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Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4D IF-ED Lens

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The lens casing is made of plastic and does not feel as tough as lenses such as the 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8. Let’s be realistic though, we aren’t going to get such a lightweight lens with the equivalent build quality of such lenses. That said, it certainly feels a lot more durable than other plastic lenses. As we would expect, there is a metal lens mount with a rubber gasket to help with environmental sealing. Users of the previous version of the lens will be pleased to see the addition of a rear lens element which prevents contaminants from getting inside the lens and its mechanics. Image Quality It's not the best for precise work on a tripod with magnified Live View, but this lens isn't intended for that: it's a portable lens to be carried in the field for nature and action. The lens is fitted with an autofocus limiting switch which allows you to restrict the focusing range from 3 metres to infinity. Engaging this makes the focusing speed significantly faster and responsive than when the switch is set to ‘full’ where it hunts through the full range. As the minimum focus distance is 1.4m, setting it to ‘full’ only gives you a focus advantage of an additional 1.6m and there wasn’t anything I was photographing which came within this range anyway. As we would expect, the lens has internal focusing so there are no changes to dimensions, and no rotating filters.

PF: Pressed Fresnel element, which has a funny zig-zag cross section just as lighthouse condenser lenses do to save weight. This lens is the same size as the 24-70/2.8, but weighs less! It weighs less than the 28-300mm VR, too. As expected from a quality telephoto lens, distortion on the Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S is practically non-existent (Imatest measured barrel distortion at just -0.51). Adding teleconverters does not change this behavior, so you should be safe from having to correct anything in post-production. If you use the Lens Correction feature in Lightroom, you will see that there is very little change when Lightroom attempts to fix distortion. Chromatic AberrationThere is about a 1.2 stop difference between the darkest extreme corners and the center of the frame. As you stop down the lens to f/5.6 and smaller, vignetting decreases significantly. Ghosting and Flare Image stabilization: Yes, VR 4th (?) generation. At a focal length of 300mm and with today’s high resolution sensors image stabilization is an indispensable feature. Its predecessor had no image stabilization at all. The VR can be switched off and also offers a “normal” and a “sport” mode. The latter is recommended when “photographing athletes and other subjects that are moving rapidly and unpredictably”. [+] We all know the AF-S in this Nikkkor lens relates to the fast and silent focusing system, which in the new 300mm f/4E PF ED VR is impressive. The lens’ autofocus is fast, right on the money and for following anything at speed, you can count on it. Just like on the high-end telephoto and super-telephoto lenses, the color rendition of the lens is superb. Focus Breathing

