the window, with a slow shutter speed (VR: Normal).
3. When shooting on a monopod with a slow shutter speed (VR: Normal).
4. When shooting on a tripod with a very slow shutter speed (VR: Tripod).

If you use the lens on a stable tripod system as explained earlier, you should always have VR turned off, unless you are on a moving platform (such as a boat). If vibrations cause blur on a tripod and your shutter speed is very slow, then switching from “Normal” to “Tripod” mode might help. Read more about VR technology here. Check out this image of the full moon with VR turned on in “Tripod” mode:

Although the image was shot at a relatively fast shutter speed of 1/400 sec, the total focal length was 680mm (400mm x 1.7x TC), equivalent to 1020mm, because I mounted the lens on the Nikon D7000 with a DX / crop sensor that has a 1.5x crop factor. I initially shot with VR off, but then I was getting some camera shake when the mirror moved up before the shot, so I decided to try turning VR on in “Tripod” mode to see if it helps. As you can see from the above shot, it sure did! For subsequent shots, I disabled VR, then enabled exposure delay and used a remote to eliminate camera shake completely. The results were very comparable, so VR surely does work. Remember, when you shoot with long telephoto lenses, even the slightest camera shake can result in blurry images.

10) Performance with the Nikon TC-14E II teleconverter

As I have pointed out above, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR works great with all Nikon teleconverters. The Nikon TC-14E II teleconverter increases the focal length of the lens to 560mm total (400mm x 1.4) and slows down the lens to f/4.0. Aside from the decreased maximum aperture, you will barely notice that the TC-14E II is attached to your lens – it has a very small effect on image quality, sharpness or color. The results with the TC-14E II are fantastic and I would not hesitate to shoot the lens wide open at f/4.0. A detailed sharpness comparison with the TC-14E II can be found on the subsequent pages of this review. Here is a sample image taken with the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR with TC-14E II:

11) Performance with the Nikon TC-17E II Teleconverter

The Nikon TC-17E II works surprisingly well with the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR in terms of sharpness and contrast, increasing the focal length of the lens to 680mm (400mm x 1.7) and slowing it down to f/4.8. In low-light situations, AF performance takes a hit, but it is not bad and certainly usable. The wide open performance at f/4.8 is a tad soft, so I would stop down to f/5.6 for the best results. Take a look at the following sample image shot with the Nikon TC-17E II:

If you are interested in seeing a detailed sharpness test, see the subsequent pages of this review.

12) Performance with the Nikon TC-20E III Teleconverter

As I have already shown in my Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II Review and TC-20E III Review, the new TC-20E III delivers very good results with fast-aperture telephoto lenses, including the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II. I performed a number of outdoor and indoor tests of the TC-20E III mounted on the Nikon 400mm f/2.8 and I can say that for situations where you need the reach, the TC-20E III delivers good results, as long as you have enough light and stop down a little. In low-light and heavy backlight situations AF can start to hunt, so some manual AF prefocus might be needed. For fast-moving subjects, AF is a hit and miss, just like when used with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II. The TC-20E III doubles the focal length of the 400mm lens to 800mm (400mm x 2) and slows it down by two full stops to f/5.6. Wide open the sharpness and contrast are soft, but stopping down to f/8 brings back the sharpness and contrast to very good levels. Overall, the TC-20E III is very usable on the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR, just like when used with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II.

Again, if you want to see some detailed sharpness tests, check out the subsequent pages of this review.

Let’s now move on to the good stuff – Sharpness tests and Comparisons. Select the next page below.

Some technical junk:

1. White Balance: Auto; set to 3300, Temp +17 in Lightroom
2. ISO: 200
3. EXIF information is preserved in the images
4. Lens was mounted on Nikon D3s FX / Nikon D7000 DX Cameras and Gitzo tripod
5. Subject distance is about 6 meters
6. Focusing was performed through Live-View Contrast Detect + Manual Focus.
7. Mirror Lock-Up mode with Exposure Delay set to “On” and remote cable release to completely eliminate camera shake
8. Long exposure NR: Off
9. Image Format: RAW
10. Lightroom settings: Default settings, but exposure had to be slightly adjusted for some images
11. Lightroom export: sRGB JPEG Quality 80
12. Testing was performed at f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6 and f/8.0 apertures
13. Nothing was moved during testing

13) Sharpness Test – Nikon 400mm Center Frame

Either hover your mouse or click on each image to see the aperture settings. Top left: f/2.8, Top right: f/4.0, Bottom left: f/5.6, Bottom right: f/8.0.

Do you see a difference between any of the above images? Because I don’t – the center sharpness of the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR looks very good at all apertures.

14) Sharpness Test – Nikon 400mm Corner Frame

How about the extreme corners? Let’s take a look:

Aside from some visible vignetting at large apertures, the corners look as good as the center frame, which is simply incredible! No wonder why images from this lens look so crisp and sharp.

15) Sharpness Test – Nikon 400mm + TC-14E II Center Frame

Let’s take a look at how the lens performs with a TC-14E II. I chose the area a little right off the center to show more details:

At maximum aperture of f/4 there is a very slight amount of softness, which gets significantly better by f/5.6. Optimal sharpness is achieved between f/5.6 and f/8.

16) Sharpness Test – Nikon 400mm + TC-14E II Corner Frame

And here are the corners:

Again, corners are slightly softer wide open and look the same from f/5.6 onwards.

17) Sharpness Test – Nikon 400mm + TC-17E II Center Frame

Here is the center frame crop with the TC-17E II attached:

Similar to TC-14E II, the TC-17E II has a slightly softer wide open performance that gets better by f/5.6 and much better by f/8.0. Optimal sharpness is achieved between f/8 and f/11.

18) Sharpness Test – Nikon 400mm + TC-17E II Corner Frame

And corners with the TC-17E II:

Again, the same story – the wide open performance is slightly softer.

19) Sharpness Test – Nikon 400mm + TC-20E III Center Frame

And finally, performance with the TC-20E III in the center frame:

The wide open performance is relatively good, but slightly soft. Stopping down the lens to f/8 significantly improves contrast and sharpness details. Optimal sharpness is achieved at f/11.

20) Sharpness Test – Nikon 400mm + TC-20E III Corner Frame

Corners with the TC-20E III:

Corners start visibly soft wide open, get better by f/5.6 and achieve maximum sharpness at f/11.

Now that you have seen how the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR performs with and without teleconverters, let’s see how it compares against other telephoto lenses.

Compared to Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

Here, I am comparing the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II + TC-20E III @ 400mm. I know that it is unfair to do such a comparison, because the 70-200mm can only get to 400mm with a 2x TC-20E III teleconverter that negatively impacts its image quality. This comparison is only here as a reference, for those who wonder about sharpness differences. Please note that the image from the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II looks smaller, because of the “focus breathing” issue, as explained in my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II Review.

21) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR vs Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II + TC-20E III

Lets see how both compare wide open (Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, Right: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 + TC-20E III @ f/5.6):

Nikon 70-200mm @ f/5.6 cannot even come close to 400mm @ f/2.8, as can be clearly seen above. Stopping down the lens to f/8.0 gives slightly better results, but still much worse than that of the 400mm, as expected.

22) Comparison Summary

While the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II works reasonably well with the TC-20E III teleconverter, its sharpness performance on the long end is weak when compared to the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR, even when stopped down to f/8 and f/11. This is because the TC-20E III degrades sharpness and contrast on the 70-200mm, while the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is razor sharp at all apertures. Corner performance looks even worse in comparison, so I decided not to include it here.

Let’s take a look at lenses that are more comparable – Nikon 300mm f/4 and f/2.8 lenses.

Compared to Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S

What about my favorite Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S lens? How does it compare to the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR with and without teleconverters? Because of the field of view differences, here are the focal lengths and TC combinations that I will be comparing:

1. Nikon 400mm f/2.8 vs Nikon 300mm f/4D + TC-14E II @ 420mm – 20mm difference
2. Nikon 400mm f/2.8 + TC-14 E II @ 560mm vs Nikon 300mm f/4D + TC-20E III @ 600mm – 40mm difference

23) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR vs Nikon 300mm f/4 + TC-14E II

Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR @ f/2.8 400mm, Right: Nikon 300mm f/4D + TC-14E II @ f/5.6 420mm:

The Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S is a very sharp lens, even with a TC-14E II teleconverter, as can be seen from the above image crops. However, it cannot match the wide open performance of the 400mm f/2.8G lens. If both lenses are stopped down to the same aperture, the difference in sharpness is even more noticeable.

24) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-14E II vs Nikon 300mm f/4D + TC-20E III

Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-14E II @ f/4.0 560mm, Right: Nikon 300mm f/4D + TC-20E III @ f/8.0 600mm:

Even if the 300mm crop is magnified more due to focal length difference, the Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S still cannot resolve as much detail as the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR does with a TC-14E II teleconverter. It only gets comparable when stopped down to f/11, which is 3 stops slower:

Corner performance provides very similar results.

25) Comparison Summary

It is difficult to compare the Nikon 300mm f/4 lens against the Nikon 400mm f/2.8 due to focal length differences. The first test shows that the Nikon 300mm f/4 with a TC-14E II at f/5.6 performs worse than the 400mm wide open, that’s with 2 full stops of difference. The second test shows that the Nikon 300mm f/4 with a TC-20E III can only yield comparable results when stopped down to f/11. Now that’s in a lab environment. In real shooting conditions, even in bright light, the Nikon 300mm f/4 does not autofocus with the TC-20E III and becomes a very slow f/8 manual focus lens. So the second test is not really relevant, unless you will be shooting in manual focus only. This leaves only one scenario for the 300mm f/4 – for use with the TC-14E II. I did not bother providing test results with the TC-17E II, because I find it unusable on the Nikon 300mm f/4D, just like the TC-20E II or III.

Compared to Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II

Let’s see how the 400mm compares with the excellent Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II. How does it compare to the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR with and without teleconverters? Because of the field of view differences, here are the focal lengths and TC combinations that I will be comparing:

1. Nikon 400mm f/2.8 vs Nikon 300mm f/2.8 + TC-14E II @ 420mm – 20mm difference
2. Nikon 400mm f/2.8 + TC-14 E II @ 560mm vs Nikon 300mm f/2.8 + TC-20E III @ 600mm – 40mm difference

26) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR vs Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II + TC-14E II

Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR @ f/2.8 400mm, Right: Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II + TC-14E II @ f/4.0 420mm:

Similar to the 300mm f/4, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II is less sharp with the TC-14E than 400mm f/2.8G VR wide open. Let’s see what happens when the 300mm f/2.8G VR II is stopped down to f/5.6:

Both are comparable, but the Nikon 400mm f/2.8 seems to be slightly sharper. And let’s stop it down more to f/8:

The situation does not change when the 300mm f/2.8G VR II is stopped down to f/8. This clearly shows that even the excellent TC-14E II still degrades image sharpness a little.

27) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-14E II vs Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II + TC-20E III

Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8 + TC-14 E II @ f/4.0 560mm, Right: Nikon 300mm f/2.8 + TC-20E III @ f/5.6 600mm:

As expected, the sharpness difference here is quite obvious – TC-20E III negatively impacts the sharpness, especially at the largest aperture of f/5.6. Let’s see what happens when we stop down to f/8.0:

With a 2 stop difference, now both are more or less comparable. What if we stop down the 300mm all the way to f/11?

When stopped down to f/11, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II + TC-20E III looks sharper than Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-14E II wide open – a difference of 3 full stops. If the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-14E II is stopped down to f/5.6, then both look about the same again.

28) Comparison Summary

When compared to the Nikon 300mm f/4D, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II is a different beast that works well with all three teleconverters. The good news is that autofocus on the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II works with the TC-20E III attached, so the second test is still valid when shooting outdoors. The only caveat to the TC-20E III, is that it requires good light to get accurate focus. In medium and low-light situations, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR with the TC-14E teleconverter will provide better AF accuracy results than the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II with the TC-20E III, so keep this in mind. If you do not mind stopping down by 2-3 stops with slower and less reliable AF, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II is a great alternative that can get you to 600mm.

Compared to Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR

While the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR has been my wildlife lens for the past 5 years, I wanted to see how it compares against the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR in detail, with and without teleconverters. The Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 VR has recently been updated to version II, with no optical changes to the lens design.

The Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR is the only lens here that can be fairly compared to the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR, due to its 400mm focal length on the long end. While doing my tests at roughly 6 meters, I discovered that the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G is actually a bit shorter in focal length (could be another lens breathing issue), which is roughly equal to 380mm on the Nikon 200-400mm. For comparison purposes, I had to change the focal length of the 200-400mm to roughly 380-385mm to have the same field of view.

29) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR

Compared to the Nikon 400mm f/2.8, The Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 is a versatile lens, offering the ability to zoom from 200mm to 400mm, which is very useful for sports and wildlife photographers. Being able to zoom in and out is useful for large mammals and I know that many photographers that do safari trips to Africa and travel to Alaska to photograph bears love the 200-400 for this particular feature. But what about sharpness, and how does the 400mm compare to the 200-400mm? Let’s see how both lenses compare at 400mm wide open (Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, Right: Nikon 200-400mm f/4 @ f/4):

Both look about the same to me. Let’s see what happens when both lenses are at f/4:

Again, not much difference between the two, with the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR having a slight edge over the 200-400mm. Here is f/5.6:

And f/8.0:

Stopping down these lenses does not seem to help improve the lens performance.

30) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-14E II vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR + TC-14E II

Now let’s see what happens when both lenses have the TC-14E II teleconverter attached. First, let’s see what happens with both wide open (Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-14E II @ f/4.0 560mm Right: Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR + TC-14E II @ f/5.6 560mm):

The Nikon 400mm f/2.8G + TC-14E II appears sharper than Nikon 200-400mm f/4G + TC-14E II. What if we stop down the 400mm by a full stop to make lens apertures match on both?

The Nikon 400mm f/2.8G gets ever crispier! Now both stopped down to f/8.0:

The Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR + TC-14E II clearly lags behind the 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-14E II.

31) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-17E II vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR + TC-17E II

Now that we know the 200-400mm f/4 with a 1.4x TC performs worse than the 400mm f/2.8 with a 1.4x TC, let’s see how these guys will do with a 1.7x TC-17E II teleconverter. Here are both lenses at maximum aperture (Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-17E II @ f/4.8 680mm, Right: Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR + TC-17E II @ f/6.7 680mm:

At their largest apertures, both look about the same to me. Let’s see what happens when lenses are stopped down to f/8:

The Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-17E II looks slightly sharper than the 200-400mm f/4G VR + TC-17E II. The Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR only catches up at f/11 (Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8 + TC-17E II @ f/8, Right: Nikon 200-400mm f/4 + TC-17E II @ f/11):

See my notes in the summary below about using TC-17E II on the 200-400mm f/4.

32) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-20E III vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR + TC-20E III

The last test is to see how both lenses optically compare when the new TC-20E III is attached to them. Here are both lenses at their largest apertures (Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-20E III @ f/5.6 800mm, Right: Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR + TC-20E III @ f/8.0 800mm):

I would say both look pretty close at their largest apertures. Now let’s see how the lenses perform when stopped down to f/11, which is a sweet spot when using the TC-20E III:

The Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is slightly sharper and has a little more contrast than the 200-400mm f/4G VR.

33) Comparison Summary

As can be seen from the above crops, the Nikon 200-400mm f/4G is a very sharp lens at 400mm, which closely rivals the 400mm f/2.8G in the center. The same cannot be said about its corner performance, where it slightly lags behind the 400mm f/2.8G, but it is still not bad for an f/4 lens. With the TC-14E II teleconverter, the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 shows weaker performance than the 400mm f/2.8, but it is not a huge difference. One thing the above lab tests do not show, is the AF performance and reliability when coupled with teleconverters. While the AF performance of the TC-14E II is very good with both lenses, the 400mm f/2.8G seems to be slightly more accurate than the 200-400mm f/4. When shooting with the 200-400mm f/4, I first start out without the TC-14E and only add it when I need the reach. With the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G on the other hand, I just did not want to take the TC-14E II off; it worked so well that I did not even notice it on my lens.

