Sharpness at 300/F5.6

Low contrast at 70/F4

Adequate quality lens. I've found the image quality at the tele end surprisingly good. The major weakness of this lens in my opinion is low contrast at the short end due to internal flare. The hood doesn't help much. Stop it down to F8 at short end for good results.

Customer Service

None

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 24-85 AF-S Sigma 105 F2.8 macro

lightweight and compact.

Cheap, no internal focusing. Variable aperature

Hi, I won't feed you a bunch of garbage but I will tell you what I think about this lens. To some it up I would say it is a good snapshooter or amature lens. It takes fairly sharp and fairly contrasty images. Not for the professional or serious photographer by any means. I just could not get over how cheap it felt so I sold it for a 300mm AF-S

Customer Service

I find that sometimes you get some amature that blows a bunch of smoke up your behind but for the most part there customer service it OK.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 300mm 4.5 Nikkor lens.

Very reasonable price. Sturdy build, easily stored lenshood which hides the lens extension in long zoom, renders sharp images in bright sun, lightweight, easy to store in camera bag. Will perform well when used without a tripod with very high speed films. If you use ISO 400, hand held, use fastest shutter speed you can or expect some image blur especially at 200/300mm. Circular polar filter works well though without the lenshood. You can purchase a Nikon CP lens hood to meet this challenge.

Needs a zoom lock badly! The rubber band on zoom ring looks tacky! Also needs a tripod mount in my opinion. Static cling means you should keep a squeeze blower handy to clear particles as you shoot.

This lens is mostly an outdoor puppy! I have had success at all focal lengths especially in bright sun using the lenshood. Works well with f8, f11. Needs a very high speed film for indoor use or if you do not use a tripod outdoors. Closeup work can get tricky when image keeps moving. Auto focus works best when lens is aimed at clear image instead of image through trees, branches. Any movement triggers the lens to refocus so try lens in manual mode. ISO 800 film has given me best results so far even with somewhat grainy color 8x10's which I don't mind.

Customer Service

Rebate honored without any problems.

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 24mm AF D

For beginners this lens its OK and will do fine.

plastic, hood hard to get on & off and too big for lens (it needs to be a straight sided not cone shaped), soft at times, BARREL DISTORTION.

W/ 57 reviews you get the idea of what this lens is. I photographed an out door concert and the photos came out a little soft. Me or the lens? IDUNO. Most of my shots in general came out sharp for 4x6 prints. I did a test w/ this lens compared to the 80-400VR. I used slide film and took the same shots under same conditions using a tripod. I shot at 135mm & 300mm. I was not able to see if there was a difference in sharpness but a guy at the camera store said the VR lens was a little sharper. The VR was NOT on during the test. BUT w/ the naked eye we both saw a fairly bad case of barrel distortion. I am suprised only one other person noticed it & reported. Any one else notice this?

Customer Service

have not used yet

Similar Products Used:

80-200 4.5MF, 80-400VR

Excellent color and contrast when lens hood is used (It comes with one, and I keep mine on practically all the time, especially during the middle of the day when most events I cover are held). Basic mechanical design much less expensive to repair than lenses with built-in motors (e.g., Nikon AF-S, Canon USM).

Slow (4.0 at 70mm, 4.8 at 200mm and 5.6 at 300mm). Slow to autofocus (AF). Notable image distortion past 200 mm that becomes horrid by 300mm (it will make thin faced subjects look like they have round pumpkin heads). I don’t think this is all perspective or “stacking” distortion either but inherent in the lens. Images are noticeably soft at 300mm wide open so I try to never go much past 200mm.

I decided to revise my evaluation of this lens because I believe I was too hard on it the first time considering its’ cost. I used this lens last year with my N80 to shoot photos to accompany news articles I write for a national magazine. This is a decent lens given the price, and so far have published images up to 5 x 8 (this is mostly due to space constraints in the section of the publication my news pieces appear). I’ve made nice 8 x 10 prints for people from this lens. Typically I used Fuji Provia 100F professional slide film when I need to faithfully record skin tones close up and Kodak 100VS when I want saturated colors on boat photos. This keeps the shutter speeds in a decent range for “freezing” action when shooting in bright sunlight. Velvia is too slow with this lens unless it’s on a tripod (many pros rate Velvia at ISO 40 and not 50 to further boost color saturation). AF speed is slow in "single" servo mode, so it is essential when shooting action to use “continuous” servo so the front elements doesn’t have to turn much when you’re ready to depress the shutter. Note price was after rebate.