As others on the web have reported similar findings the observed VR behaviour is not an individual problem with the two copies I tested. I hope Nikon does find a cure, because a good working image stabilization is a must have in my book for any lens longer than 135mm. This is also the reason why I can’t currently recommend this lens. Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots, especially with large aperture primes. Consistency of auto-focus (the accuracy of focus on the same subject after repeated focus-acquisition) of this lens is good (96.9% as measured in FoCal) with only slight variations and only one real outlier over a series of 40 shots. The lens focuses in around 0.35-0.5 sec from infinity to 3 m depending on whether the AF hunts beyond infinity at the start. This is very fast. The 300/4.0D does this in 0.5 sec . Both the new and the old lens exhibited a tendency to refuse focusing when the target was too blurred, e.g. when focus was set at 3m and the new target was at 7m. This also depends on the target so you should not worry too much. But occasionally you might find yourself in a situation where you need to nudge the lens manually in the right direction or simply try to trigger AF again. The lens is fitted with Nikon’s electromagnetic diaphragm to control the aperture blades. Earlier DSLRs are not fully compatible with this technology; they can be used but only at f/4. These are the D1, D2, D40, D50, D60, D70, D80, D90, D100, D200, D3000. Furthermore, only teleconverters from the II and III generations are compatible. Handling and Build The filter thread stayed the same at 77mm, which is great news for those who already own 77mm filters, or want to move up to this lens from the “D” version. The lens mount features a rubber gasket to minimize dust and debris from making it into the camera chamber. The single ring on the lens is made out of plastic and has a rubber layer on top of it for a better grip. The ring has the same smooth feel as on other modern AF-S lenses, allowing one to move past infinity or closest focus point with slightly more resistance. There are three switches on the side of the lens. The first switch is used for moving between Auto / Manual (A/M), Manual / Auto (M/A) and Manual (M) focusing operation. Vignetting levels on the Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S are controlled quite well. At maximum aperture, there is a little bit of darkening towards the corners. If vignetting bothers you, you can easily fix it in Lightroom via the Lens Correction module. Both the latest version of Lightroom 4 and the current version 5 have full support for this lens.Older Focusing motor means slower AF with newer camera bodies. Still very capable AF, just not as fast as newer versions. I have personally been a huge fan of the 300mm f/4D AF-S lens and have owned it for many years, loving the lens for its superb optical performance, fast autofocus, light weight, and compact size, making it my ultimate travel lens for wildlife photography – a perfect companion for hand-held shooting. Because it was so good with the 1.4x teleconverter, I practically always kept the teleconverter attached to the lens, making it a very nice 420mm f/5.6 combination. When Nikon finally announced the new 300mm f/4E VR lens, I got very excited, because Nikon completely redesigned the lens. In fact, with close to a 50% reduction in weight and a 30% reduction in physical size, we are not dealing with another redesign or update – this is a completely different lens. Detailed specifications for the lens, along with MTF charts and other useful data can be found in our lens database. NIKON D3S + 300mm f/4 @ 420mm, ISO 450, 1/1250, f/5.6 The Nikon 300mm f4 is not a cheap lens, optically superb, but a little more reach would be beneficial. The 400mm f/5.6 would be ideal for the folks. On the other hand the f/4 aperture is a big bonus in lower light situations. Alternatives

Designing telephoto lenses is a battle with chromatic aberration. We were at the greatest disadvantage in this battle with this 300mm lens. Chromatic aberration increases along with the focal length of the lens. This is easiest to understand if we imagine that it is proportional to the length of the lens. If the length of the lens is doubled—the focal length is doubled—the amount of chromatic aberration is doubled at the same time. Further, the amount of chromatic aberration also increases with the adoption of the common telephoto structure used for the Nikkor-P Auto 300mm f/4.5 to achieve a shorter total length. The concave lens in the rear group reduces the total length of the lens and achieves a consistently flat image plane, but it also works to increase all types of aberrations, including chromatic aberration, generated by the first group of elements. Autofocus: AF-S with SWM (silent wave motor), so it does work on D60/3×00/5×00-bodies. Manual-focus override is by simply turning the focus ring. [+] With that in mind, the 300 PF becomes an even more powerful and versatile lens, capable of offering a huge variety of focal options, despite being a prime lens, especially when you factor in the closest focus of 140cm (or 55 inches). This adds greatly to the versatility, especially when those converters and DX bodies are thrown in to the mix. Going one further and paired the 300 pf with the Nikon D500, you get an exceptionally powerful and easily manageable wildlife setup. Build quality is of a high standard. It feels solid, despite the weight reduction, although you probably wouldn’t want to drop it from any great height on to a hard surface. But with that being said, regardless of the build quality, you really wouldn’t want to do that with any lens…! Reason 2: Smaller size The ∞ - 3m setting (∞ - 10') prevents the lens from focusing closer than 3m/10.' Use this only if you're having problems with the lens jumping all over the range from very close to very far.The lens has very solidly build, with a metal mount. The manual focus ring is very pleasantly can be used. The lens has a built-in-plastic hood which is handy to protect the front lens element. The filter size is 77mm. The lens is internally focusing Bokeh – Nikon 300mm f4 The big buzz words around the release of this lens of are of course Phase Fresnel. The internet is awash with far more eloquent explanations of how this works, than if I were to try and do it justice in this review with a brief sentence about concentric circles and comparisons to lighthouses, so I’ll just get right down to the headline act of why you, as a photographer, should care about Nikons first leap in to the world of Phase Fresnel. And it’s really quite simple.

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