The story with the TC-17E II is very different though. Although sharpness comparisons seem to be suggest that the Nikon 200-400mm is as sharp as the 400mm, the field use suggests otherwise. This is because the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 just does not work couple well with the TC-17E II and its AF is all over the place. If you can get the 200-400mm to focus you might get good results, but it is not easy, especially with moving subjects. Using live view to focus the 200-400mm f/4 + TC-17E II is simply not practical on the field. Even in bright conditions, the TC-17E II struggles with acquiring good focus. Nikon states in its documentation that lenses coupled with TCs with smaller aperture than f/5.6 do not autofocus. They do, but not reliably and the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 is a clear example of that.

As for the TC-20E III, forget about using it on the Nikon 200-400mm f/4. At maximum aperture of f/8, AF is pretty much dead. Expect the lens to hunt even when using contrast detect in live view. The Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR, on the other hand, works as well as the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II does with the TC-20E III. Autofocus is a little tricky, but works fairly well in bright conditions. In low-light situations, the lens might start to miss focus and hunt, so you might need to assist with pre-focusing the lens before pressing the AF-ON button. Keeping the focus limiter switch at 6m also helps, because you won’t have to wait as long when you miss focus. The sweet spot for the TC-20E III is f/11, which is fairly slow, so you might need to increase your camera ISO to keep up with the shutter speed. Talking about the shutter speed, 800mm is a very long focal length. Even slight vibrations can cause camera shake and image blur, so you have to make sure that you have the lens mounted on a very stable tripod system. Turning VR on in “Tripod” mode might also help with vibrations, so try it and see how it works out for you. In addition, at 800mm you have to be careful about heatwaves that might impact the sharpness of your images.

One important fact that I have not mentioned here is the flexibility of the 200-400mm versus 400mm prime. Some photographers argue that the 200-400mm is a very practical and flexible lens compared to primes, because you can zoom from 200 to 400mm and you can make it a 280 to 560mm zoom with the TC-14E II teleconverter, something you cannot do with primes. This is obviously a valid concern for those who shoot wildlife at close distances, like bears in Alaska. But then for most wildlife out there, you need as much reach as you can get. Going back and looking at all the pictures I have taken with the 200-400mm during the last 5 years, I would say that only 3-5% of the images were taken at focal lengths shorter than 400mm. When it comes to photographing wildlife, focal length just never seems to be enough. So the 400mm f/2.8G gives you much more reach when you need it, all the way to 800mm, while the 200-400mm is pretty much capped at 560mm with the 1.4x TC.

Compared to Nikon 500mm f/4G VR

The last test is to see how the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR fares against the Nikon 500mm f/4G VR. Again, there are no truly comparable focal lengths here, so here is what I am comparing:

1. Nikon 400mm f/2.8 + TC-14E II @ 560mm vs Nikon 500mm f/4 @ 500mm – 60mm difference
2. Nikon 400mm f/2.8 + TC-17E II @ 680mm vs Nikon 500mm f/4 + TC-14E II @ 700mm – 20mm difference
3. Nikon 400mm f/2.8 + TC-20E III @ 800mm vs Nikon 500mm f/4 + TC-17E II @ 850mm – 50mm difference

34) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-14E II vs Nikon 500mm f/4G VR

This is an interesting comparison. With the TC-14E II, the Nikon 400mm is also an f/4 lens, but with 60mm more reach. Here are some crops off the center on both lenses at f/4 (Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8 + TC-14E, Right: Nikon 500mm f/4):

The Nikon 500mm f/4G VR is a very sharp lens, as can be clearly seen from the image crop above. At f/4, it has more contrast and sharpness than the 400mm f/2.8G with a 1.4x TC. Let’s see if anything changes at f/5.6:

Things start evening out at f/5.6, but the Nikon 500mm f/4 is still sharper. Here is f/8:

Nothing changes at f/8. These lenses are both very sharp starting from f/5.6, so the 500mm f/4 only has an advantage when shot wide open, plus there is a difference of 50mm in focal length.

35) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-17E II vs Nikon 500mm f/4G VR + TC-14E II

Although there is only a 20mm of difference in focal length in this test (680mm vs 700mm), the actual difference is more like 40-50mm. This is very similar to the issue I had when testing the 400mm against the 200-400mm – the 400mm was actually shorter, more like 380mm. It is probably related to the fact that my test target was fairly close (6m) and the lens probably has a focus breathing issue at close distances. That’s why there is a bigger field of view difference here. Let’s take a look at both lenses wide open:

The Nikon 500mm f/4 + TC-14E is sharper than the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G + TC-17E at the maximum aperture of f/5.6 and f/4.8. Let’s see what happens with both lenses at f/5.6 (400mm f/2.8 stopped down to f/5.6):

The Nikon 400mm f/2.8 quickly catches up with sharpness. Here is f/8 performance:

Both lenses look about the same at f/8 and the same is true for f/11.

36) Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR + TC-20E III vs Nikon 500mm f/4G VR + TC-17E II

The last test is to see how the Nikon 400mm f/2.8 with the TC-20E III fares against the Nikon 500mm f/4 with the TC-17E II. Now before I show you the results, I would like to point out that the Nikon 500mm f/4 does not couple well with the TC-17E II, similar to the 200-400mm f/4. It is not as bad as the 200-400mm, but AF is still very unreliable. If you can get the 500mm to focus accurately, then the sharpness results are impressive. Let’s take a look at the crops at maximum aperture (Left: Nikon 400mm f/2.8 + TC-20E III @ 800mm, Right: Nikon 500mm f/4 + TC-17E II @ 850mm):

As expected, the wide open performance of the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR with the TC-20E III is rather weak when compared to the Nikon 500mm f/4 with the TC-17E II. The 500mm is sharper and has better contrast. Both stopped down to f/8:

Now the Nikon 400mm f/2.8 catches up and both have about the same sharpness and clarity. Finally f/11:

Again, both lenses look pretty good at f/11, with the 500mm f/4 having a little more contrast.

37) Comparison Summary

Without a doubt, the Nikon 500mm f/4 VR is a very sharp lens. Its performance without teleconverters is top notch and it works very well with the TC-14E II, as I have shown in the above tests. At focal lengths below 700mm, the Nikon 500mm f/4 is a little better wide open, but the difference diminishes very quickly when both lenses are compared at same apertures, with the 400mm stopped down a little. Beyond 700mm, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is the winner for one main reason – the Nikon 500mm f/4G VR does not work well with either the TC-17E II or the TC-20E III, while the 400mm f/2.8G does. I tried to use the TC-17E II with the 500mm f/4G VR on a bright day photographing birds and came home with soft images, mostly due to bad focus. I am not even going to mention the TC-20E III performance with the Nikon 500mm f/4, because it simply does not work. Forget about autofocus at f/8.

So if you need the reach with working autofocus, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is the answer. However, there is one big dilemma when comparing these lenses – the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G is bigger and heavier than the Nikon 500mm f/4 – it weighs 740 grams more, which is around 1 pound and 10 ounces, close to how much the Nikon D7000 weighs. If you are trying to decide which one to get, you need to factor in the weight difference. The good thing about the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR with TC combinations, is that it gives you a choice to go shorter at 400mm, or longer (560mm, 680mm or 800mm) when you need to get closer to the action. The Nikon 500mm f/4, on the other hand, only gives you two options – 500mm and 700mm.

Summary and Image Samples

38) Summary

Without a doubt, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is a superb piece of engineering art. While it does have its own inconveniences like heavy weight and bulky construction, it sits in the same class of top Nikon lenses like the Nikon 200mm f/2G VR II and the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II, with an exceptional optical design that yields sharp images, beautiful bokeh and colors. Its performance from large to small apertures is outstanding – the lens is designed to be used at largest apertures between f/2.8 and f/5.6. As I have shown in my sharpness tests and explained in comparison pages, it works very well with the Nikon TC-14E II and TC-17E II teleconverters, providing great results even at largest apertures. Its low light AF capabilities are certainly affected with teleconverters, especially with the TC-17E II and TC-20E III, but once you get used to working with teleconverters, you will know how to use them to get the best results. The Nikon TC-20E III negatively impacts both sharpness and contrast at large apertures, but stopping down between f/8 and f/11 yields surprisingly good images. I would say that the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR behaves very similarly as the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II with teleconverters.

Now for those who are trying to decide which one of the super telephoto lenses to buy, there are too many choices: Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR II, Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR, Nikon 500mm f/4G VR and Nikon 600mm f/4G VR. When talking about the reach, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II and Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR II are out of the mix, because they are shorter in comparison (600mm and 560mm max with usable AF). So the choice is then between the Nikon 400mm, 500mm and 600mm lenses. Which one should you get? As I have shown in this review, the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR is a better choice than the Nikon 500mm f/4G VR, because it gives you more options and better reach (800mm with usable AF). What about the heaviest and the bulkiest of the bunch, the Nikon 600mm f/4G VR? Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to test the Nikon 600mm f/4G VR, because I was not able to obtain it on time for my review. One thing I know for sure though – the Nikon 600mm f/4 is as sharp as the Nikon 500mm f/4 and has very similar performance characteristics. This means that its performance with the Nikon TC-14E II is very good and you can get excellent sharpness with perfectly working AF at 840mm. None of the other Nikon super telephotos can do that. Hence, if you need to get close to your subjects, the Nikon 600mm f/4 is the obvious choice. However, the weight, bulk and price are again the issue here – the Nikon 600mm f/4 weighs 5 kilos! At the end of the day, no matter which one of these lenses you get, you will have to invest in a good and stable tripod system. Out of the three heavy super telephotos, the Nikon 500mm f/4 is the only lens that I could hand-hold when photographing little birds. My arm hurt like hell later, but if you have enough muscle and a strong back, you could do it for a short period of time. If you find yourself chasing after little birds on your feet, you might want to look into the 500mm instead. If you cannot do that, then the 600mm and 400mm are the top choices (in that order).

Overall, I am very impressed with the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR, most notably with its performance with the Nikon 1.4x, 1.7x and 2.0x teleconverters. During the time of testing, I shot primarily with teleconverters and I really liked the fact that the lens focused fast and accurately on my subjects.

39) Where to buy and availability

You can order your copy of the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR lens at B&H – they occasionally have it in stock. The lens is currently selling for $8,999.

40) More image samples

All Images Copyright © Nasim Mansurov, All Rights Reserved. Copying or reproduction is not permitted without written permission from the author.

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR

The Nikon 55-300mm VR lens is a major update to the existing Nikon 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6G ED VR lens that was released in 2007. Just like the 55-200mm VR, it is designed to be used with the Nikon 18-55mm DX VR kit lens to provide expanded focal range for telephoto shots. Nikon 55-300mm is currently the cheapest way to get to true 300mm focal length in Nikon’s current line of lenses, with a little more shorter range to work with than the Nikon 70-300mm VR lens. It is an ideal lens to be used for family events and vacations to capture distant subjects, and the use of Vibration Reduction (VR) technology makes it easier to get sharp photographs at slower shutter speeds, especially when shooting at 300mm. Similar to the Nikon 28-300mm VR lens, the Nikon 55-300mm VR comes with two Extra-low Dispersion (ED) Elements, which due to less air bubbles and glass deformities within the glass elements help minimize chromatic aberration and deliver sharper images at large apertures. The Nikon 55-300mm VR lens is only designed to work on Nikon DX (cropped) sensors and has an equivalent field of view of approximately 82.5mm-450mm (in 35mm equivalent), which makes the lens particularly good for reaching distant subjects. Autofocus is practically silent, thanks to the Silent Wave Motor (AF-S) within the lens.

In this review, I will do my best to provide a thorough analysis of this lens, along with some image samples and comparisons against other Nikon professional telephoto lenses.

1) Lens Specifications

Main Features:

1. Compact DX-format zoom lens with High Refractive Index lens element, ED glass and VR II image stabilization allows expanded photo and video opportunities that are designed to bring the action closer to the photographer.
2. Nikon VR II Image Stabilization/Vibration Reduction, engineered specifically for each VR NIKKOR lens, enables handheld shooting at up to 4 shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible, assuring dramatically sharper still images and video capture.
3. HRI (High Refractive Index) Lens Element is essential to keeping the lens compact while offering high contrast even at maximum aperture.
4. Exclusive Nikon Silent Wave Motor (SWM) enables fast, accurate and quiet autofocus.
5. The minimum focus distance is at 4.6 feet at all focal lengths.
6. 5.5X Telephoto Zoom lens is ideal for capturing distant subjects at athletic events, family pictures, dramatic sunsets, travel and more. Angle of view is equivalent to a focal length of 82.5 to 450mm in FX/35mm format D-SLR.
7. Tripod Detection Mode reduces vibration that may occur due to shutter release when mounted on a tripod.
8. 2 Extra-low Dispersion (ED) Elements effectively minimize chromatic aberration, even at the widest aperture settings.
9. Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC) enhances light transmission efficiency and offers superior color consistency and reduces flare.
10. Rounded 9-Blade Diaphragm renders more natural appearance of out-of-focus image areas.

Technical Specifications:

1. Mount Type: Nikon F-Bayonet
2. Focal Length Range: 55-300mm
3. Zoom Ratio: 5.5x
4. Maximum Aperture: f/4.5
5. Minimum Aperture: f/22
6. Format: DX
7. Maximum Angle of View (DX-format): 28°50′
8. Minimum Angle of View (DX-format): 5°20′
9. Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 0.28x
10. Lens Elements: 17
11. Lens Groups: 11
12. High Refractive Index Elements: 1
13. Compatible Format(s): DX, FX in DX Crop Mode
14. VR (Vibration Reduction/Image Stabilization): Yes
15. Diaphragm Blades: 9
16. Distance Information: Yes
17. ED Glass Elements: 2
18. Super Integrated Coating: Yes
19. Autofocus: Yes
20. AF-S (Silent Wave Motor): Yes
21. Minimum Focus Distance: 4.6 ft. (1.4m) throughout entire zoom range
22. Focus Mode: Auto/Manual
23. Filter Size: 58mm
24. Accepts Filter Type: Screw-on
25. Dimensions (Approx.): 3.0×4.8 in. (Diameter x Length) 76.5x123mm (Diameter x Length)
26. Weight (Approx.): 18.7 oz. (580g)
27. Supplied Accessories: HB-57 Snap-on Type Lens Hood, LC-58 Snap-on Front Lens Cap, LF-4 Rear Lens Cap, CL-1020 Soft Lens Case

2) Lens handling and features

The Nikon 55-300mm VR is a plastic lens with a metal mount, which is easy to carry and handle due to its low weight. Although the lens has a total of 17 optical elements in 11 groups, it weighs only 580 grams. In comparison, the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens weighs 800 grams, while the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR lens weights 745 grams. Nikon was able to do this by using a high refractive index (HR) lens element (which allows using a single lens element instead of multiple elements made of standard glass), without compromising sharpness and image quality. The zoom ring is gigantic, occupying almost half of the lens barrel, which makes it easy to zoom in and out with your left hand, while holding the camera with your right hand. Compared to such lenses as 70-300mm VR, the 55-300mm does not have a manual focus override, which means that you have to first switch to “M” mode on the lens in order to be able to rotate the front of the lens barrel, where the focus ring is located. This is certainly a drawback, especially if you need to quickly switch from Autofocus to Manual focus (most current Nikon lenses have an “A/M” mode on the lens, which allows to override autofocus by simply rotating the focus ring). The focus ring is tiny compared to the zoom ring and is located in front of the lens, which is a smart move by Nikon – after-all, this lens is created for automatic focusing and the focus ring does not get nearly as much use as the zoom ring.

I really like the versatility of this lens – being able to shoot at 55mm all the way to 300mm is very nice, especially for wildlife photography. Unlike the new Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR or the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II, this lens is not plagued with a “lens breathing” issue and 300mm on the long side is truly like 300mm, not shorter. Another important thing to note, is that the lens does extend pretty far when zoomed all the way in to 300mm. This is quite normal for this type of a lens and most other consumer zoom lenses also extend out when zoomed in. Zooming in/out was a little jerky and not very smooth on my lens sample, but it probably does get better overtime. The lens does not creep at all and I don’t think it will, even with heavy use in the future. The HB-57 lens hood is specifically engineered for this lens and it snaps on easily – I would leave it mounted on the lens to keep the front element protected against damage and flare/ghosting.