Customer Service

Nikon Tech Support is very knowledgeable and accessible (both by phone and e-mail). Haven't needed Nikon Service for this lens so far.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 70-200mm F/4 L (superior optics and USM but 2x the price). Why can’t Nikon make a similar lens to be competative?????

Great sharp pictures thanks to ED, compactness, price(!), can go with this lens anywhere - they are that small, built-quality, 62mm diameter, hood.

Slow on 300mm (5.6), the barrel rotates when focusing - pay more attention when using a polarizer. IF could do the wonders here.

This lens is a gem! I made some serious money and great pictures with it and I'm standing above the crowd who usually limit themselves to 200mm or have some nasty heavy-duty gear. This Nikkor is like a Leica. Almost no one trust in those lens when they see it attached on my camera - they think it's yet-another slow and cheap plastic lens made for -the- amateurs. But they change their mind in the moment when they see my shoots taken with this lens and see the things I pictured that they weren't able to do because of their bulky gear. I worked with a fantastic 80-200 2.8 Nikkor and yes, the final photo-quality is expected to be better, but boy those lens are -heavy- for fast action or occasions when your subject has irregular movements. Not to mention +100mm bonus range and of course - the price! Some people complained that this lens are slow, but with this price and compactness you can't have everything! I never had to go over ISO 800 to get sharp and good photographs even in the winter days in the city. When there is enough sunlight (spring/summer) I always go with ISO 100, as usual and never needed a tripod so far, for a regular work. As with any telephoto lens, you have to practice a lot in order to obtain maximum. I have to say that 90% of time I'm using it on FM3a - a fully manual camera. The photo-quality is really exceptional considering the price and compactness of this lens. Photos are very sharp with fantastic resolution/contrast from 70-200. On 300mm the resolution goes down a bit, but sharpness remains almost the same. Normally, the quality is better when stopped a little bit - I usually work with f4/5.6/8 and the things I just said are done with this in mind! I did some aquarium fish shots on 175mm/ f11-16 and the result was just perfect.

Customer Service

Never needed.

Similar Products Used:

Many of them. Nikkor 80-200 2.8 ED-IF-S is most similar to this focal length(s) that I used so far.

* lightweight * lens hood...not the greatest, but it works fine

* It hunts a bit in low level light

This is an excellent zoom lens for the price. I was very surprised at the sharpness even at the 300mm focal length. All my shots have been hand held so far on my Nikon N80. I have not used a tripod yet and the results are exactly what I was hoping for in a lightweight lens. I'll be taking this one with me on our upcoming cruise as it's just what I have been looking for in a zoom. The single ED glass is a real plus. Both indoor and outdoor, the results have been fantastic. No complaints from me. This comes with a lens hood too.

Customer Service

not used

Similar Products Used:

heavy Vivitar 90-230 Nikkor 28-105

Great lens, for the price. Even wide open, one can get decent results if a tripod or monopod is used. here is a sample photo at 300mm F5,6 with Fuji S2 : http://jacquesgratton.com/AndreeSkiJor420.jpg

Similar Products Used:

many...

ED glass supplied hood nice weight great with a 5T close up lens attached

None, but a Silent Wave Motor and internal focusing would make it perfect

Over all I like this lens. It seems to be a tad slow to focus but then again a lens this size can't be as quick for the focusing motor has more mass to move. It also comes with a good hood which should be included with all lenses. Couple this lens with a Nikon 5T close up and you can get some very sharp macro shots.

Customer Service

have not needed to use it

Light weight, yet deliver the results.

yes, i admit that focus can be slow perhaps at times, but this is not a bit issue to me. For the price you pay, this exceeds the value.

Don't underestimate this lens, even though its cheap. I can bet you that most of the naked eye's can't tell the difference between this lense the those 3xmore expensive versions. Sharp and nice color. Nowadays with quality fast films, the rather small aperture is not a big issue, in my opinion. For neg's, your print developer is the one who makes the difference. Try trans, its superb.

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Nikon 35-70