Af-s Nikkor 300mm F/4e Pf Ed Vr Review

The Nikon AF-Southward Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR 2 ($five,499.95) is one of those lenses that hobbyists animalism after and certain professionals absolutely need to get their jobs done. Its long focal length and bright aperture make it a solid choice for shooting sports, particularly in the difficult lighting you lot find in many venues, and wildlife photographers will appreciate the ability to pair with a teleconverter and even so focus and runway moving subjects at total speed. Its epitome quality, focus performance, and build quality earn our Editors' Pick.

Design: No Corners Cutting

The 300mm f/2.8G ($v,889.95 at Amazon) is huge. Information technology measures x.5 by four.9 inches (Hd) and weighs six.four pounds. But despite its majority, I establish it comfortable to handhold for brusque periods of time, though I'd recommend pairing with a monopod for extended apply. There's an integrated tripod collar; it rotates and then yous can switch from landscape to portrait orientation and has a thumbscrew to lock it in place.

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The front element is huge, so to salvage you from having to purchase obnoxiously expensive front end filters, Nikon has included a rear drib-in filter holder. It supports the 52mm size. If you want to apply a circular polarizer you'll need to purchase the C-PL1L filter ($398), which has a machinery to rotate the internal filter in order to change the polarization.

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The included lens hood is carbon fiber, and then it doesn't add together a lot of weight to the front of the lens, while at the same time protecting the front element and blocking stray light from hitting the lens from odd angles. It attaches via a thumbscrew and is reversible. Instead of a cap, Nikon includes a soft lens cover to protect the front element during storage and ship. You also get the standard rear cap, a carrying strap, and a soft carrying example.

The lens butt is all metallic, finished in matte black. In that location's difficult safety covering toward the front end, which you can use to more than comfortably cradle the lens with your left hand when handholding. The manual focus ring occupies about 3 inches of the center. It'due south too covered in hard condom and turns comfortably. About 200 degrees of throw is required to motion from the minimum focus altitude to infinity.

At that place are a bunch of other on-lens controls. The VR (stabilization) tin can be turned on or off using a ring control, located toward the base of the lens. It's quick to find past feel, so yous can quickly disable VR for a panning shot, and plough information technology dorsum on equally needed without taking your middle off the action.

Nikon promises three stops of vibration correction, which means you should be able to get consistently blur-free images when shooting handheld at shutter speeds as long equally 1/xl-2d. I institute that the lens is able to do that without breaking a sweat, even on the high-resolution D850 body. If you're sitting or using a monopod yous'll exist able to push information technology well across that—with some care I was able to get consistently blur-free results at 1/ten-second, and 1/20-second when working in a faster, real-world pace.

Several toggle switches sit down on the left side, just ahead of the VR toggle. Starting at the top you lot go the focus mode switch, with A/Yard, Chiliad/A, and M settings. A/One thousand is the default, standard operation, which allows yous to override autofocus at any time by focusing manually. One thousand/A does the same thing, but is better suited for shooting activeness every bit even a pocket-sized move of the band makes a manual focus ring—at that place's a slight delay with A/Chiliad as to prevent accidental adjustments. Finally, Thousand mode puts the lens in full-time transmission focus.

Side by side is the focus limiter, with a Full setting that allows autofocus to range across the entire altitude at which the lens can focus. The secondary position limits focus from six meters (19.vii feet), ideal for situations where y'all're only concerned virtually locking on to more distant subjects. It will prevent subjects passing in front of your lens at close distances from throwing off the autofocus arrangement, and speeds target acquisition. Even without the limiter enabled, I found focus in the existent world to be extremely quick. I had no bug locking on to fast-moving targets like birds in flight, and was able to track them effectively with both the D850 and D500.

The VR switch controls how the stabilization system works when it's turned on. Y'all can gear up it to Normal, which should be used in most situations, or Active, which is the right choice when you lot're working from an unstable platform—a moving car, boat, or helicopter, for example.

The next toggle switch adjusts how the 4 button buttons, placed at 90-degree intervals merely ahead of the manual focus ring, piece of work. Information technology has three settings—AF-L, Memory Recall, and AF ON. AF-L prevents the photographic camera's autofocus system from working when any of the iv buttons is held down, while AF ON activates autofocus whenever i of the buttons is pressed.

