AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

Product Information

A-M stands for Auto-Manual Mode. Thanks to a mechanism incorporated in the lens barrel, smooth focusing operation in Manual focus mode is realized in the same way as users have become accustomed to with conventional manual-focus lenses by adding an appropriate torque to the focus ring.

The last few of these to leave the production line were updated to "D," as seen on their identity plates. As you may already know, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II was a disappointment for some photographers, because it suffers from a “lens breathing” optical design, where the focal length of the lens varies depending on subject distance. At close distances, the 70-200mm loses quite a bit of the range, which can be a problem for those of us that like to fill the frame with small objects. The Nikon 70-200mm f/4G VR does not have this problem – I measured its focal length and it was exactly 70-200mm, no matter how close or far I focused. Its optical formula is similar to that of the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Macro, which also measured about the same. Now why is this important? If you lose some focal length at close distances, it also means that you will have to zoom in closer with the f/2.8 version to get a similar field of view. And as you may already know, longer focal length translates to shallower depth of field, which translates to better subject isolation and smoother bokeh. When comparing bokeh on the two lenses, if I focused with the 70-200mm f/4G VR at 116mm at a distance of about 5 feet between the lens and the subject, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II required me to zoom in to 200mm to get a similar field of view! That’s a pretty significant difference in focal length… If we use a depth of field calculator, we can plug what a 116mm lens at f/2.8 is like compared to a 200mm lens at f/4, both at 5 feet subject distance. The calculator says that the 70-200mm f/2.8 will yield a depth of field of 0.09 feet, while the 70-200mm f/4 will have 0.04 feet. That’s right – at close distances, the 70-200mm f/4G is actually a better lens to use for subject isolation. Now 5 feet is obviously too close, so let’s do slightly more realistic numbers. When doing my lab tests, I measured that the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II at 200mm is equivalent to the Nikon 70-200mm f/4G VR at 170mm, both at a distance of 13 feet. If I plug those numbers to the same calculator this time, I end up with 0.29 feet of depth of field for both lenses. What this all means, is that the Nikon 70-200mm f/4G yields shallower depth of field than the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G from the closest focusing distance to about 13 feet. Past 13 feet, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G starts to take over, because the lens breathing effect starts to wear out and the lens recovers most of its focal length. Therefore, at close distances, that one stop advantage of the 70-200mm f/2.8 is really not that of an advantage!Sigma’s AF 70-200mm 2.8 EX DG APO HSM OS is the cheapest way (around 950 EUR) to get a stabilized 70-200mm f2.8 zoom. See my Sigma 70-200 f2.8 OS review. I don’t have much to say about the vibration reduction other than it works! I have been shooting at 200mm down to 1/80th of a second with no camera shake and it works in a way so I don’t notice it is on. When shooting ICM it is of course turned off! Sun stars Sunstar example: the iPhone in the dark! The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens has a close-focus point of 1.4m throughout its zoom range (measured from the sensor plane rather than the front lens element). Nikon claims a maximum magnification of 0.12x at the telephoto end. Image stabilization is extremely important when using a long lens at slower shutter speeds. This is a feature I really think every photographer should make a priority when buying a professional-level telephoto. If you find yourself in a low light situation like shooting a wedding in a church or outside at dusk or if you are trying to take photos from a moving boat or unstable platform of some kind, VR is going to be an invaluable tool in creating the sharpest images possible.

The purpose of teleconverters is to increase the focal length of lenses, in other words to get closer to subjects, and the TC-20E III is the biggest and the longest teleconverter manufactured by Nikon – it doubles the focal length of a lens. While this teleconverter works with any professional Nikon lens that can take teleconverters, it is specifically designed to work with fast prime lenses with an aperture of f/2.8 and larger. The Nikon TC-20E III is targeted at sports, wildlife and other types of telephoto photography where the photographer cannot physically approach subjects.I am not a big fan of the sun stars this lens produces and it comes down to the 9 rounded blades. The peaks in the sun star as you can see above are split and look messy to me. I much more prefer the sun stars that straight blades gives, but I also understand why Nikon has made the rounded blades, as most users in their target group prefer bokeh over sunstars. Bokeh Just for the fun of it, and because people often tell me that primes are sharper than zooms, I made a little test where I looked at the center and corner sharpness and contrast, to see which one came out on top: Although the 180mm AF may not be the sharpest lens Nikon has ever produced, it certainly is a good lens and the 70-200mm won the center sharpness stopped down, whereas the prime won when going wide open. Maybe not a surprise, but to me this clearly shows that the lens in review here has very good contrast and sharpness. Chromatic aberrations Some chromatic aberrations can be seen in the treetops where the contrasts are the strongest. As you can see, stopping down the lens to f/5.6 and smaller almost completely gets rid of vignetting. NIKON D750 + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm, ISO 110, 1/160, f/4.0 Chromatic Aberration I've oned the Tamron SP 009 and used it on a Nikon D750 and D800. Ithink its a great lens, but I've noticed some "unsharpness", when I've got the lens in.