Since it is a variable aperture lens, the focal length on it changes as you zoom in from f/4.5 to f/5.6 on the long end:

1. 55mm – f/4.5
2. 105mm – f/4.8
3. 135mm – f/4.8
4. 200mm – f/5.0
5. 300mm – f/5.6

3) Focus acquisition speed and accuracy

The lens focuses well when there is sufficient light and when shooting at shorter focal lengths below 200mm. As you get closer to 300mm and f/5.6, the AF accuracy starts to suffer a little, similar to what the 28-300mm does, but it is not bad. I had a few cases when the lens would not focus at all at 300mm, which I was able to address by pointing the lens to a different spot, then half-pressing the shutter or pressing the AF-ON button again. The AF performance is slow – it certainly felt slower than on the Nikon 70-300mm VR lens. Subject tracking worked OK for the most part, occasionally producing out-of-focus images. Once I got used to how the lens autofocuses and learned how to operate it under various conditions, it certainly got easier to work with. Take a look at the following hawk shot that I captured at 300mm (100% crop):

Hawk,

The hawk was just cruising above me, so I did not have to track focus – the lens just acquired focus at once and I took a couple of images. I cropped the image in Lightroom and added some sharpness.

When focusing in low-light, you might notice the lens hunting, which is certainly annoying. Obviously, the 55-300 is not a good candidate for any kind of indoor/low-light photography, unless flashes are used.

4) Lens sharpness and contrast

When it comes to lens sharpness, the 55-300 performs very well between 55 to 135mm and starts losing just a touch of sharpness towards 300mm across the frame. The center is pretty sharp throughout the focal range, with the corners being slightly soft when shooting wide open. As you stop down the lens, both the center and the corners improve considerably, with f/8 being the sweet spot at short focal lengths and f/11 at the long focal lengths above 200mm. Check out the following image to see how sharp the lens can be:

Click here to download the full-size version of the file (7.7 MB).

As you can see, the lens is capable of producing great results when shot at f/8.0.

5) Vibration Reduction – VR II

The new Vibration Reduction (VR) system in this lens is superb and works great! I shot the 55-300mm hand-held most of the time and used a tripod only for lab and outdoor testing. Thanks to vibration reduction, I was able to shoot at slow shutter speeds and still get sharp images of non-moving subjects. VR can be turned on/off through a switch on the side of the lens. Compared to the 70-300mm VR lens, it has no VR modes like “Normal” and “Active”, which I personally do not miss, since I rarely change VR from Normal to Active. When shooting from a tripod, do not forget to turn VR off.

6) Bokeh

The quality of bokeh this lens produces is pretty good. It is not as good as what the Nikon 70-300mm VR and other exotic lenses such as the Nikon 85mm f/1.4G can do, but still quite pleasing for a lens like this. Here is a bokeh comparison between the Nikon 55-300 and 28-300:

Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 28-300mm Bokeh

Although the bokeh looks a little “edgy”, it is not as bad as the bokeh on the 28-300mm. The Nikon 28-300mm bokeh looks very dirty in comparison.
Here is another image sample showing soft and pleasing background rendering:

7) Vignetting

Vignetting is typically not a problem on telephoto lenses, however, the Nikon 55-300mm does have a significant amount of vignetting present past 135mm when shooting at the largest aperture. Stopping down the lens to f/8.0 completely gets rid of vignetting though, which is great. Here is an example of vignetting at f/5.0 @ 200mm (left) and at f/8.0 @ 200mm (right):

As you can see, the vignetting is clearly gone by f/8.0. The same thing happens when shooting at the longest focal length of 300mm.

8) Ghosting and Flare

Telephoto lenses are typically not designed to shoot against bright sources of light. While the Nikon 55-300mm seems to be able to handle ghosting and flare fairly well, I would be careful with putting the Sun into the frame – you might get some nasty ghosting and flare depending on the angle, position, etc. The images might appear “cloudy” if the sun reaches the front element of the lens, so I would just keep the supplied hood on at all times. Not only will the hood protect the lens, but it will also do what it is supposed to – which is block sun rays from reaching the front element. When shooting against other light sources in dim environments, I did not notice any considerable amount of ghosting/flare. If you are seeing too much flare and you are using a filter (clear, UV, etc.), try removing the filter to see if the effect goes away. If it does, then you have a low quality filter.

9) Chromatic Aberration

The Nikon 55-300mm VR has a very controlled amount of chromatic aberration (CA), due to the excellent ED glass elements used in this lens. I did not notice much CA at the short focal lengths (just a tad in the corners), but did get some at the long end between 200mm and 300mm across the frame. But this slight amount of CA is very easy to fix in Lightroom and Photoshop, so it is not even worth mentioning it- certainly very good for a consumer lens of this class. Stopping down the lens to f/8.0 almost completely eliminates visible aberration.

10) Distortion

Distortion is controlled well at the short focal lengths, with a very slight amount of barrel distortion at 55mm. As you get to 70mm, distortion completely disappears, reappearing as pincushion distortion at 105mm all the way to 300mm. Pincushion is moderate at the long ranges – here is an extreme example at 105mm with noticeable distortion:

Nikon 55-300mm Distortion

If distortion is an issue for you, you can easily fix it via Filter->Distort->Lens Correction filter in Adobe Photoshop or use the new “Lens Corrections” screen inside Lightroom’s Develop Module.

Some technical junk:

1. White Balance: Auto, changed to “Custom”: 3500 Temp, +19 Tint in Lightroom
2. ISO: 200
3. EXIF information is preserved in the images
4. Lens was mounted on Nikon D300 DX Camera and Gitzo tripod
5. Focusing was performed through Live-View Contrast Detect. After each successful focus acquisition, focus was switched to manual to prevent camera refocusing
6. Mirror Lock-Up mode with Exposure Delay set to “On” and remote cable release to completely eliminate camera shake
7. Long exposure NR: Off
8. Image Format: RAW
9. Lightroom settings: Default settings, but exposure had to be slightly adjusted (-.20 to +.033) to make sure that all images have the same brightness
10. Lightroom export: sRGB JPEG Quality 80
11. Testing was performed at f/4.5, f/5.6, f/8.0 and f/11.0 apertures
12. Nothing was moved during testing

11) Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 55mm Center Frame

Let’s take a look at the center at 55mm:

As you can see, the lens performs very well at all apertures when shooting at 55mm. The image wide open @ f/4.5 is just a tad softer than others, but almost unnoticeable, which is very good.

12) Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 55mm Corner Frame

What about the corners at 55mm? Let’s see how they compare at various apertures:

As expected, the extreme corners at the largest apertures do show some softness at 55mm. Stopping down the lens to f/8.0 does improve the situation considerably though.

13) Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 70mm Center Frame

Here is how the center looks at 70mm:

Again, the center of the frame is sharp from f/5.6 to f/11.0 with a very slightly softer image at f/4.5.

The corners at 70mm look very similar to the 55mm crops posted above, with softer corners wide open getting pretty good by f/8.0.

14) Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 105mm Center Frame

Let’s see what happens at 105mm:

Again, the sharpness is pretty good overall, but we are already seeing some loss of sharpness at the largest aperture and f/5.6. Stopping down the lens to f/8.0 and f/11.0 produces the best results.

15) Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 105mm Corner Frame

And the corners at 105mm:

I’m surprised to see how well the lens does at 105mm – all corners look pretty sharp with no difference between the crops.

16) Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 200mm Center Frame

Longer range at 200mm in the center:

At 200mm, the best performance is between f/8.0 and f/11.0, with the wide open and f/5.6 performance getting a little weaker, but still pretty good.

The corners are very similar to 105mm – consistently good images from f/5.6 to f/11.0.

17) Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 300mm Center Frame

Since at 300mm the lens is at f/5.6, there are only three crops:

Again, the center looks very similar to 200mm, with slightly softer image at f/5.6 that gets sharper at f/8.0 and f/11.0.

18) Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 300mm Corner Frame

And corners at 300mm:

Corners look all the same to me in terms of sharpness, with a slight amount of visible purple fringing in the corners.

Overall, the lens sharpness performance is pretty good, with a slightly worse performance at larger apertures when shooting at long ranges above 105mm. The remedy is to stop down to f/8.0, which increases image sharpness.

Compared to Nikon 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6G

How does the Nikon 55-300mm VR compare to the older Nikon 55-200mm VR? Let’s take a look at direct comparisons between the two.

19) Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 55-200mm @ 55mm Center Frame

The Nikon 55-200mm VR lens has a slight advantage over the 55-300mm at 55mm – it has a maximum aperture of f/4.0 versus f/4.5 (Left: 55-300mm, Right: 55-200mm):

However, as you can see, the 55-200mm is actually softer at maximum aperture. The sharpness difference is very minimal at f/5.6 and f/8.0 (below):

Both perform very similarly when stopped down to f/8.0.

20) Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 55-200mm @ 55mm Corner Frame

Let’s see what happens in the corners (Left: 55-300mm, Right: 55-200mm):

Wide open, both lenses have an almost identical corner performance – I cannot see any difference between the two. The same is true when stopped down to f/8.0:

21) Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 55-200mm @ 105mm Center Frame

At 105mm, both lenses are close in aperture, with the Nikon 55-300 @ f/4.8 (Left) and Nikon 55-200 @ f/4.5 (Right):

Again, both are quite good at maximum aperture, with the 55-300mm being a tad softer.

At f/8.0, the performance is almost identical.

22) Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 55-200mm @ 105mm Corner Frame

Now here is where things start getting interesting for the 55-300mm – it performs sharper not only wide open, but also stopped down to f/8.0 in the corners:

23) Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 55-200mm @ 200mm Center Frame

What about the long range @ 200mm?

Wide open, the Nikon 55-300mm is now at f/5.0, while the Nikon 55-200mm is at f/5.6. Sharpness-wise, both are almost identical, with the 55-300mm slightly outperforming the 55-200mm at f/5.6.

Both lenses perform about the same when stopped down.
When it comes to corner performance @ 200mm, the Nikon 55-300mm takes the lead just like in the 105mm corner test.

So, which one is sharper, the Nikon 55-300mm or the Nikon 55-200mm? As you can see from the above tests, both perform equally well, with the 55-300mm performing just a little better than the 55-200mm towards the longer range at 200mm. Overall, I would say the performance is almost identical, with small differences here and there. When it comes to distortion, CA and other lens characteristics, lenses are very comparable, with the 55-200 having a little more vignetting at 200mm than the 55-300. The obvious advantage the 55-300mm has over the 55-200mm, is focal length. Those 100mm play a big role when it comes to reaching distant subjects and without a doubt, the 55-300mm is a lot more useful than the 55-200mm.

If you are trying to decide between these two lenses, the choice is clear – the Nikon 55-300mm is a better lens, mainly because it can reach much further. Here is the difference between 200mm and 300mm focal lengths:

As you can see, the difference is significant.

Compared to Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

What about the new and versatile Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR? Let’s see how it compares against the Nikon 55-300mm.

24) Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 28-300mm @ 70mm Center

Due to differences in field of view between the Nikon 55-300mm and Nikon 28-300mm, I had to adjust the focal length of the Nikon 55-300mm to match around 70mm of 28-300mm. Here are 100% crops from both lenses wide open and f/5.6 (Left: Nikon 55-300mm, Right: Nikon 28-300mm):

At both apertures, the Nikon 28-300mm is clearly taking the lead. When it comes to corners, the Nikon 55-300mm performs a little better at 70mm than the 28-300mm though.

25) Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 28-300mm @ 300mm Center

The most important test against the 28-300mm is to see how well the Nikon 55-300mm does at 300mm. But first, back to the field of view difference and focus breathing – at a distance of approximately 2.5 meters, the difference in focal length is huge. The below crops of the 55-300mm were shot @ 135mm. At this subject distance, I would say Nikon 55-300mm @ 150mm roughly yields the same field of view as the Nikon 28-300mm @ 300mm!

Considering the focus breathing issue, it is impossible to compare the Nikon 28-300mm to the Nikon 55-300mm @ 300mm while shooting a close subject. However, at around 150mm on the 55-300mm, the Nikon 28-300mm seems to be sharper.

Summary and Image Samples

26) Summary

Nikon released the new 55-300mm lens as an update to the existing 55-200mm lens and did a great job in keeping consistently good sharpness between 55mm and 200mm, with an added bonus of another 100mm for situations where additional reach is needed. Despite being a consumer zoom lens, the Nikon 55-300mm proved to be a great choice when it comes to optical performance, value and weight. It basically obsoletes the previous 55-200mm lens in all aspects and compares favorably against other similar lenses such as Nikon 70-300mm VR. While its focus speed and accuracy are not as good as on the Nikon 70-300mm or other pro-level lenses, it certainly does good enough of the job for capturing family pictures, events and travel at a very affordable price point. The slow autofocus performance and small maximum aperture are certainly not for low-light and fast-moving action photography, but if you learn how to focus with this lens, you will be able to capture great shots.

When compared to the Nikon 28-300mm lens, the Nikon 55-300mm can give a much longer range to work with, since the Nikon 28-300mm has a “lens breathing” design that brings down the effective focal length of the 28-300mm to approximately 130mm when shooting at minimum focus distance of 1.5 meters @ 300mm. There is a huge difference between 130mm and 300mm when it comes to field of view, and having a longer range is quite important while trying to fill the frame with a nearby subject. In terms of optical performance, the Nikon 28-300mm is a little sharper. Where I find the most value in this lens, is its portability. Hiking with heavy lenses is difficult and not always practical. The Nikon 55-300mm VR is very lightweight lens and can be easily carried around, especially if mounted on a compact DX body. Price, without a doubt, is another key factor – it only costs around $369, which is not a bad price for a lens like this.

Overall, I am impressed with this lens – it is fully capable of producing great pictures for those with tight budgets and who are planning to continue using DX cameras in the future.

27) Where to buy

The Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR lens is currently available at B&H Photo Video and other retailers. I always recommend buying photography gear from B&H, because they have the lowest prices and the best customer service when compared to other online and local retailers.

28) Image Samples

It is no secret that Nikon released the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens largely due to the popular demand of the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR DX. The large zoom range of the Nikon 18-200mm and its generally good performance made it a lens of choice for those, who wanted to have a good lightweight travel lens or only wanted to use one lens on their DSLR cameras. Despite the fact that the lens suffered from some serious issues such as lens creep, heavy distortion and sharpness issues beyond 105mm, some photographers and reviewers praised the 18-200mm so much, that the demand increased significantly, resulting in heavy lens shortages around the world. During this time, Nikon had a hard time keeping the lens on the shelves and the only way to obtain it was to either pay a premium and buy it from Ebay, or order and wait for months until Nikon sent another batch to retailers. I remember this period of time very well, since I had to wait for 3 months to get my copy of the lens. Ever since Nikon released the FX full-frame sensor, more and more photographers have been switching from DX to FX. Since Nikon 18-200mm is a DX lens, an FX camera would fall back to DX mode, giving less than half the resolution – a problematic situation for most photographers that use the current 12 megapixel cameras. Therefore, photographers that made the switch from cropped sensor cameras to full-frame, ended up selling or trading their DX lenses for the above reason, including the much loved Nikon 18-200mm.

In response to the popular demand, this year Nikon released an FX version of the Nikon 18-200mm lens, the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR. Nikon retained most of the lens design, but did make some modifications, to reach good performance levels on FX cameras. In this review, I will do my best to provide a detailed analysis of the lens’ performance, including sharpness tests in various conditions and provide comparison tests against the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR II lens and other pro-level FX lenses such as Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II.

The Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR is a variable aperture lens with 10.7x zoom range for enthusiasts and professional photographers that need a single, “all-in-one” lens for everyday and travel photography. The variable aperture of f/3.5-5.6, which changes from f/3.5 on the widest end at 28mm to f/5.6 when zoomed in, along with the lack of the gold ring on the front of the lens indicate that the lens is not on the same level as professional-grade constant aperture lenses in terms of optics, which is quite understandable, considering what it can offer in terms of zoom range.

