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j.liam
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Registered: Dec 13, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 43
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Review Date: May 15, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $450.00
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Great vibration reduction, light, surprisingly sharp, compact
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Cons:
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IQ noticeably deteriorates >200mm unless processed with DXO module; slow; not weather-sealed
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A real pleasant surprise. Great to travel with, light on the shoulders when carrying it around all day. The build quality is only fair; lots of plastic and not the heavy duty that one is used to with the pro-grade Nikkors. Dim viewfinder on account of the small maximum aperture (4.5-5.6) and AF seeks a bit in failing light. But it rewards with great resolution from 70-200mm and the VR II really does give you at least 2-extra stops to work with.
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 May 15, 2010
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trenchmonkey
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Registered: Oct 22, 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 21706
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Review Date: May 2, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $400.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Great IQ/range in a compact package, really struts it's stuff on FX
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Cons:
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It's not f4 :O
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Let's cut to it....I love this lens. I'm on my third copy, no...nothing wrong
with the first two. Just sold them for lack of use. Fast forward to an FX
transition last year. Picked up another copy on the cheap and am just
blown away by the IQ it delivers. Great colors/contrast even the bokeh!
If I don't want to hump around the 70-200/300 f2.8 VRs this lil guy will
get the call. Candids, landscapes, flowers, portraits, rodeo, and even BIF
all captured SOOC with stunning clarity. Best bang for the buck, period 
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May 2, 2010
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---XR---
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Buy and Sell: On
Registered: Oct 30, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 497
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Review Date: Mar 18, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $450.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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size/weight, VR, Value
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Cons:
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not a pro build (but for the price it's just fine).
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This lens is by my account, probably the best value nikon offers. For travel i loved this lens, if i didn't need the aperture of the other lenses i'd use it more. what you get is a suprisingly sharp zoom with a VR system and a whole lot of ease of use for a very resonable sum, i've owned a few 70-300's of different makes and this is just stellar (the best), I've also owned/used nikons offerings in the 70-200 VR1 and 80-200 AFS/D models. while not as sharp i like this better. the extra 100mm+weight difference and price with good IQ was a no brainer for me. I always shot this in manual focus so i can't talk about the AF, i'll assume from my other AF-S lenses it's great. as you can imaging it doesn't have the pro feel or build, but you get what you pay for and i was fine with this.
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Mar 18, 2010
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margilli
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Registered: May 13, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 23
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Review Date: Jan 6, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $420.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Image quality and build quality far surpass the price point of this lens. Just get one if you are considering this lens. You will not be dissapointed.
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Cons:
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None given that this is considered a "consumer level" lens.
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Perfect lens for outdoor shooting. Easy to carry so it will always be with you. VR works very well when handholding at 300. Easily one of Nikon's best values.
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Jan 6, 2010
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tom s
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Registered: Jun 3, 2007
Location: Croatia
Posts: 158
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Review Date: Oct 6, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $500.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp, inexpensive, excellent color rendition, good ''macro'' performance, fast & silent autofocusing
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Cons:
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Plastic feel, extends while zooming, bokeh is just average (due to slow aperture: f/5.6 at 300mm)
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This is one of the better products in Nikon prosumer range, it's good on both 1.5x crop and full frame. It's relatively compact and discrete, so you can use it for candid portraits.
While the lens has 4 stops of VR, it is not a low light lens (although you can get nice low light shots of static urban scenes at its widest end [70mm]). Highly recommended!
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Oct 6, 2009
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piet1966
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Registered: Jul 16, 2009
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Jul 17, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Sharp, light, excellent VR
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Cons:
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Slightly soft at 300mm (but not nearly as bad as I expected)
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I am an amateur but do my best. This lens continues to surprise me. I bought it a few years ago next to my Nikon D50 and thought it was a very nice lens for its price. Then I became more critical, upgraded to a D90, and started buying more lenses (mostly third-party lenses but with good reviews).. and by now I think it is a great lens.
Between 70 and 200mm, sharpness is really excellent and comparable to that of my Tokina 100mm F/2.8 macro. 300mm is less perfect but still good. For the occasional bird and wildlife, images taken at around 270mm/F8 (which have slightly better quality than when taken at 300mm) and scaled up to 400mm have nearly the same quality as pictures taken with my Sigma 400mm F/5.6 prime. The AF-S focus is obviously much better than that of the (non-AFS) Sigma, and VR works great.
The lens is nicely compact and lightweight. And it must have a good build, because I dropped it once onto a concrete floor, cracking the plastic viewing glass above the distance scale, but everything is still working flawlessly.