Memory Recall is a characteristic yous'll simply discover on pro-grade lenses. Information technology works with a Retention Set up push, located on the right side of the barrel, very close to the lens mountain. It allows yous to set focus at a particular altitude, and return to that setting at any fourth dimension. It's incredibly useful for sports photographers. If you're photographing baseball you can prepare a focus signal for a indicate of interest on the field, say second base, and so you lot can rapidly pan over and capture a baserunner stealing a pocketbook, even if your lens had been trained on a pitcher or concoction a split-2d before.

There'south a chinkle option to alert you when the focus bespeak has been saved, but you tin can turn it on with the last toggle switch if you're working in an surround where silence is imperative.

The lens is capable of focusing as close as 7.vi feet (2.3 meters). It's not a macro, delivering just i:6.25 life-size magnification when focused equally close as possible. Y'all'll even so be able to capture some shut-up shots, similar the prototype of the lily below, only y'all won't get the tiniest details that you lot can with a true 1:i macro lens.

Because the lens has an f/2.viii discontinuity, information technology can exist used with teleconverters without sacrificing focus speed on whatever of Nikon's electric current pro bodies, including the D500, D850, and D5. I tried it out with the AF-Southward Teleconverter TC-20E Iii on both the D500 and D850. I found focus to exist merely every bit speedy as without, and image quality to be strong. Remember that calculation a teleconverter does effectively cut the amount of light hitting the sensor. When paired with the 2x extender, the 300mm f/ii.8 turns into a 600mm f/v.vi. That'due south a stop slower than the AF-S Nikkor 600mm f/4E FL ED VR, just remember that is a $13,000 lens.

Image Quality: A Razor-Sharp Telephoto

I benchmarked the 300mm f/two.eight using the 45.6MP D850 and Imatest software. It delivers strong results on the enervating loftier-resolution sensor. At f/ii.eight the combination resolves 3,779 lines on Imatest'south sharpness test. The evaluation is middle-weighted, merely that doesn't matter—results at the extreme edges of the frame are as skilful as in the center. We classify the operation in the very skilful range, with 2,750 lines as the lowest acceptable score.

Stopping down to f/four pushes the lens into excellent territory as resolution climbs to 4,427 lines, the sharpest score we saw across its aperture range. It's almost as good at f/five.6 (4,344 lines), and remains quite adept at f/eight (4,050 lines) and f/11 (4,157 lines). You should avoid shooting at narrower settings equally diffraction cuts into resolution—it drops to 3,760 lines at f/16 and 2,978 lines at f/22.

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There's no visible baloney of which to speak. We practice run into a scrap of a vignette at the corners when shooting at f/ii.viii—about a -2.4EV drop compared with the middle. If y'all shoot in JPG format and don't fiddle with you camera settings, Nikon's automatic Vignette Control cuts the arrears to an about negligible -i.6EV. Raw photographers can remove any vignette using software tools, like Lightroom's lens profile. At settings narrower than f/two.eight, the vignette isn't visible.

A Dainty Lens, If Y'all Tin can Afford Information technology

There's no question, the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR Ii is an exceptional lens. The biggest hurdle that many will confront is its asking toll. For hobbyists and enthusiasts, it's a big pill to eat, merely working pros will notice that it will pay for itself in fourth dimension. There aren't whatever serious flaws in its optical quality or nitpicks about its design and build to call out.

There are more affordable options out there. Nikon's AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED doesn't capture as much calorie-free, but it'due south priced at $2,000 and weighs just 1.vii pounds. Sigma makes a 120-300mm F2.8 zoom that is also more affordably priced at $3,399, but is a heavy beast at 7.5 pounds. Sigma as well has a 300mm F2.8 prime for the same $3,399, but nosotros've not however had a run a risk to test information technology to come across how it compares. It's an older blueprint, dating back from before Sigma introduced its Global Vision line of Art, Contemporary, and Sports lenses.

Most other alternatives are zooms with narrower f-stops, which are in a completely different price and performance class. They are however a viable option if yous tend to shoot under bright sunlight and don't have a $5,500 budget for a long lens. Amid our favorites are the Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-half dozen.3 Di VC USD G2, the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 200-500mm f/v.6E ED VR, and the Sigma 100-400mm F5-6.3 DG Os HSM Contemporary.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR 2

Cons

The Lesser Line

The Nikon AF-Southward Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II is a big, expensive telephoto lens with a bright aperture and the superb build that working professionals demand.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/nikon-af-s-nikkor-300mm-f28g-ed-vr-ii