Despite being a consumer-grade lens, the Nikon 28-300mm is beefed up with plenty of optical technologies from Nikon. The lens sports the latest generation of VR II (vibration reduction) technology, offering camera shake compensation equivalent to a shutter speed increase of approximately four stops, allowing to shoot at slower shutter speeds without introducing camera shake. In addition, the two “Normal” and “Active” VR modes let photographers choose how the Vibration Reduction system responds to various shooting situations. Equipped with an AF-S silent-wave focus motor, the Nikon 28-300mm lens focuses quietly and accurately in various lighting conditions. Unlike the Nikon 18-200mm lens, the new Nikon 28-300mm has a 77mm filter thread, which is a standard filter size on pro-level lenses, making it easy for photographers to use specialized filters (polarizing, neutral density, etc) on the lens without having to mess with adapter rings. Just like its DX counterpart, the Nikon 28-300mm is equipped with two ED and three aspherical lens elements, delivering overall good performance throughout the zoom range. To prevent issues with lens creep, Nikon provided a zoom lock on the lens exterior, similar to the one on the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G lens.

1) Lens Specifications

Main Features:

1. Versatile 10.7x zoom lens with ED glass and VR II image stabilization offers a broad focal length range that’s perfect for travel, landscapes, portraits and distant subjects.
2. Nikon VR II (Vibration Reduction), engineered specifically for each VR NIKKOR lens, enables handheld shooting at up to 4 shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible, assuring dramatically sharper still images and video capture.
3. 3 Aspherical Lens Elements virtually eliminate coma and other aberrations, even at wide apertures.
4. M/A Focus Mode Switch Enables quick changes between manual and autofocus operation.
5. Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC) Enhances light transmission efficiency and offers superior color consistency and reduced flare.
6. Ability to focus to 18 inches at any focal length extends versatility.
7. Optimized for edge to edge sharpness on both FX and DX-format D-SLRs (DX-format D-SLR angle of view is equivalent to a focal length of 42-450mm in FX/35mm format).
8. 2 Extra-low Dispersion (ED) Elements offer superior sharpness and color correction by effectively minimizing chromatic aberration, even at the widest aperture settings.
9. Exclusive Nikon Silent Wave Motor (SWM) enables fast, accurate and quiet autofocus.
10. Internal Focus (IF) provides fast and quiet autofocus without changing the length of the lens, retaining working distance throughout the focus range.
11. Zoom Lock Switch secures the lens barrel at its minimum focal length preventing the lens from extending during transport.
12. Rounded 9-Blade Diaphragm renders more natural appearance of out-of-focus image areas.

Technical Specifications:

1. Mount Type: Nikon F-Bayonet
2. Focal Length Range: 28-300mm
3. Zoom Ratio: 10.7x
4. Maximum Aperture: f/3.5
5. Minimum Aperture: f/22
6. Format: FX/35mm
7. Maximum Angle of View (DX-format): 53°
8. Minimum Angle of View (DX-format): 5°20′
9. Maximum Angle of View (FX-format): 74°
10. Minimum Angle of View (FX-format): 8°10′
11. Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 0.32x
12. Lens Elements: 19
13. Lens Groups: 14
14. Compatible Format(s): FX, DX, FX in DX Crop Mode, 35mm Film
15. VR (Vibration Reduction)/Image Stabilization: Yes
16. Diaphragm Blades: 9
17. Distance Information: Yes
18. ED Glass Elements: 2
19. Aspherical Elements: 3
20. Super Integrated Coating: Yes
21. Autofocus: Yes
22. AF-S (Silent Wave Motor): Yes
23. Internal Focusing: Yes
24. Minimum Focus Distance: 1.6 ft. (0.5m) throughout entire zoom range
25. Focus Mode: Auto, Manual
26. G-type: Yes
27. Filter Size: 77mm
28. Accepts Filter Type: Screw-on
29. Dimensions (Approx.): 3.26×4.5 in. (Diameter x Length) 83×114.5mm (Diameter x Length)
30. Weight (Approx.): 28.2 oz. (800g)
31. Supplied Accessories: HB-50 Bayonet Lens Hood, LC-77 Snap-on Front Lens Cap, LF-1 Rear Lens Cap, CL-L1120 Soft Case

2) Lens construction and handling

When I first took the lens out of the box, I immediately noticed how big it was compared to the Nikon 18-200mm. Side by side, the Nikon 28-300mm is a much heavier, bulkier and taller piece of glass. Weighing 800 grams, it is a whopping 240 grams heavier than the 18-200mm and only 100 grams lighter than the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G! For a lens of this class, it is certainly quite big and heavy. The majority of the weight comes from more and bigger optics inside the lens – the Nikon 28-300mm has 19 elements and a 77mm filter thread versus 16 elements and 72mm of the 18-200mm. The thickness of the lens barrel stays the same from the front almost all the way to the lens mount. In comparison, the lens barrel of the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G is thinner in the middle and feels more natural when holding the lens on a camera.

The lens is built well, with a plastic exterior and focus ring. The zoom ring is also made of plastic and is covered with rubber. Most of the recently-announced lenses by Nikon have a plastic exterior, which does not necessarily mean that the lenses are not solid – the interior of the Nikon 28-300mm contains plenty of metal (which obviously contributes to the weight) and the lens mount is also made of solid metal. I am impressed by how well this lens is made. It is certainly a very high quality build, similar to pro-level lenses. The lens should be able to withstand cold and hot temperatures, but I would not leave it under rain, extreme moisture and dusty environments. The lens is most vulnerable when zoomed in – the barrel extends out quite a bit and any dust that settles on the lens barrel can be quickly sucked into the lens, resulting in dust inside the lens and potentially on the camera sensor. While dust specs generally do not affect the sharpness of a lens, too much dust decreases lens contrast, resulting in images that look a little cloudier than normal. Note that most zoom lenses are prone to the same issue as above, including some of the professional lenses like the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G.

The lens feels very solid in hands and the zoom ring is easy to rotate from 28 to 300mm and vice versa. It takes a little more than a half turn to go from 28 to 300mm. As you zoom in from 28mm towards 300mm, the lens aperture changes to f/5.6 at around 105mm mark and stays at f/5.6 all the way to 300mm, which is not something I was expecting (the Nikon 18-200mm is also at f/5.6 on the 105mm mark, but it is 200mm on the long end). After using the lens for 3-4 weeks, the zoom ring still feels tough enough and I cannot get it to creep. I sat for about 5 minutes going from 28 to 300mm and back continuously to try to soften the zoom ring, but the lens still does not creep, which is certainly better than the 18-200mm behavior. I even added my heavy 77mm B+W Kaesemann Circular Polarizing filter and the lens did not creep at any focal length. Maybe this will start happening overtime with heavy use, but it does not seem to be a problem for now. Another important thing to note – the front of the Nikon 18-200mm lens wobbles when fully extended out. The Nikon 28-300mm does not have this problem and feels a lot more solid. The focus ring is made of plastic and is located on the back of the lens, which I find backwards. I am used to the zoom ring being close to the lens and the focus ring to be near the lens barrel, so I did occasionally mess up my focus while shooting. But if you have shot with the 18-200mm or other DX lenses like Nikon 18-105mm or Nikon 18-135mm, you should have no problems with this. The Nikon 28-300mm VR lens comes with the “HB-50″ lens hood, which is a little taller than the “HB-35″ hood that comes with the 18-200mm VR lens.

Nikon Lens Comparison - the Nikon 28-300mm is on the far left

3) Focus acquisition speed and accuracy

The autofocus motor of the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR is quiet and accurate, thanks to the AF-S Silent Wave Motor, even in low-light conditions. Compared to other DX lenses, autofocus speed is relatively quick, but certainly not as fast as in pro-level lenses. Focus tracking in continuous mode works quite well with the lens quickly getting accurate focus almost every time, but when the lens cannot autofocus and starts to hunt, the autofocus performance gets to a crawling speed. As a comparison, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4G goes from infinity to near focus and back slower than the AF-D version as shown in my Nikon 85mm f/1.4G review – the Nikon 28-300mm focuses even slower than that. This is obviously not a good lens for very fast-moving subjects such as birds. I tried to capture some birds in flight and I had a hard time acquiring focus. I finally got some good images of a hawk that flew directly above me, but only 2 images out of 11 were in focus. Here is a 100% crop of the hawk shot at 300mm, ISO 200, 1/500th @ f/5.6 (I applied a sharpening value of 50 before exporting the image out of Lightroom):

4) Lens sharpness, contrast and color rendition

The lens suffers from similar problems as its DX counterpart – sharpness and contrast vary by focal length and aperture, with the weakest numbers at largest apertures. The performance of the lens at short focal lengths is pretty good, getting a little weaker towards the longer end, but still better than the 18-200mm. Contrast is quite poor wide open, but gets better at f/5.6 and beyond. During field tests, I shot over 1000 images at various apertures and shutter speeds and overall, the lens is not bad, but certainly nowhere close to the sharpness and contrast of pro-level lenses like Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G or Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II. You can see lens sharpness examples in the next page with comparisons against other lenses. Color rendition is very good, similar to pro-level lenses.

5) Vibration Reduction – VR II

I am a big fan of Vibration Reduction (VR) lenses – I wish every lens had VR in it, because it is one of the most useful lens features for low-light photography. VR certainly does work very well on zoom lenses and the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR comes with the latest version of Vibration Reduction called “VR II”, which is supposed to deliver sharp images up to four stops the shutter speed. What this means, is that you might be able to get sharp images at 1/13th of a second when shooting at 200mm (general rule of thumb is to keep your shutter speed at your focal length and 4 stops from 1/200th is 1/13th). Sounds a little extreme, but I was able to get sharp images hand-held at 1/13th of a second, so VR II certainly does work as advertised.

6) Bokeh

One of the advantages of the Nikon 28-300mm lens is supposed to be its 9 diaphragm blades over 7 on the Nikon 18-200mm lens, which should result in better-looking round bokeh. Take a look at the following comparison of bokeh between 28-300mm and 18-200mm lenses shot at f/5.0 (wide open) @ 70mm:

Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 18-200mm Bokeh

It is interesting to note that the Nikon 28-300mm is actually showing a pronounced nonagon, while the bokeh from the 18-200mm looks more round. I think I like the 7 blades on the 18-200mm better in this case. Overall, the bokeh on the 28-300mm is horrible though. Compare its bokeh with the Nikon 85mm f/1.4G @ f/4.0 to see the difference:

Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 85mm Bokeh

Now that’s the difference between bad and good-looking bokeh! The Nikon 28-300mm just looks dirty in comparison. Note that the bokeh on the 85mm also shows pronounced nonagons, which is happening because the lens is stopped down to f/4.0. At large apertures lower than f/2.8, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4G produces outstanding results with circular bokeh that is not even comparable to the 28-300mm.

7) Vignetting

Besides sharpness issues, the Nikon 28-300mm also suffers from heavy vignetting, similar to 18-200mm. While vignetting is easy to remove in Lightroom or Photoshop, it is still another process to run during post-processing. Take a look at the following worst-case scenario vignetting example:

Nikon 28-300mm Vignetting

The bad news, is that I had vignetting control set to “Normal” on my camera. Take a look at how bad it looks below with Vignette Control turned off. I had to shoot most of my images with vignette control set to “High” to get acceptable images. The effect is most apparent when shooting wide open at 28mm, which gets better by 70mm, but never quite disappears. Then, it comes back at 105mm and gets even worse by 300mm. The above example image was shot at 300mm f/5.6 and as you can see, the vignetting effect is heavily noticeable.

8) Ghosting and Flare

Ghosting and flare can be a problem if you choose a wrong spot to put the sun in. Here is an extreme example with the sun in the top left frame:

And here is another example with the sun just a little lower in the frame in a vertical shot:

Not bad, but you have to be careful when shooting against the sun.

9) Distortion

This lens, just like the 18-200mm has lots of distortion throughout its range, which is expected for a 10.7x zoom lens. At 28mm, it suffers the most, producing images with very noticeable distortion. Take a look at how the top line curves from left to right in this image shot at 28mm:

Distortion at 28mm

The situation gets better by 35mm with much less distortion:

Distortion at 35mm

From that point on all the way to 300mm, the lens suffers from pincushion distortion, as seen in this example at 50mm:

Distortion at 50mm

Pincushion distortion gets a little more under control over 105mm, but still evident even at 300mm. Distortion is also something that is easy to fix in post-processing. Hopefully Adobe will soon release a profile for 28-300mm, so that both distortion and vignetting issues could be eliminated with a single click using Lightroom 3 Lens Correction.

10) Chromatic Aberration

One of the big downsides of this lens, is the amount of chromatic aberration or color/purple fringing that is present in the images. While the center area does not seem to have as much, anything off the center towards the edges does often yield strong chromatic aberration. Take a look at this example:

Chromatic Aberration Problem

These issues can be corrected in Photoshop or Lightroom, but it is still another problem to worry about.

11) Focus Breathing

Similar to the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, the lens does suffer from a “focus breathing” problem. Basically, in order to keep the minimum focus distance shorter, Nikon made a few adjustments to the lens design, which resulted in shorter effective focal lengths when shooting close objects. If your subject is very close at minimum distance, the 300mm on the Nikon 28-300mm will be equivalent to around 135mm, which is more than twice less. As the distance between you and the subject grows, the field of view narrows. When I was doing my lab tests between 2-2.5 meters, the field of view at 300mm was equivalent to around 150mm. In order to get the full 300mm out of this lens, your subject would have to be very far away, with your focus set to infinity. Even at a 50 meter distance, you would still get around 275mm. As I have stated above, this lens is not a good candidate for photographing birds or other small wildlife. If you want to get close, the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR or Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G DX VR are much better candidates, since they can get to true 300mm.

Here is a comparison of field of view between Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR @ 300mm, Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S @ 300mm and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II @ 200mm (subject distance approx 3.5 meters):

As you can see, there is a big difference in field of view between the Nikon 28-300mm and the Nikon 300mm lens, which is a true 300mm lens.

Let’s now move on to the good stuff – Sharpness tests. Select the next page below.

12) Sharpness Test on DX Sensor

Some technical junk:

1. White Balance: Auto, changed to “Custom”: 3500 Temp, +19 Tint in Lightroom
2. ISO: 200
3. EXIF information is preserved in the images
4. Lens was mounted on Nikon D300 Camera and Gitzo tripod
5. Focusing was performed through Live-View Contrast Detect. After each successful focus acquisition, focus was switched to manual to prevent camera refocusing
6. Mirror Lock-Up mode with Exposure Delay set to “On” and remote cable release to completely eliminate camera shake
7. VR on the Nikon 28-300mm was set to “Off” position
8. Long exposure NR: Off
9. Image Format: RAW
10. Lightroom settings: Default settings, but exposure had to be slightly adjusted (-.20 to +.033) to make sure that all images have the same brightness
11. Lightroom export: sRGB JPEG Quality 80
12. Testing was performed at largest aperture, f/5.6, f/8.0 and f/11.0 apertures
13. Nothing was moved during testing

In order to compare the Nikon 28-300mm against Nikon 18-200mm and other DX lenses, I had to test the Nikon 28-300mm on a DX body.

13) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 28mm Center Frame (DX)

The lens does suffer from bad sharpness issues wide open at 28mm in the center, as can be seen from the first image. Stopping down to f/5.6 takes care of the sharpness and the lens performs equally well when stopped down to f/8 and beyond:

14) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 28mm Corner Frame (DX)

What about corner performance at 28mm? Wide open at f/3.5, the corner performance is similar to center, which is soft. The situation does get better by f/5.6 and stays about the same from there onwards:

15) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 35mm Center Frame (DX)

At 35mm, the wide open performance at f/3.8 is very similar to that of 28mm – it is soft and “cloudy”. Again, sharpness increases significantly by f/5.6 and stays about the same from there onwards:

16) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 35mm Corner Frame (DX)

Corner performance at 35mm is also about the same as at 28mm, with f/3.8 yielding soft images and sharpness increasing at f/5.6 and higher:

17) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 50mm Center Frame (DX)

The situation improves at 50mm, with a little more sharpness wide open, which gets even better by f/5.6:

18) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 50mm Corner Frame (DX)

Corners are still pretty weak with plenty of visible color fringing:

19) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 70mm Center Frame (DX)

As we get closer to f/5.6, the sharpness certainly increases wide open. There is a little bit of softness to the image at f/5.0, but already very close to f/5.6:

20) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 70mm Corner Frame (DX)

The lens performs about the same at 70mm as at 50mm:

21) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 105mm Center Frame (DX)

By 105mm, the lens is at f/5.6 and some loss of sharpness is now evident.