All in all, one of my best buys.
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Jul 17, 2009
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Skyehigh
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Registered: Jan 10, 2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 200
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Review Date: May 26, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Not to big to carry around , sharp
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Cons:
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Not the sharpest 200-300 but nothing else
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This lens is very similar to the Canon version , its a great lens to own , not to big and gets really sharp images
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May 26, 2009
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Ceko
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Registered: May 5, 2008
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 0
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Review Date: May 25, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Very sharp, has a nice contrast too, weathersealed
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Cons:
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None I can think of
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Just a fabulous lens. Very sharp from 70-200mm and sharp to 300mm. What amazes me is the incredible images it produces, it's just like a 70-200 but without the f2.8 and without the HUGE pricetag.
I use it mostly for potrait work and in landscape photography while traveling.
I recommend this much over-looked lens very much.
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May 25, 2009
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erlphoto
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Registered: Apr 24, 2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Apr 24, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $585.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Recently purchased and used this lens in an available light situation photographing large groups from a distance. Images are as sharp as a tack! Just as good as my 80-200 f2.8 Nikon lens, and that's saying a lot.
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Cons:
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I have owned the Nikon 80-200 f.8 for years but needed something with a little more magnification. I photograph singing groups on-stage in concert from the balconies of auditoriums. This lens proved to be as sharp as my old trusty 80-200 doing these groups of up to 100 people. Sharp as a tack. With the VR the smaller aperture didn't make a difference! I just purchased a second one for my son to use.
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Apr 24, 2009
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stevecoad1
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Registered: Apr 1, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Apr 1, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $572.00
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Much sharper than expected, fast, accurate focus
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Cons:
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A little slow in low light conditions
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I use this lens on a D90 so maybe the format helps but I have found that the image, if I do my part, is always tack sharp. Wide open it is not bad but I try to shoot a couple of stops down use shutter speed to compensate. This works very well.
This lens has taken some truly excellent shots and it is a great value. I don't think it is quite as sharp as a 70-200 but it is also 1/3 the price. Buy it you'll like it.
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Apr 1, 2009
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fdevyatkin
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Registered: Feb 11, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 1891
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Review Date: Mar 31, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $500.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Versatile zoom range, nice and light, great resolution and short end, more than acceptable at long end.
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Cons:
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f/5.6 requires high iso for action shots. A little soft at 300mm
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A very useful walk around lens. Lots of fun for outdoor social events, weddings etc. Close it down to f/8 or 9 and IQ is very high. Will not take TC. nice combo with D700
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Mar 31, 2009
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bravinneff
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Registered: Apr 22, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 13
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Review Date: Jan 28, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $375.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Price/performance ratio is hard to beat.
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Cons:
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I bought this lens used based upon on the glowing clamor it inspires on internet forums.
The major downsides one reads about the lens is the center softness between 250-300mm (wide open - it supposedly gets better one or two stops down), plus soft corners at these focal lengths that stay relatively soft compared to the center, regardless of aperture.
The first thing I did when I got this lens was mount it on a tripod and test these attributes using live view for critical focus. Testing at four different focal lengths (70, 125, 200, 250, 300), with test shots done wide open and f5.6, f8, f11, and f16, I discovered the consensus is mostly correct, but I also learned that determining this kind of thing is just as prone to focus error as it is to alleged softness.
When you use live view (D700 in my case) and zoom in to the pixel level to establish critical focus, the first thing you will notice is that the tiniest smidgen of focal adjustment can radically alter pixel-level sharpness. The second thing you will realize is that no autofocus system can establish focus to this level of precision. The third thing that will enter your mind is to question how much the anecdotal evidence about the sharpness of this lens (or any other lens for that matter) is due to tiny focus errors, which wider apertures exacerbate.
Having said that, I concluded that this lens is actually quite sharp at 300mm and f5.6 at the center – definitely acceptably sharp, if not just plain sharp. But it is not as sharp as it is at 250mm and shorter. This corroborates the collective opinion on this lens. And yes, the corners at 300mm lack somewhat wide open as well, but they do get remarkably sharp even up to f16.
I also know that handholding this lens and chasing things like birds will never garner the tripod-live-view level of focus precision, so there is some merit to avoiding 300mm and f5.6, but you know what? I just did that with some flying geese and I was blown away by 300mm and f5.6 – when the camera and lens nailed focus. F8 was a little better.
Highly recommended. Even at 300mm and f5.6.
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Jan 28, 2009
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