Select NIKKOR lenses have a focusing mode which allows switching from automatic to manual focusing with virtually no lag time by simply turning the focusing ring on the lens. This makes it possible to seamlessly switch to fine manual focusing while looking through the viewfinder. Similar to other Nikon teleconverters and its predecessor, the Nikon TC-20E III has a rugged all-metal exterior and a metal mount that is built to last a lifetime. The solid construction, along with a whopping 7 elements make it one heavy teleconverter, weighing a total of 330 grams without a lens attached. As a comparison, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G lens weighs only 280 grams. The Nikon TC-14E II and TC-17-E II weigh 200 and 250 grams, respectively. While the number of optical elements has not changed between the new and the older 2x teleconverters, two key differences to note are the redesigned layout/lens groupings and replacement of a regular lens element with an aspherical one. The aspherical element was added to improve image quality by increasing sharpness, decreasing coma and other aberrations. Like other teleconverters, the Nikon TC-20E III has fixed lens elements that do not move when focus ring or zoom ring are touched on the lens. This means that the lens is protected very well against dust and moisture. NIKON D3S + 300mm f/2.8 @ 600mm, ISO 200, 1/800, f/7.1 Autofocus Speed and Accuracy I am a bit concerned now if this is a sign the lens will get worse, i.e. if the screeching symptom mentioned earlier in the thread, or some failure, will happen next. If its your workhorse lens, then sure go for it, might as well get the best. If not, then probably money better spent on other lenses.

Fluorite (FL), a lightweight mono-crystal optical material, has excellent optical properties while reducing overall lens weight to improve balance and handling, especially useful in longer focal length lenses. Nikon sold very few of these because it cost four times as much, and weighed over twice as much, as the 80-200mm f/4 AI-s. Another very significant reason you probably will never see one of these is that the 80-200mm f/4 was just as sharp, and focused twice as close. Nikon's first pro-level f/4 tele zoom was announced in late 2012. It has the highest rated MTF of any Nikon tele zoom, and performs spectacularly —at a fraction of the size, weight and price of the 70-200mm f/2.8 ED IF VR II. I think F4 will serve me better with low cost and weight (as i do travel and landscape , weight matters a lot) but if the new F2.8 is way much better then why not. Typically, i dont sell my lenses. D5, D4 series, D3 series, Df, D850, D810, D810A, D800 series, D750, D700, D610, D600, D500, D300 series, D7500, D7200, D7100, D7000, D5600, D5500, D5300, D5200, D5100, D5000, D3400, D3300, D3200, D3100, Nikon 1 J1, J2, J3, J4, J5 with FT-1, Nikon 1 V1, V2, V3 with FT-1, Nikon 1 S1, S2 with FT-1

Even more important is that while the rated close-focus distance isn't that much closer, the older 70-200s cheated and weren't really 200mm at their close-focus distances. There is a distance scale sheltered behind a window, but there are no depth-of-field marks and no infrared focus index either. Nikon's Nano-Crystal-Coat does a sterling job of minimising flare and ghosting and the lens performs well for a design comprised of so many elements. A lens constructed of 21 elements in 16 groups would normally be an absolute nightmare for this. With a strong light source placed just out of the image, some ghosting and loss of contrast is present, but not to anywhere near the extent of the previous model. Shooting straight at a strong light source is also surprisingly ghost-free, with only a small amount of blooming around the edges of the light source. Another completely new design, this 70-200mm lens adds slightly closer focus and Nano-Crystal coating as it's gee-whiz features.

Nikon gelded (removed) the aperture ring to save money, which renders this lens useless with manual-focus cameras. That's the " G" in the model name, and it's a handicap, not a feature. I was a bit confused by SmittenHobbyist's response, but then I realized that he was talking about the optical design of the different generations of the 70-200 lens, not the VR systems they employ. Minimum focusing distance has nothing to do with VR. Complement this lens with a 24-70mm standard zoom and you can seamlessly cover a 8.3x zoom-range from fairly wide-angle to a decent tele with only two lenses. And while the 70-200mm f2.8 is corrected for full-frame FX format bodies, you could equally use it on a cropped-frame DX-body where it gives you an equivalent 105-300mm coverage plus future-proofing should you upgrade to an FX-body at a later date.