At f/11 diffraction also kicks in:

22) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 105mm Corner Frame (DX)

Corners still look soft at f/5.6, but get substantially better by f/8.0 and beyond:

23) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 200mm Center Frame (DX)

By 200mm, all apertures look about the same in the center:

24) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 200mm Corner Frame (DX)

Corners still look soft at 200mm @ f/5.6 and get sharper by f/8.0:

25) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 300mm Center Frame (DX)

300mm looks about the same as 200mm in the center:

26) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 300mm Corner Frame (DX)

Corners at 300mm f/5.6 are very similar to 200mm f/5.6, getting sharper at f/8.0:

Sharpness Test on FX Sensor

Some technical junk:

1. White Balance: Auto, changed to “Custom”: 3500 Temp, +19 Tint in Lightroom
2. ISO: 200
3. EXIF information is preserved in the images
4. Lens was mounted on D3s Camera and Gitzo tripod
5. Focusing was performed through Live-View Contrast Detect. After each successful focus acquisition, focus was switched to manual to prevent camera refocusing
6. Mirror Lock-Up mode with Exposure Delay set to “On” and remote cable release to completely eliminate camera shake
7. VR on the Nikon 28-300mm was set to “Off” position
8. Long exposure NR: Off
9. Image Format: RAW
10. Lightroom settings: Default settings, but exposure had to be slightly adjusted (-.20 to +.033) to make sure that all images have the same brightness
11. Lightroom export: sRGB JPEG Quality 80
12. Testing was performed at largest aperture, f/5.6, f/8.0 and f/11.0 apertures
13. Nothing was moved during testing

Let’s see how well the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR performs on a full-frame sensor.

27) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 28mm Center Frame (FX)

At the largest aperture of f/3.5, we still see some cloudiness in the image, which goes away at f/5.6. The image is consistent from there onwards:

28) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 28mm Corner Frame (FX)

There is lots of vignetting present at 28mm, so the image at f/3.5 turned out to be very dark in the corners. I had to adjust the exposure a little bit to compensate for the light loss. The corners look soft at f/3.5, getting much better at f/5.6 and even better by f/8.0:

29) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 35mm Center Frame (FX)

At 35mm, the lens performs about the same at all apertures, with a slightly softer image at f/3.8:

30) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 35mm Corner Frame (FX)

Corners are again soft at largest aperture, much improved at f/5.6 and even better at f/8.0:

31) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 50mm Center Frame (FX)

At 50mm, the Nikon 28-300mm performs about the same at all apertures:

32) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 50mm Corner Frame (FX)

Corners also look equally as good at 50mm at all apertures:

33) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 70mm Center Frame (FX)

The wide open performance at 70mm is just a tiny bit softer than at f/8.0, but is very minor:

34) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 70mm Corner Frame (FX)

Corner performance at 70mm is a little softer wide open and at f/5.6, getting better by f/8.0:

35) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 105mm Center Frame (FX)

Similar to the Nikon 18-200mm, the Nikon 28-300mm starts to suffer at 105mm at maximum aperture of f/5.0. Here is a comparison of f/5.6, f/8.0 and f/11:

36) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 105mm Corner Frame (FX)

At 105mm, the corners also suffer from increased softness, especially at the largest aperture:

37) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 200mm Center Frame (FX)

At 200mm, it is quite evident that the lens is now suffering from sharpness issues. The images look pretty much the same at all apertures:

38) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 200mm Corner Frame (FX)

The corners are even worse, losing plenty of detail:

39) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 300mm Center Frame (FX)

And lastly, at 300mm the performance at f/5.6 (maximum aperture) has a little less contrast than at f/8.0. Overall, all three apertures look about the same as at 200mm:

40) Sharpness Test – Nikon 28-300mm @ 300mm Corner Frame (FX)

Again, the corners are very similar to 200mm and the softness of the corners stays the same across all apertures:

Sharpness Test on FX Sensor – Second Sample

One of our readers, Nicholas, was kind enough to send his copy of the Nikon 28-300mm VR that he believed was sharp – at least compared to the first one that he was not happy with. I ran a few more tests comparing my lens to his and below are my findings.

40a) Nikon 28-300mm lens comparison @ 28mm Center Frame (FX)

Here is how the lenses compare when shot wide open at 28mm:

Do you see any difference? I don’t… Let’s take a look at f/5.6 and f/8.0:

Again, I do not see any difference in comparisons at all apertures in the center.

40b) Nikon 28-300mm lens comparison @ 28mm Corner Frame (FX)

The story is the same in the corners – both lenses performed about the same from f/3.5 all the way to f/8.0:

Both center and the corners look about the same at 28mm. When I looked at all other focal lengths from 28mm to 70mm, everything looked almost identical, with very small differences here and there. The second lens sample seemed to be just a tad better wide open, but both produced the same results when stopped down to f/5.6 and above.

40c) Nikon 28-300mm lens comparison @ 70mm Center Frame (FX)

While I did not see any difference at focal lengths below 70mm, the second lens sample certainly performs better wide open @ 70mm:

But the difference almost disappears by f/5.6:

At f/8.0, both lenses perform about the same:

The difference in corner performance at 70mm is about the same as in the center, with the second lens being a little sharper wide open and getting about the same by f/5.6 – f/8.0.

40d) Nikon 28-300mm lens comparison @ 300mm Center Frame (FX)

Let’s see what happens on the telephoto side of things @ 300mm on both lenses:

Again, I don’t see any difference – both perform about the same at all apertures.

40e) Nikon 28-300mm lens comparison @ 300mm Corner Frame (FX)

The corner situation is about the same as in the center:

As you can see, both the first 28-300mm I received and the second lens copy perform about the same, with the biggest difference at 70mm, where the second lens performed better wide open. At all other apertures and focal lengths, the sharpness is about the same with very few differences. Now, what I am curious about, is if the second lens I received is a good one (the person who sent it to me assured me that the first 28-300mm he received was rather soft), which makes the original 28-300mm I received also a good copy, how would a bad one look like?

Compare sharpness to 24-70mm f/2.8:

The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G at f/2.8 is much sharper than the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR at f/3.5 (both wide open). The sharpness difference is minimal at f/8.0, but the 24-70mm is still sharper.

Compared to Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II

As can be seen from the below crops, the Nikon 28-300 performs better than the Nikon 18-200 on DX sensors, especially at focal lengths above 105mm. There is a slight issue with softness when shooting wide open, but the 18-200mm also has the same problem. Bear in mind that at 28mm, the Nikon 18-200mm is at f/4.0 compared to 28-300mm’s f/3.5 – hence the slight difference at short focal lengths when shooting wide open.

41) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 18-200mm @ 28mm Center

At 28mm, Nikon 18-200mm is at f/4.0, while 28-300mm is at f/3.5. Let’s see how both compare wide open (Left: 28-300mm, Right: 18-200mm):

The 18-200mm is clearly superior at 28mm f/4.0 than 28-300mm at f/3.5 in the center. Stopping down 28-300mm to f/4.0 improves sharpness and by f/5.6 both lenses perform equally well, with a slightly better performance by the 28-300:

42) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 18-200mm @ 28mm Corner

Corner performance is very similar on both lenses, although the Nikon 18-200mm looks a little better, because it is stopped down to f/4.0. Wide open, both are almost identical:

I can’t see much difference in sharpness when both are stopped down to f/5.6, although the 28-300mm looks a little better at f/8.

There is slightly more pronounced color fringing on the 28-300mm, but not by a huge margin.

43) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 18-200mm @ 50mm Center

By 50mm, the Nikon 28-300mm has a little less contrast in the center, but very close to the 18-200mm in sharpness:

At f/5.6, the Nikon 28-300mm takes the lead:

44) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 18-200mm @ 50mm Corner

The corner performance at 50mm on both lenses is about the same at f/4.5, with a slight edge on the 28-300mm @ f/5.6:

45) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 18-200mm @ 105mm Center

At 105mm, we start seeing the weakness of the Nikon 18-200mm, where it is much softer than the 28-300mm @ both f/5.6 and f/8.0:

46) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 18-200mm @ 105mm Corner

It is a little hard to say which one is worse at 105mm in the corner, but it is pretty clear that the 28-300mm is superior at f/8.0, just like in the center:

The performance of the Nikon 18-200mm at 200mm is very similar to that of 105mm, with 28-300mm taking the lead at all apertures.

Compared to Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G

I know that it is unfair to compare the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G to the legendary Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G, but I think the 24-70 is a good benchmark lens to test against. The DX and FX sharpness tests in this review are kind of useless without such a comparison. Since the Nikon 28-300mm is designed to be an FX lens, I had to run two comparisons – one on FX and one on DX.

As expected and as you can see from the below 100% crops, the Nikon 28-300mm is nowhere close to Nikon 24-70mm in sharpness. Wide open at f/2.8, the Nikon 24-70mm is sharper than the Nikon 28-300mm stopped down…

47) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-70mm @ 28mm Center (DX)

As expected, the Nikon 24-70mm outperforms the Nikon 28-300mm at all apertures, even wide open at f/2.8. The difference is especially evident when the Nikon 24-70mm is stopped down to f/4.0:

At f/5.6, the sharpness difference is quite evident:

48) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-70mm @ 28mm Corner (DX)

What about the corners? Let’s take a look:

The Nikon 24-70mm performs incredibly well on DX. The corners at f/2.8 are as sharp as at f/4.0 and as you can see, the Nikon 24-70mm easily outperforms the Nikon 28-300mm.

49) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-70mm @ 50mm (DX)

At 50mm, the Nikon 24-70mm is one of the sharpest lenses out there and can be used as a benchmark for other lenses. Its performance at f/2.8 is much sharper than f/4.5 (largest aperture) performance by Nikon 28-300mm. By f/4.0, the difference is even bigger:

By f/5.6, the Nikon 28-300mm starts to shine a little, showing much improved sharpness, which is comparable to that of 24-70mm:

The corner performance on the Nikon 24-70mm at 50mm is also sharper at f/2.8 than 28-300mm at f/4.5.

50) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm Center (DX)

To illustrate the huge difference in sharpness between the 28-300mm and the 24-70mm, take a look at the following crops (Left: Nikon 28-300mm @ f/5.0, Right: Nikon 24-70mm @ f/2.8):

As you can see, the Nikon 24-70mm beats Nikon 28-300mm at f/2.8 when the other is at f/5.0! The Nikon 24-70mm at f/2.8 is on par with the Nikon 28-300mm at f/5.6.

51) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm Corner (DX)

Corners are obviously going to look more or less the same – take a look at both @ f/5.6:

In summary, the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR does not stand a chance against the Nikon 24-70mm at focal lengths between 28mm and 70mm on a DX sensor.

What about FX?

52) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-70mm @ 28mm Center (FX)

Here is a comparison of both lenses wide open at 28mm (Left: Nikon 28-300mm @ f/3.5, Right: Nikon 24-70mm @ f/2.8):

Again, the Nikon 28-300mm is not even close to the Nikon 24-70mm – the difference in sharpness is huge.

53) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-70mm @ 28mm Corner (FX)

Sure enough, the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G is not the best corner performer at f/2.8:

However, take a look at how it compares at f/5.6:

While wide open there is not a big difference between the two, at f/5.6 and beyond, the Nikon 24-70mm is a much sharper lens in the corners.

One thing about the Nikon 24-70mm lens, is that it is a little soft in the corners at short focal lengths under 35mm, as can be seen from my Nikon 24-70 Review. At 35mm and beyond though, it performs extremely well both in the center and in the corners. At these focal lengths, the Nikon 24-70mm is similar to the 70mm performance below.

54) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm Center (FX)

At 70mm, the Nikon 24-70mm is razor sharp, even wide open:

And obviously, the lens is much sharper at f/5.6:

55) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm Corner (FX)

Corners on the 24-70mm at 70mm are also very sharp, with a lot less distortion:

The situation on FX does not look good for 28-300mm when compared against the 24-70mm either – the Nikon 24-70mm beats the Nikon 28-300mm at f/2.8 both in the center and in the corners.

Compared to Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

Here is another unfair comparison, against the professional Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II. I’m only providing this comparison to show how well the Nikon 28-300mm performs at long focal lengths.

56) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 70-200mm @ 105mm Center (FX)

At 105mm, the Nikon 28-300mm is good enough, but still suffers from softer images wide open. Here is how the 28-300mm at f/5.6 compares against the Nikon 70-200mm at f/2.8 (Left: Nikon 28-300mm @ f/5.6, Right: Nikon 70-200mm @ f/2.8):

And at f/5.6:

The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II is so good wide open, that there is no visible difference between f/2.8 and f/5.6!

57) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 70-200mm @ 105mm Corner (FX)

What about the corners? Here is 28-300mm @ f/5.6 vs 70-200mm @ f/2.8:

The Nikon 70-200mm is sharper and that’s with a difference of two full stops! Now take a look at the corners at f/5.6:

The difference is night and day…

58) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 70-200mm @ 200mm Center (FX)

Again, as with 105mm, the Nikon 70-200mm outperforms the 28-300mm at f/2.8:

The corners are the same story as with 105mm – Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G is sharper at f/2.8 than the 28-300mm at f/5.6.

Overall though, the Nikon 28-300mm delivers pretty good sharpness in the center at longer focal lengths, but still needs to be stopped down to f/8 to get sharper images. Corners look rather soft though and only marginally improve by f/8.0. Don’t get too excited about its performance though – as you will see in the next page, the results are not the same when shooting distant objects at infinity.

Compared to Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR

What about the new Nikon 55-300mm VR? Being a telephoto lens for a different purpose, the newly released Nikon 55-300mm also goes all the way to 300mm. Therefore, it would be interesting to see how it would perform against the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR.

59) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 55-300mm @ 70mm Center

Due to differences in field of view between the Nikon 28-300mm and Nikon 55-300mm (see focus breathing), I had to adjust the focal length of the Nikon 55-300mm to match around 70mm of 28-300mm. Here are 100% crops from both lenses wide open and f/5.6 (Left: Nikon 28-300mm, Right: Nikon 55-300mm):

At both apertures, the Nikon 28-300mm is clearly taking the lead. When it comes to corners, the Nikon 55-300mm performs a little better at 70mm than the 28-300mm though.

60) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 55-300mm @ 300mm Center

The most important test against the 55-300mm is to see how well the Nikon 28-300mm does at 300mm. One of the biggest issues with the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens, was that it performed quite poorly beyond 105mm. Let’s see if it is the case for the Nikon 28-300mm. But first, back to the field of view difference and focus breathing – at a distance of approximately 2.5 meters, the difference in focal length is huge. The below crops of the 55-300mm were shot @ 135mm. At this subject distance, I would say Nikon 55-300mm @ 150mm roughly yields the same field of view as the Nikon 28-300mm @ 300mm!

Considering the focus breathing issue, it is impossible to compare the Nikon 28-300mm to the Nikon 55-300mm @ 300mm while shooting a close subject. However, at around 150mm on the 55-300mm, the Nikon 28-300mm seems to be sharper.

When shooting subjects at a long distance at infinity, the focus breathing does not affect the field of view. Take a look at the following two crops from 28-300mm and 55-300mm (Left: Nikon 28-300mm, Right: Nikon 55-300mm):

Both images were shot at f/10 for maximum sharpness and depth of field. As you can see, the Nikon 55-300mm outperforms the Nikon 28-300mm by a huge margin. I first thought that I had a focus issue, so I refocused several times and tried again – the results were the same.

EDIT: The above turned out to be a bad sample – the second copy of the 28-300mm that I tested did not have this problem. See the 70-300mm comparison page for more details.

Compared to Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

I don’t have the Nikon 24-120mm f/4.0G VR on my hands yet, but I was able to test the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR against the Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G VR. In terms of lens performance, I was never a fan of the Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens – it performs quite poorly when compared against lenses of similar class. Let’s take a look at how well the Nikon 28-300mm does against the Nikon 24-120mm.

61) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-120mm @ 28mm Center

Let’s take a look at 28mm wide open and f/5.6:

At largest aperture, the Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G VR performs better than the 28-300mm. By f/5.6, the performance of both is about the same.

62) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-120mm @ 28mm Corner

What about the corners? Let’s see how they compare at 28mm:

The Nikon 24-120mm suffers from contrast issues in the corners, as can be seen from the above crops. Sharpness-wise however, the Nikon 24-120mm is superior and has much less noticeable color fringing.

63) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-120mm @ 70mm Center

I won’t bother uploading images from 35mm and 50mm, since the performance is comparable to that of 70mm. Here is how lenses compare at 70mm in the center, wide open and at f/8.0 (Left: Nikon 28-300mm, Right: Nikon 24-120mm):

It looks like both lenses perform about the same at 70mm in the center.

64) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-120mm @ 70mm Corner

Once again, the Nikon 24-120mm is sharper in the corners, with a little more CA than on the 28-300mm.

65) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-120mm @ 105mm Center

Similar to the Nikon 18-200mm, the Nikon 24-120mm also suffers from sharpness and contrast issues beyond 105mm. As you can see, the Nikon 28-300mm here beats the Nikon 24-120mm at both f/5.6 and f/8.0.

66) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 24-1200mm @ 105mm Corner

The corners, however, look about the same, with the 24-120mm having more purple fringing.

In summary, the Nikon 24-120mm beats the Nikon 28-300mm at shorter focal lengths, with the 28-300mm taking a small lead at 105mm and beyond.

Compared to Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR

The biggest problem with this kind of a test is to match the field of view for both lenses, since their effective focal lengths differ significantly depending on the subject distance. To get an equivalent field of view as the 28-300mm at 105mm, I had to zoom the 70-300mm to approximately 92mm. For the 300mm test, I was at approximately 180mm on the 70-300mm.

So, how does the Nikon 28-300mm compare against the Nikon 70-300mm lens?

67) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 70-300mm @ 105mm Center

At 105mm both lenses perform about the same, with a very slightly better performance by the Nikon 28-300mm:

This is true for f/8.0 as well:

68) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 70-300mm @ 105mm Corner

Let’s take a look at the corners:

The corners on the 28-300mm look a little better than on the 70-300mm, especially at larger apertures.

69) Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 70-300mm @ 300mm Center

Again, both look about the same at 300mm:

The corners are about the same as with 105mm.

When I tested the 28-300mm lens at infinity against the 70-300mm at 300mm, the second lens sample did not have the same focusing issue as the first one – distant objects snapped into focus correctly wide open or stopped down:

Nikon 28-300mm vs Nikon 70-300mm 300mm Test @ f/5.6

The Nikon 28-300mm performs very well against the Nikon 70-300mm. Does it mean that it replaces the 70-300mm though? Absolutely not! First of all, the Nikon 70-300mm gives you true 300mm to play with, while the 28-300mm does not when shooting close subjects. At approximately 2.3 meter subject distance, I had to shoot the 70-300mm at 180mm (the 28-300mm was at 300mm) just to get the same field of view. On top of that, the AF speed of the 28-300mm is slower than the 70-300mm and I found the AF accuracy on the 70-300mm to be better as well, especially when shooting distant subjects.

70) Summary and Image Samples

Ever since it was released, the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR has been referred to as a lens that is “Jack of all trades, master of none”, due to its large zoom range from wide-angle to telephoto and the problems that come with such a lens. The Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR is very similar to the 18-200mm in that regard, with plenty of optical problems such as distortion, vignetting, chromatic aberration and sharpness/contrast issues when shooting at large apertures.

The Nikon 28-300mm is a mixed bag of feelings for me. Maybe because I was never a fan of the Nikon 18-200mm in first place. There are only a few things that I like about it, such as its build and the 77mm filter thread (which proved to be very convenient to use my polarizing and ND filters without having to mess with adapter rings) but other than that, I was not impressed with its performance when compared to other Nikon lenses.

As can be seen from the sharpness comparisons, its sharpness is average to below average when measured against pro-level lenses like Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G on both DX and FX sensors. When compared to other DX lenses like Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR or Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II, the Nikon 28-300mm performs well when shooting close subjects. However, when I shot distant objects at infinity, the lens performed quite poorly above 200mm, especially at 300mm (as shown on the first page and in the Nikon 55-300mm comparison). Its optical performance at short focal lengths is comparable to the Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G VR (which is not great to start with), with the 24-120mm having slightly better results. Stopped down to f/8.0, it does produce pretty good results, better than the older 18-200mm for sure. The Nikon 28-300mm VR also suffers from heavy vignetting and strong chromatic aberrations. Vignetting is very noticeable at both short focal lengths and telephoto, having the worst effect at 28mm and 300mm. Chromatic aberrations seem to be present at all focal lengths, showing strongly at large apertures and in the corners. Even stopping down the lens to f/8.0 did not get rid of purple and blue fringing. On top of that, the lens is heavy, weighing almost as much as the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G – it certainly felt off-balance when I mounted it on the Nikon D90. The size of the lens barrel is also so thick that it is not as convenient and compact to handle when compared to the Nikon 18-200mm. Last, but not least, the autofocus speed is not impressive, especially when it starts to hunt.

If the lens suffers from so many problems, why would one want to have this lens? The answer is the same as with the Nikon 18-200mm – those who want an “all-in-one” lens and do not mind the inferior optical performance. As for me, I do travel quite a bit and I do not mind taking multiple lenses with me. If I run into a situation where I can only take one lens, I would rather take one good lens with me, such as my trusty Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G or a smaller lens such as Nikon 35mm f/1.8G DX, which is much faster and much sharper than the 28-300mm.

In many ways, the Nikon 28-300mm is very similar to the older Nikon 18-200mm. If you have previously owned or used the Nikon 18-200mm and liked it, you will probably like and enjoy the Nikon 28-300mm as well. If you shoot on a DX sensor, I would not recommend buying the 28-300mm, because its field of view would be equivalent to a 42-450mm lens – not a very useful range to work with (especially on the wide side). On FX sensor, it is certainly a different story.

P.S. Some people criticized my original review of the lens by saying that I had a bad copy. As you can see from page 4 of this review, the lens I had tested performed very similarly to another lens that was believed to be a good copy (sent by our reader). I know that some photographers tried to swap the lens 3-4 times to see if they can obtain a good copy. In terms of optical performance, don’t expect too much from this lens – it is already good enough for its zoom range and you just won’t be able to find a “golden” copy that produces sharp results at all focal lengths and apertures.

71) Where to buy and availability

B&H is currently selling the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens and has it in stock. The Nikon 28-300mm is currently selling for $1,030, with free shipping.

72) More image samples

Click here to download the full-size version of the file (6.6 MB).

Click here to download the full-size version of the file (2.8 MB).

Click here to download the full-size version of the file (6 MB).

Nikon 200mm f/2G ED VR II

So, what has been upgraded in the new Nikon 200mm f/2.0G? The lens construction of both the older 200mm and the newer one is exactly the same, with the same number of Super ED (1) and ED Glass elements (3). This means that we can expect the same superb performance of the lens in terms of sharpness, color and contrast, except with more resistance against ghosting and flare due to the use of Nano Crystal Coat. Besides the addition of Nano Crystal Coat, the other major difference is the upgraded VR II system, which should give an extra stop of compensation against camera shake when using slow shutter speeds. Other small cosmetic changes are the new A/M mode switch and a different label with a large letter “N”, which stands for Nano Crystal Coat.

From the Nikon Press Release:

AF-S NIKKOR 200mm f/2G ED VR II: Telephoto Lens with Incredible Low-Light Performance
The 200mm f/2, like its predecessor, is an incredibly fast aperture telephoto lens that incorporates Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) II Image Stabilization system. The VR system provides up to four stops of correction to assist in creating blur-free images while shooting hand-held, or for when capturing D-Movie video content.

Additionally, the NIKKOR 200mm f/2 VR II incorporates an Internal Focusing (IF) system that allows movement of the optical elements within the lens barrel and does not change barrel length. Three focus modes are featured, with an A/M mode added to the conventional M/A and M modes. The optical construction consists of 13 optical elements in nine groups including three Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass elements and one Super ED glass element that effectively minimize chromatic aberration, even at the widest aperture settings. Also included is a Tripod Detection Mode, which automatically compensates for minute vibrations when mounted on a tripod and allows users to keep VR image stabilization on and active – even when the camera and lens are mounted on a tripod. The 200mm f/2 is optimal for all types of shooting including weddings, portraits, sports, nature, and fashion due to its quick response and detailed lens design.

Nikon 200mm f/2G VR II vs Nikon 200mm f/2G VR – MTF

The MTF data is very similar on both, with a slightly higher performance on the Nikon 200mm f/2.8G VR II, most likely due to the use of Nano Crystal Coat. Compare and see for yourself:

Nikon 200mm f/2G VR II MTF

Nikon 200mm f/2G VR MTF

Price and Availability

Being an f/2.0 lens is not cheap – the Nikon 200mm f/2G ED VR II will sell for $5,999.95 and will ship in early October from all major resellers such as B&H and Adorama. It is already available for pre-order here.

The last announcement from today is the Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR DX lens, an update to the existing Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED VR DX lens that was announced back in March of 2007. The lens was announced together with the Nikon D3100, because it is a DX lens and will most likely be a part of the future two lens kit for the D3100.

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR DX Specifications

Here are the lens specifications:

1. Focal length: 55-300mm
2. Maximum aperture: f/4.5-5.6
3. Minimum aperture: f/22-29
4. Lens construction: 17 elements in 11 groups (with two ED glass elements and one HRI lens element)
5. Angle of view: 28°50’ – 5°20’
6. Minimum focus distance: 1.4 m/4.59 ft.(throughout the entire zoom range)
7. Maximum reproduction ratio: 0.28x
8. No. of diaphragm blades: 9 (rounded)
9. Filter-attachment size: 58mm
10. Diameter x length (extension from lens mount): Approximately 76.5 x 123 mm/3.0 x 4.8 in.
11. Weight: Approximately 530 g/18.7 oz.
12. Supplied accessories: 58mm Snap-on Front Lens Cap LC-58, Rear Lens Cap LF-4, Bayonet Hood HB-57, Flexible Lens Pouch CL-1020

And additional information from the Nikon press release:
The new AF-S DX 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR fills a variety of roles as the perfect lens for family picture takers and photo enthusiasts alike. This lens is the ideal complement to the 18-55mm VR DX-format camera kit lens, such as the one coupled with the just-released D3100 D-SLR camera, and provides users with an affordable way to achieve super zoom focal lengths from 82.5mm to 450mm (35mm equivalent). The 55-300mm VR lens brings the benefits of longer focal lengths into range for users when capturing distant subjects, such as at athletic events, family gatherings and summer vacations. Additional features include a Tripod Detection Mode, which allows users to keep VR image stabilization activated and automatically compensates for minute vibrations when mounted on a tripod. Additionally, a High Refractive Index (HRI) lens element is implemented to keep the lens compact while offering high contrast even at maximum aperture. The optical construction consists of two Extra-low Dispersion (ED) Elements that effectively minimize chromatic aberration, even at the widest aperture settings.

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G vs Nikon 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6G

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR DX MTF Charts (Left: Wide, Right: Tele):

To compare, here are the Nikon 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR DX MTF Charts (Left: Wide, Right: Tele):

In terms of performance, both look very similar to me. The Nikon 55-300mm seems to have a slight edge in the corners when shot wide open at the widest zoom of 55mm, but everything else looks the same, even on the telephoto side. From the charts, we can see that the Nikon 55-300mm performs equally well @ 300mm as the 55-200mm @ 200mm, which is certainly good news, because those extra 100mm will certainly be handy for distant subjects.

The Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR DX will sell for $399.95 and is already available for pre-ordering from B&H.

Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II

1) Lens Overview

When it comes to telephoto lenses, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 line of lenses has always been a metric of sharpness, contrast and acuity. The Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II is no exception – it sports top of the line optical design and technology that are capable of resolving tons of details, delivering outstanding results for any kind of long-range photography. The Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II was released as a minor update to the existing Nikon 300mm f/2.8G IF-ED – the optical design stayed the same, with the exception of Vibration Reduction II (VR II) technology and a new A/M focus mode.

Although the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II is primarily marketed for sports, action and wildlife photographers, it is also an ideal lens for portraiture. Its magical optical design beautifully renders the background elements known as “bokeh“, while retaining maximum sharpness on the subject. The large maximum aperture of f/2.8 is very useful for low-light environments and coupled with the VR II technology, allows photographers to capture tack-sharp images hand-held without introducing blur to the images due to camera shake.

The Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II works equally well on both FX and DX sensors, with a 1.5x narrower field of view on DX sensor, which is equivalent to 450mm. All current Nikon teleconverters are known to work exceptionally well on this lens, even the 2x teleconverter, which is known to significantly degrade image quality on most other Nikon lenses. The Nikon 1.4x TC-14E II teleconverter increases the focal length of the lens to 420mm while increasing the maximum aperture to f/4.0, the Nikon 1.7x TC-14E II teleconverter increases the focal length to 510mm and maxumum aperture to f/4.8, and the Nikon 2.x TC-20E III doubles the focal length of the lens to 600mm and stops down the lens by two stops at maximum aperture of f/5.6. What this essentially means, is that while you get more total focal length with the teleconverters, you end up losing some light at the same time.

The two letters “ED” in the lens name stand for “extra-low dispersion”, as explained in my Nikon lens naming convention article, which means that the lens delivers superior sharpness and reduced “chromatic aberration” or color fringing in photographs when compared to non-ED lenses. In addition to the Silent Wave Motor (SWM/AF-S) that provides fast and quiet auto focus, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II also features the Nano Crystal Coating technology, which reduces ghosting and flare. When it comes to weather sealing, the Nikon 300mm easily withstands dust, moisture and tough weather conditions – usual environments for nature and wildlife photographers.

2) Lens Specifications

Main Features:

1. Fast-aperture of f/2.8, professional telephoto performance, optimized for edge-to-edge sharpness for both FX and DX-format Nikon D-SLRs – perfect for action and sports photojournalism, wildlife photography and more.
2. Exclusive Nano Crystal Coat further reduces ghosting and internal flare for even greater image clarity.
3. Nikon Silent Wave Motor (SWM) delivers fast, accurate and quiet autofocusing.
4. Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC) enhances light transmission efficiency and offers superior color consistency and reduced flare.
5. Features enhanced dust and moisture-resistance, magnesium die-cast barrel construction and a protective meniscus front lens.
6. Fully compatible with Nikon TC-14E II, TC-17E II and TC-20E II (III) Teleconverters.
7. Nikon VR II (Vibration Reduction), engineered specifically for each VR NIKKOR lens, enables handheld shooting at up to 4 shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible, assuring dramatically sharper still images and video capture.
8. Three Extra-low Dispersion (ED) elements offer superior sharpness and color correction by effectively minimizing chromatic aberration, even at wide apertures.
9. A/M mode joins the familiar M/A and M modes, enhancing AF control versatility with fast, secure switching between auto and manual focus to accommodate personal shooting techniques.
10. AF Memory Recall allows instant return to a predetermined point of focus.
11. Close focusing to 7.2 feet in manual focus or 7.5 feet in autofocus, enabling striking image perspectives.
12. Rounded 9-blade diaphragm renders more natural appearance of out-of-focus image areas.

Technical Specifications:

1. Mount Type: Nikon F-Bayonet
2. Focal Length: 300mm
3. Maximum Aperture: 2.8
4. Minimum Aperture: 22
5. Maximum Angle of View (DX-format): 5°20′
6. Maximum Angle of View (FX-format): 8°10′
7. Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 0.16x
8. Lens (Elements): 11
9. Lens (Groups): 8
10. Compatible Format(s): FX, DX, FX in DX Crop Mode, 35mm Film
11. VR (Vibration Reduction)/Image Stabilization: Yes
12. Distance Information: Yes
13. Nano Crystal Coat: Yes
14. ED Glass (Elements): 3
15. Super Integrated Coating: Yes
16. Autofocus: Yes
17. AF-S (Silent Wave Motor): Yes
18. Internal Focusing: Yes
19. Minimum Focus Distance: 7.5 ft. (2.3m) AF / 7.2 ft. (2.2m) MF
20. Focus Mode: Auto, Manual, Manual/Auto, Auto/Manual
21. Filter Size: 52mm
22. Accepts Filter Type: Slip-in
23. Dimensions (Approx.): 4.9×10.5 in. (Diameter x Length), 124×267.5mm (Diameter x Length)
24. Weight (Approx.): 102.3 oz. (2900g)
25. Lens Case: CL-L1
26. Lens Hood: HK-30
27. Supplied Accessories: 52mm filter holder, 52mm Nikon NC Filter, LN-1 strap, HK-30 Slip-on lens hood, CL-L1 semi-soft case, Slip-on Front lens cover, Rear lens cap

3) Lens handling

The Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II is a rugged professional lens made of tough magnesium material, designed to withstand physical abuse in various weather conditions and tough environments. I took it with me in very hot, dry weather and also used it in humid, rainy environments without any protection – the lens functioned flawlessly and I did not see any water accumulation inside the lens. Weighing 2.9 kilograms, it is certainly a heavy lens that feels very solid and durable. Although it will easily take occasional bumps during professional use, if you are worried about scratches and other potential damage, I would recommend to get a LensCoat Lens Cover for it. I use LensCoat on the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 VR and it certainly does a very good job at not only protecting the lens, but also in keeping my hands warm when shooting in colder environments.

When used on a tripod with a ball head, the lens balances very well on the Nikon D3s body. If you have a lighter camera body like Nikon D700, I suggest attaching the MB-D10 camera grip for better balance. When it comes to hand-holding though, I do have two complaints. First of all, due to the lens body being relatively short (compared to 200-400 and 400mm+ lenses), the area that you hold with your left hand (between the focus ring and the rear end of the lens) is also short. Because of this, if you are not careful with your thumb and index fingers, you will most likely end up touching the focus ring and potentially messing up your focus while shooting. Keeping the hand on the focus ring is not a good idea, especially when tracking birds in flight – your hand movements will most likely alter the focus at the same time. The second complaint also has to do with the short area of the lens that is used for hand-holding. When I shoot telephoto lenses hand-held, I always rotate the tripod collar upwards so that it is not on my way. Doing the same with this lens leaves the large circular rotator on the bottom right side of the lens, which makes holding the lens uncomfortable. I found a workaround to the problem though – rotating the tripod collar to around 120-135 degrees clockwise, where the tripod mount points at around 10-10:30 o’clock when viewed from the rear, leaves some clear area for the left hand. Nikon could address this problem by making the focus ring shorter in size and keeping it closer to the barrel of the lens.

When it comes to manual focus operation, the focus ring is smooth and very easy to operate when mounted on a tripod. When shooting hand-held, using the thumb and index fingers works well, but still not very convenient, due to the above-mentioned problems. When you move the focus ring and reach the focus limit, the ring continues rotation with no resistance in either direction. In addition to the normal AF and other switches on the side of the lens, there is a separate VR ring to turn VR on and off. To be honest, I have never been a fan of these types of rings, since they have a “plastic” feel to them and seem to easily break. On top of that, I did manage to accidentally turn VR off while hand-holding the lens, so I certainly prefer a switch for VR instead, like on the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 and Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 lenses.

Nikon 70-200mm, Nikon 200-400mm and Nikon 300mm compared

The HK-30 carbon fiber hood that is also used on the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 VR II lens works great against flare and protects the front element of the lens, so I suggest leaving it on the lens at all times when shooting in the field. The hood can also be mounted in the reverse position, shortening the length of the lens, which is very useful for transporting the lens in a camera bag. The included CL-L1 lens case works fine for storing the lens and will accommodate a DSLR body as well.

4) Focus acquisition speed and accuracy

Like all long-range Nikon telephoto lenses, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II is equipped with Internal Focus (IF), which drives the AF performance to its limits. The lens snaps into focus instantly and silently, thanks to the Silent Wave Motor. Focusing works very well, even in low-light environments. I primarily used the lens on the Nikon D3s professional camera body and it produced exceptional results at all apertures. Even with the Nikon TCs attached, the lens did not have any problems acquiring focus (more on the subject below) for both stationary and moving subjects.

5) Lens sharpness and contrast

When it comes to sharpness and contrast, the Nikon 300mm is often regarded as one of the sharpest Nikon lenses ever produced and is considered to be a sharpness “reference” lens. It took Nikon 40 years to make it what it is today – a highly regarded work of art and engineering that delivers outstanding images to sports, action and wildlife photographers that need maximum sharpness for print. As shown in the subsequent pages of this review, both center and corner frames are razor sharp at all apertures, which is simply incredible. Contrast is top of the class and colors are stunningly beautiful, definitely Nikon’s best, thanks to the clever optical design of the lens.

6) Bokeh and Vignetting / Light Falloff

One of the strengths of long telephoto lenses is the beautiful, creamy bokeh they are able to produce, due to the shallow depth of field, at even longer distances. The Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II is a bokeh champion – it produces exceptionally good-looking background blur, especially wide open at maximum aperture of f/2.8. I primarily used the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II for birding and wildlife photography and I was stunned by the results. The bokeh looks creamy and beautiful and the lens does a superb job at isolating subjects at large apertures. Here is an example of subject isolation and bokeh for a portrait that was shot at f/2.8:

The amount of vignetting is very moderate at maximum aperture and is barely noticeable, especially when compared to Nikon 200-400mm @ 300mm f/4.0. The corners look much brighter by f/4.0 and vignetting is almost completely gone by f/5.6. Don’t get too concerned about vignetting though, since it can be very easily fixed in Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. In Lightroom 3.0, there is an option to “Enable Profile Corrections” under “Lens Corrections”, which can be used to get rid of vignetting issues. Although there is no camera profile for the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 yet, you can type a custom value or move the slider to fix vignetting problems. I used +20 under “Amount” in “Lens Vignetting” and that removed all traces of vignetting on images shot at f/2.8.

7) Ghosting and Flare

Notice how big the hood on this lens is? Well, it is there for a reason – most long-range telephoto lenses do not perform well against the sun, when compared to wide angle lenses. So, if you shoot against the sun, you might get some large, nasty flares and plenty of ghosting, which is quite normal. The integrated “Nano Crystal Coat” certainly helps to reduce ghosting and flare, but does not eliminate it. Here is an image with the sun in the center frame:

And here is another one with the sun on top right side of the frame:

As you can see, the images contain lens flares and ghosts in both images, but the one with the sun in the center does not look bad at all.

8) Distortion

Forget about distortion on this lens – it is almost non-existent. If you put up straight lines on the wall and shoot some samples wide open, you might see a very minimal amount of pincushion distortion when shooting at close distances, but as soon as the focus point gets towards infinity or the lens is stopped down a little, distortion is completely eliminated. As I have pointed out in many of my other reviews and articles, distortion is generally not a problem, because it can be easily fixed in Photoshop or Lightroom 3 using Lens Correction.

9) Vibration Reduction

One of the biggest advantages of the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II lens is its Vibration Reduction II system. When you shoot with long telephoto lenses, even the slightest camera shake can result in blurry images. Considering the size, weight and focal length of this lens, it is impossible for a human to hand-hold the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II without normal vibrations. Even following the focal length rule, which states that the shutter speed of the camera should at a minimum be at the focal length of the lens (for example, at 300mm focal length, the shutter speed needs to be at least 1/300th of a second), does not always guarantee consistently sharp photos, again, due to vibrations caused by our hands. That’s where the VR system comes into play – it works its way against the motion, allowing to get sharp photos at slow shutter speeds. With the Vibration Reduction II system, Nikon claims a 4 stop improvement, which means that you should be able to obtain sharp images while shooting at around 1/30th of a second, hand-held at 300mm. It is certainly tough to get sharp images at 1/30th of a second, but doable if you use a proper hand-holding technique. I would say 1/60th of a second (around 3 stops) is a pretty reliable shutter speed with VR turned on and anything slower than that might introduce blurry images due to camera shake.

10) Performance with the Nikon TC-14E II teleconverter

As I have pointed out above, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II works great with all Nikon teleconverters. The Nikon TC-14E II teleconverter increases the focal length of the lens to 420mm total (300 x 1.4) and slows down the lens to f/4.0. Aside from the decreased maximum aperture, you will barely notice that the TC-14E II is attached to your camera – it has a very small effect on image quality, sharpness or color. The results with the TC-14E II are fantastic and I would not hesitate to shoot the lens wide open at f/4.0, although stopping down to f/5.6 certainly improves the sharpness. A detailed sharpness comparison with the TC-14E II can be found in the subsequent pages of this review.

11) Performance with the Nikon TC-17E II Teleconverter

The day I received the lens, I already knew that it would perform exceptionally well with the TC-14E II. So I attached my Nikon TC-17E II 1.7x teleconverter to the lens and went out shooting, while waiting for the TC-20E III to arrive. I was quite surprised to see how well the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II performed with the TC-17E II in terms of sharpness and contrast. Compared to the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 VR (which does not work well with anything longer than the TC-14E II) the results were outstanding. Take a look at the following sample images shot with the Nikon TC-17E II:

Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II with TC-17E II @ f/5.6

Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II with TC-17E II @ f/6.3

If you are interested in seeing a detailed sharpness test, see the subsequent pages of this review.

12) Performance with the Nikon TC-20E III Teleconverter

It is no coincidence that Nikon released the new Nikon TC-20E III together with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II. The Nikon TC-20E III was specifically engineered to work well with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G lens – one of the few Nikon lenses that historically performed well with the 2x teleconverter. I have heard a lot of good things about the TC-20E III and after one of our readers sent some sample images from the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II + TC-20E III combo, I knew that I had to get the TC-20E III. The images looked unrealistically good, because the older version of the Nikon 70-200mm performed quite poorly with teleconverters, even with the TC-17E II.

It was darn hard to obtain the Nikon TC-20E III because of such a high demand on it and after waiting for a few weeks, I decided to just rent it for a week. My objective was to try the Nikon TC-20E III specifically with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II and with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II to see how it truly performs in an outdoor environment when photographing nature. It is one thing to shoot test charts with a lens sitting on a tripod, and another to get out and do some real shooting. Some lenses look great on paper and on test charts, but cannot perform equally well when used in an outdoor environment, especially with fast-moving subjects like birds. The primary reason is autofocus, which primarily depends on the speed of the AF motor inside the lens and camera’s AF system. Teleconverters generally negatively impact autofocus performance, due to a considerable loss of light and contrast and the 2x TC is the worst in this regard.

But what about the TC-20E III? Take a look at the following 100% crop:

The image was shot at maximum aperture of f/5.6, which is very impressive! Move the mouse over to see how it looks with some sharpening applied to the image using my “how to sharpen images in Lightroom” tutorial. To be honest, I did not expect the TC-20E III to work this well wit the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II. After having some bad experience with the TC-17E II and TC-20E II TCs in the past, I subconsciously started stopping down the lens to f/8.0-f/10 in the beginning, thinking that I would not be able to obtain sharp images otherwise. Well, as you can see from the above example, shooting wide open is perfectly acceptable with the TC-20E III, although stopping down to f/8.0 does produce even sharper images:

Again, if you want to see some detailed sharpness tests, check out the subsequent pages of this review.

Let’s now move on to the good stuff – Sharpness tests and Comparisons. Select the next page below.

Some technical junk:

1. White Balance: Auto
2. ISO: 200
3. EXIF information is preserved in the images
4. Lens was mounted on Nikon D3s FX Camera and Gitzo tripod
5. Subject distance is about 8 meters (approx. 26 feet)
6. Focusing was performed through Live-View Contrast Detect.
7. Mirror Lock-Up mode with Exposure Delay set to “On” and remote cable release to completely eliminate camera shake
8. Long exposure NR: Off
9. Image Format: RAW
10. Lightroom settings: Default settings, but exposure had to be slightly adjusted for some images
11. Lightroom export: sRGB JPEG Quality 80
12. Testing was performed at f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6 and f/8.0 apertures
13. Nothing was moved during testing

13) Sharpness Test – Nikon 300mm Center Frame

Either hover your mouse or click on each image to see the aperture settings. Top left: f/2.8, Top right: f/4.0, Bottom left: f/5.6, Bottom right: f/8.0.

Do you see a difference between any of the above images? Because I don’t – the center sharpness of the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II is looking very good at all apertures.

14) Sharpness Test – Nikon 300mm Corner Frame

How about the extreme corners? Let’s take a look:

Again, the corners look as good as the center frame, which is simply incredible! No wonder why images from this lens look so crisp and sharp.

Compared to Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0G VR

Many photographers who are interested in buying a telephoto lens wonder how the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II compares to the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0G VR lens. Lucky, I have the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 lens and I was able to perform some tests with it.

15) Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0G VR

I have been shooting with the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 VR lens for several years now and I have been quite happy with it – it takes very sharp images wide open and performs exceptionally well throughout the zoom range. While the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 VR has recently been updated to the VR II version with no change in optics, VR is not the problem with the 200-400mm. The biggest issue for me is its weight and size. When you grab the 200-400mm on one hand and the 300mm lens on another, you immediately notice the difference in weight which is around 1 pound or ~400 grams. Those 400 grams do make a difference when hand-holding the lens. I typically hand-hold my 200-400mm and after a short while, my left hand starts to get sore. Because of this, I typically shoot in “bursts” of 5-10 seconds and then I have to rest. With the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II, I was able to hand-hold the lens for longer periods of time and it was very apparent when I did some birding in local parks.

Now in terms of size, the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0G is about 25% longer than the 300mm f/2.8G, which does present a few problems. First of all, not many camera bags can fit the 200-400mm with its hood in reverse position, while the 300mm fits in many types of bags. When I travel, I have to take the CL-L2 case with the lens and it is painful to get it in and out of the bag. Gladly, the bottom material can be removed from the CL-L2 and even the D3s fits together with the lens, however, it is still another bag to lurk around with. There are some bags that fit both the 200-400mm and a camera, but they are rather large and expensive. For hand-holding, as I have stated earlier, I do prefer the larger hand-holding area of the 200-400mm – if only the Nikon 300mm had a shorter focus ring that is closer to the end of the barrel!

Compared to the Nikon 300mm f/2.8, The Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 is a versatile lens, offering the ability to zoom from 200mm to 400mm, which is very useful for sports and wildlife photographers. Being able to zoom in and out is useful for large mammals and I know that many photographers that do safari trips to Africa and travel to Alaska to photograph bears love the 200-400 for this particular feature. But what about sharpness, and how does the 300mm with teleconverters compare to the 200-400mm? Let’s take a look.

16) Sharpness Test – Nikon 300mm f/2.8 vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0

Let’s see how both lenses perform at 300mm @ f/4.0 (Left: 300mm, Right: 200-400mm):

I did not want to move around or change zoom on the 200-400mm, so there is a slight difference in the field of view due to differences in lengths of both lenses. As you can see, both lenses perform exceptionally well in the center and there are no major differences in sharpness. The same goes for f/5.6 and f/8.0 apertures.

What about the corners? Let’s see extreme corners at the same aperture of f/4.0:

The Nikon 300mm certainly performs better than the 200-400mm in the extreme corners – it is noticeably sharper.

But shooting both lenses at 300mm is not very useful – photographers are mostly interested in finding out how images from the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G with various teleconverters perform against the Nikon 200-400mm. Let’s take a look at some examples with teleconverters.

17) Nikon 300mm f/2.8 + TC-14E II vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0

Let’s see how the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 + TC-14E II (1.4x – 420mm total) compares against the Nikon 200-400m at 400mm:

The Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 wins at f/4.0, which is expected, since we are comparing a lens with a teleconverter to another without one. The TC-14E II is superb, but it is another piece of glass in front of the camera, which certainly does impact the overall sharpness and acuity of the combo.

Here is a comparison at f/5.6:

Stopped down to f/5.6, the sharpness on the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 improves and gets very comparable to the 200-400mm.

18) Nikon 300mm f/2.8 + TC-17E II vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 + TC-14E II

Now here is an interesting comparison – if we take the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 and add the TC-17E II, we end up at 510mm. If we take the 200-400mm and add the TC-14E II, we get to 560mm. This time, I tried to match the field of view, because 50mm was too big of a difference. Let’s see how both compare at 510mm (Left: 300mm, Right: 200-400mm):

The Nikon 300mm f/2.8 with TC-17E II at 510mm performs almost equally well as the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 with TC-14E II. The 300mm image is a tad softer, but perfectly acceptable. Don’t forget that the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 with the TC-17E II is at maximum aperture of f/4.8, while the Nikon 200-400mm is at f/5.6, so the 300mm is slightly stopped down. Here is how f/4.8 compares against f/5.6 on the 300mm + TC-17E II:

As you can see, there is almost no difference between f/4.8 and f/5.6 on the 300mm, so I can conclude that there is a half stop advantage on the 300mm when shooting with the TC-17E II.

19) Nikon 300mm f/2.8 + TC-20E III vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 + TC-17E II

Now here is another interesting comparison – how does the 300mm with the TC-20E III compare with the Nikon 200-400mm with the TC-17E II? Again, I had to match the field of view on both to get comparable results (Left: 300mm f/5.6, Right: 200-400 f/6.7):

When shooting test charts, both look very similar, with a slight edge on the Nikon 200-400mm. However, results in the field are quite different – the Nikon 200-400mm with TC-17E II does not autofocus as well as the 300mm with TC-20E III and as a result, the number of keepers on the 300mm is much higher. Furthermore, stopping down the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 + TC-20E III to f/8.0 and higher yields sharper results than the 200-400mm + TC-17E II at the same apertures. Take a look at these two image samples at f/11:

As you can see, the image from the 300mm at 600mm is sharper.

20) Nikon 300mm f/2.8 + TC-20E III vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 + TC-20E III

What about Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 with the TC-20E III? Forget about it – autofocus on the 200-400mm does not work, period. I couldn’t even get D3s to acquire focus through liveview contrast detect with the TC-20E III and it took me several tries to get good focus:

As can be seen from the above images, the Nikon 200-400mm performs poorly with the TC-20E III, in addition to not being able to autofocus with it.

21) Summary of the comparison

So, which is a better lens to buy – the Nikon 300mm with 1.4x, 1.7x and 2.0x teleconverters, or the Nikon 200-400mm with 1.4x and 1.7x teleconverters? If you need the reach, go for the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II. Why? Because with the TC-20E III, you will reliably get to 600mm, while the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 VR will give you 560mm with the TC-14E II. Autofocus with the TC-17E II on the Nikon 200-400mm is very unreliable and unless you are OK with manual focus, I would not count on the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 + TC-17E II combo. Forget about using the TC-20E II on the Nikon 200-400mm – it will not autofocus.

Compared to Nikon 300mm f/4.0D AF-S

What about my favorite Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S lens? How does it compare to the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II with and without teleconverters? Let’s take a look.

22) Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II vs Nikon 300mm f/4.0D AF-S

Let’s compare both at 300mm f/4.0 (Left: Nikon 300mm f/2.8, Right: Nikon 300mm f/4.0):

I love the Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S for a reason – it is almost as good as the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 at f/4.0! How about the corners?

The corners are looking equally good, which is very impressive for Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S. So, the only difference here is the one stop advantage on the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II.

23) Nikon 300mm f/2.8G + TC-14E II vs Nikon 300mm f/4.0 + TC-14E

How does the Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S + TC-14E compare against the 300mm f/2.8G + TC-14E?

The results, again, are almost identical. The Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S performs exceptionally well with the TC-14E II and the only advantage of the 300mm f/2.8G VR II is one stop, i.e. maximum aperture of f/4.0 vs f/5.6. No need to show the corner performance with the TC-14E II, because it looks the same.

What about TC-17E II and TC-20E III on the Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S? The situation is very similar as with the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 lens – the TC-17E II yields unreliable results, while with the TC-20E III, the lens does not autofocus.

24) Summary of the comparison

As can be seen from the above image samples, the Nikon 300m f/4.0 AF-S is a superb lens and is almost on par with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II performance when it comes to sharpness. The Nikon 300mm f/2.8G still yields better colors and bokeh though, because it has superior optics and shallower depth of field. When it comes to teleconverters, the Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S marries the TC-14E II pretty well, but that’s about it. TC-17E II yields poor and soft results due to slow and unreliable autofocus and with the TC-20E III, the lens does not focus at all. The biggest advantage of the 300mm f/2.8 lens is obviously VR – it is extremely tough to make sharp images with the 300mm f/4.0 AF-S when the shutter speed is slower than 1/250th of a second, due to lack of VR system.

Compared to Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

The next test is comparing the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II with the excellent Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II with TC-17E II and TC-20E III.

25) Nikon 300mm f/2.8G vs Nikon 70-200mm + TC-17E II

Left: Nikon 300mm f/2.8 @ f/5.6, Right: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 + TC-17E II @ f/5.6.

As expected, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G rips the 70-200mm f/2.8G + TC-17E II apart at 300mm f/5.6. In addition, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G is also showing signs of purple fringing.

26) Nikon 300mm f/2.8G + TC-14E II vs Nikon 70-200mm + TC-20E III

What if we compare 70-200mm + TC-20E III with the Nikon 300mm + TC-14E II? Let’s take a look (Left: 300mm, Right: 70-200mm):

Obviously, the field of view is different due to 400mm vs 420mm math, but again, as expected, the Nikon 300mm with TC-14E II beats the Nikon 70-200mm with TC-20E III. I must confess, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G + TC-20E III looks really good though. When the 70-200mm is stopped down to f/8.0+, the purple fringing goes away and the image gets sharper. But more on that later – I will post my findings in my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II Review later.

27) Summary of the comparison

Many of our readers ask if it is better to get the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II with the TC-20E III teleconverter, or get Nikon 300mm f/2.8G / f/4.0 AF-S lens. As can be seen from the above image samples, sharpness-wise, both Nikon 300mm lenses are better than the 70-200mm with a teleconverter. Just like I keep saying, if you need the reach, go for the 300mm lenses – they are always sharper with or without the teleconverters.

Compared to Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3

I borrowed the Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 lens from a good friend of mine and performed some additional tests, comparing it to the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II at various focal lengths.

28) Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II vs Sigma 150-500mm f/3.5-6.3

Let’s see how the Sigma 150-500mm stands up against the Nikon 300mm at 300mm (Left: Nikon 300mm, Right: Sigma 150-500mm):

And here is the extreme corner with the same settings @ 300mm:

Although the Sigma looks surprisingly good at 300mm (especially in the corners), as you can see, it is nowhere close to the 300mm in terms of sharpness. The 300mm focal length seems to be a “sweet spot”, at least when compared to the horrid 500mm performance:

The corners at 500mm look even softer, with plenty of color fringing all over the place.

29) Summary of the comparison

To be honest, I am not a big fan of telephoto Sigma lenses. They are definitely of good value, but their QA problems, inconsistent autofocus and often poor performance sets them apart from Nikon telephoto lenses. Just take a look at the horrible image of the 150-500mm at 500mm. I don’t know if I have a bad lens sample, but I certainly find this kind of performance unacceptable. I’m pretty sure Nikon would rather cut the lens to a shorter focal length, then release a lens that yields soft images.

Compared to Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR

The last test is to see how the Nikon 70-300 f/4.5-5.6G VR performs against the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II at 300mm.

30) Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II vs Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR

Let’s take a look at the center frame at f/5.6 (Left: 300mm, Right: 70-300mm):

The Nikon 70-300mm yields very comparable results to the Sigma 150-500mm, but is no match to the 300mm f/2.8G in terms of sharpness in the center. What about the corners?

Similar story here, except the 70-300mm is showing some nasty yellow/blue color fringing. These problems are reduced when the lens is stopped down to f/8.0, but sharpness-wise, the Nikon 70-300mm barely catches up with the Nikon 300mm at f/2.8 (Left: Nikon 300mm @ f/2.8, Right: Nikon 70-300mm @ f/8.0):

So, if you were to shoot the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II wide open at f/2.8, it would yield sharper results than the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR at f/8.0!

31) Summary of the comparison

The Nikon 70-300mm is overall a good lens, but no match to the superb performance of the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G, even when stopped down. In addition, as I have pointed out in my Nikon 70-300mm Review, the 70-300mm has problems focusing in low-light situations and does not work as well as the Nikon 300mm for shooting moving subjects such as birds. It is unfair to compare the 70-300mm with the 300mm f/2.8 due to such a large difference in price, but I still wanted to compare both anyway, for those who are interested.

Summary and Image Samples

32) Summary

Before I got my hands on the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II lens, I already had high expectations. Having seen the legendary performance of the earlier 300mm f/2.8 models, I knew that the new 300mm would not disappoint. My primary interest in obtaining this lens, was to find out how it performed with the new TC-20E III and other teleconverters, and how it performed against comparable and cheaper telephoto lenses. As you can see, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II not only meets, but exceeds all expectations. Its first-class contrast and colors yield beautiful images with exceptional bokeh, thanks to the magical design of the lens. Sharpness-wise, it is without a doubt the sharpest telephoto lens I have held in my hands and its performance with all Nikon teleconverters is beyond this world. The VR II system is very effective and certainly does a great job at preventing camera shake. That’s why top photographers use and love this lens – they know what to expect of it.

Is it a perfect lens? I would almost say “yes”, except there is one little thing I did not like about the 300mm barrel design. Since I shoot hand-held a lot, I found it a little inconvenient that the lens focus ring is so large and too close to the tripod collar, which leaves very little space to hold the lens with the left hand. I don’t know if I’m just very used to the Nikon 200-400mm, but I kept on accidentally touching the focus ring with my thumb and index filters a lot, which messed up my focus several times in the field. The focus ring is not very useful for wildlife photography, because most photographers rely on the autofocus system and only get to use manual focus in rare situations. Aside from this particular issue, I have nothing else to complain about – the lens is truly a work of art and deserves a spot in the hall of fame of best lenses.

Overall, I am very impressed with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II, most notably with its performance with the Nikon 1.4x, 1.7x and 2.0x teleconverters. During the time of testing, I shot primarily with teleconverters and I really liked the fact that the lens focused fast and accurately on my subjects, even with challenging light conditions. Whether you shoot sports, wildlife, portraits or other type of photography where you need to use a telephoto lens, you should seriously consider the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II for your work – it is well worth the money.

33) Where to buy and availability

You can order your copy of the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II lens at B&H – they occasionally have it in stock. The lens is currently selling for $5,899.

34) More image samples

All Images Copyright © Nasim Mansurov, All Rights Reserved. Copying or reproduction is not permitted without written permission from the author.

The above images are not cropped in post-production and represent equivalent focal lengths relative to 35mm. The longest field of view of the 1200mm shot was captured with the Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 + TC-20E III TC @ 400mm (800mm effective) on a DX body, which is equivalent to 1200mm. The shortest focal length was captured with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II at 70mm.

1) Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S

The first on the list is my (and Lola’s) most favorite lens for wedding photography – Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S. We like it for four main reasons: it is sharp, colorful, lightweight and the bokeh it produces is outstanding.

Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S

I have always been a fan of the 50mm primes. The older Nikon 50mm f/1.4D is also excellent, but the heptagon-shaped bokeh it produces is a little distracting, so I like the newer “G” version instead. On a full-frame body, the 50mm focal length is ideal and you can capture both beautiful portraits and full-size body shots if you stand a little away from your subjects. It works equally well on a DX body, but the focal length can be a little long, which is certainly a disadvantage when working in tight spaces. If I were only allowed to use one lens for weddings, I would certainly pick the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G. See a detailed Nikon 50mm f/1.4G Review for more information on this lens. Here are some image samples from it:

Nikon released a much cheaper, compact and lighter 50mm lens in 2011 – the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G. It actually performs better than the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G in many ways, so I would recommend to get the f/1.8G model instead.

2) Nikon 85mm f/1.4D/G

If you want the best-looking, creamy bokeh, check out the Nikon 85mm f/1.4G or the older Nikon 85mm f/1.4D, our second most favorite lens for wedding photography. Most photographers associate the word bokeh with this lens for a reason – it is the king of background blur. It is also one of the sharpest lenses from Nikon, producing outstanding results at maximum aperture of f/1.4.

Nikon 85mm f/1.4D

At maximum aperture the depth of field is so shallow, that if you stand too close to your subject and focus on the eye, the nose gets out of focus. I typically shoot between f/2.0 and f/2.8 for portraits and f/4.0 every once in a while if I need more depth of field. Lola also loves it and she has been using it a lot for her portrait sessions and weddings lately.

See my detailed Nikon 85mm f/1.4G Review for more information on this lens.

3) Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

I got my hands on the new Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II as soon as it became available, because I knew that it would be much better than the old one, which I always enjoyed shooting with. The nice thing about the 70-200mm, is that it gives you so much focal length to play with.

Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G ED VR II

When you shoot with prime lenses like the Nikon 50mm or Nikon 85mm, you almost have to engage with people, because they will certainly note your presence due to your proximity. The Nikon 70-200mm allows you to capture subjects from a distance in their natural state, without drawing their attention to you. It is a very versatile lens and it works great with all Nikon teleconverters, if you feel that the focal length is not sufficient. Sharpness and color are outstanding at all focal lengths and the bokeh on the 70-200mm is also superb. The only complaint that I have about the 70-200mm is its weight – Lola never uses it because it is too painful to carry. Periodic shooting with this lens is not as bad, but I had a lot of back pain after shooting our last wedding with it all day long…not something I want to do again. Combine the weight of a pro-level body like Nikon D3s and it becomes one heavy combo. Check out my review of the 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II that I posted a while ago.

4) Nikon 24mm f/1.4G AF-S

If you want to see the sharpest Nikon lens ever produced, check out the Nikon 24mm f/1.4G! This gem has not been leaving my bag ever since I put it on my camera. I have been using it for all kinds of photography, including nature photography and weddings, and the 24mm focal length is very useful for full body and group shots or when working in tight space environments.

Nikon 24mm f/1.4G AF-S

While it is not designed to be a great portrait lens like the 85mm or 70-200mm lenses, it can certainly do the job quite well in the bokeh department with its maximum aperture of f/1.4. Just like other f/1.4 prime lenses, it is great for low-light situations, especially towards the end of the wedding when the amount of ambient light diminishes to very challenging levels. Check out my in-depth review of the Nikon 24mm f/1.4G if you have not seen it already for more information.

5) Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G

The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G has been one of my favorite lenses for landscape photography ever since it was released. While it is not as sharp as the Nikon 24mm f/1.4G and suffers from heavy distortion/vignetting between 24mm-28mm focal lengths, its versatility to zoom all the way to 70mm compensates for the problems. I rediscovered this lens when I started photographing people and I have been very pleased with the beautiful and colorful images it creates. It is certainly not a lens of choice for isolating subjects and creating beautiful bokeh, but if you stand close enough to your subject and shoot at f/2.8 and use focal lengths above 35mm, you will get pretty impressive results.

Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G

The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G is a great lens for photographing full body shots and it does equally well when taking pictures of groups. I wrote a detailed Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 Review, comparing it with both Nikon 24mm f/1.4G and Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G.

We heavily rely on all of the above lenses for our wedding photography. When it comes to wide-angle lenses, I typically take either the Nikon 24mm f/1.4G or the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G, but not both. I know that many wedding photographers also enjoy fisheye and tilt-and-shift lenses for weddings, but I have not yet had much experience with them, so I cannot comment. If you have other favorite lenses for your portrait/wedding photography, please let us know in the comments section below!