Great optics, great range. If always reset focus to infinity after taking a shot of moving wildlife, dynamic autofocus works fairly well. At least as good as 500 AF-S. Very hand holdable with tripod foot removed.

Non AF-S and will seach back & forth if lens not returned to infinity after each sequence of shots. No M/A to instantly override autofocus as with AF-S lenses. Ditch the tripod foot and lens shade. Replace with cheap rubber lens shade which remains in position at all times.

I've always had trouble getting critically sharp photos with other quality 400 mm F5.6 lenses. With the 80-400 it's easy to get critically sharp photos hand held. I'm getting kind of spoiled. I also don't seem to have flickering problems in the view finder and other sorts of minor problems that other users are experiencing. You can barely here the VR turn on after depressing the shutter release slightly, then a faint motor sound, followed by a faint click after the VR turns off about a second after releasing the shutter button. If I didn't know the VR was on, I probably wouldn't notice the sound at all. Even without VR, the sharpness and color of the optics will hold hold up to most professional lenses even though Nikon doesn't classify this as a pro lens.

Customer Service

NA

Similar Products Used:

Other products owned include 500 AF-S and 17-35 AF-S.

great optics
wonderful focal lenghts
VR function works well

terribly slow focus

Very clear and contrasty optics, small size and VR feature make it hand holdable. Focus is slow (I use F100) and it was unable to keep up with wild birds in flight or acrobatic monkeys in a zoo. A very useful lens for most shooting, but not fast action.

Customer Service

Nikon replaced my first VR lens due to a grinding sound.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 18-35 (great lens).
Nikon 24-120, very useful all arond focal lenths for travel.

Light for focal lengths
focal lengths!
vibration reduction
optics

give up some speed (4.5 - 5.6 is wide open)
horrible tripod collar

Great lens for non-moving objects. I would not use this lens for wildlife photography, such as small birds, flying birds, etc. I will use this lens for larger mammals that don't move around too much. The VR feature cannot be used with a tripod, so be aware of this before purchasing. Since I do mostly landscape work, the speed of the lens and VR aren't as high on my list of wants, as much as the quality optics and focal lengths.

Customer Service

N/A at this time

Similar Products Used:

None

very handy focal length range, excellent optics, close focus, small size, VR (which works well)

as everyone says, not AF-S

In nearly all respects, this is an excellent lens. In the prime category of optical quality, it's extremely good across the focal length range. I do a lot of nature photography and a comparison of photos of small birds taken with this lens and my beloved Nikon 400 EDIF shows little or no difference in picture quality -- and the VR is MUCH better in terms of close-focus ability (it gets to about 7 feet instead of 12 feet). You can get a frame-filling image of a chickadee or small finch with no extention tubes (and the image quality holds up at closest focus).
I also very much appreciate the convenient range of focal lengths, which is superb for a lot of landscape work as well as bird and animal photography. It's a treat to frame up an image by zooming to the exact composition I want, instead of swapping between lenses (not to mention that I no longer nead to haul around 3 or 4 lenses within the VR's range of focal lengths).
The small size of this lens (when zoomed back to 80 mm) is very handy for portability. And VR lets you work without a tripod with much better results than would otherwise be feasible.

Nothing is perfect and there are some nits to pick:
-- AF speed, while fine for most purposes, is not up to AF-S standards. Nevertheless, it's great for most bird photography -- small birds change position frequently and this lens can usually AF in plenty of time (far more quickly than possible with MF). As others have mentioned, it probably won't work well for AF tracking of a flying bird, however (haven't tried this).
-- on the subject of AF, I did try the lens with Kenko AF extention tubes. It works (with surprisingly good picture quality at magnifications of about 0.25 to 0.4). However, there's much more focus hunting than usual (?? is this possibly something to do with the 'D' function being confused by the extension?).
-- MF is a bit of a challenge due to the short 'throw' of the focusing ring.
-- tripod mount could use some improvement, as others have mentioned, but it works OK.
-- zoom ring is a little inconvenient; push-pull arrangement would be better.

I haven't tried it with a converter and probably won't push my luck.

I'd rate this lens at 4.5 but since ratings are quantized I'm going for 5 stars in both categories. It's hard to find but worth the wait.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 400/5.6 EDIF
Sigma 300/4 APO

Sharp,VR works well, relatively small size, very usefull focal range

Slow AF

Great lens! It is very sharp across the entire range of focal lengths, yet relatively compact.
The VR function works like a charm. After purchasing this lens, I gave it a workout to see how it performed with my F-100. I decided to push the envelope and figure out how well VR worked for me. With proper handholding technique, at 400mm, I was able to take reasonably sharp photos at 1/10, tack sharp at 1/25 and above. Of course that does not take subject movement into account.
Focusing is fairly slow. Especially when compared to the 80-200mm AFS lens I was considering at the same time. Focus tracking worked well enough to track ducks swimming across a pond. But I have not tried any faster moving subjects yet.
The lens is built very well. The lens body is metal, with the focusing and zoom rings made of rubber clad polycarbonate. It should stand up well to a reasonable amount of abuse.
Overall I am very pleased with my purchase. It is a keeper.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

50-500mm EX Sigma,
80-200mm AFS Nikkor

Sharp, vibration reduction works, compact size

Slow AF (non AFS lens)

Good lens, performs as promised. Great for handheld on stationary subjects. On my D1, it is really a 120-600. Slow AF limits use for action, but sharp optics and ability to handhold makes up for it.

Customer Service

Excellant

Similar Products Used:

17-35 F2.8 AFS
28-70 F2.8 AFS
80-200 F2.8 AFS
300 F4 AFS
50-500 Sigma (f4.5-6.3)

5X zoom range
Excellent optics
High price when VR doesn't work

VR did not work for me
Slow focusing
Tripod mount weak

Nikon even supplied a second VR lens but I was unable to get sharper images with VR on
than with VR off. I could handhold w/o VR and easily get down to 1/125th at 400mm.
With VR on I could only equal that - anything slower was severely blurred (not just
soft). Service could not find a problem, had no explanation, and was uninterested in
pursuing the problem. I will be returning the lens to purchase an EOS1V and a Canon
100-400mm IS lens which I tested and DOES work for me to 1/60th of a second or
slower @400mm.

Customer Service

Good when they can find and fix the
problem on the bench.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 & many other Nikkors
Canon 100-400mm IS

Well built, tight, nice case. The usual Nikon quality.

Lack of MA switch to give instant manual focus tweaking. Switching between manual and auto focus is awkward. Would prefer push pull zoom action.

I have had a couple of years experience with Canon IS lenses. They are faster focusing and the IS is better than Nikon's VR. Maybe I got a bad lens, but my 80-400 Nikon was not consistently sharp when hand held at 400mm with the VR function. I also found my eye getting tired when trying to confirm the focus (on wildlife) and frequently switched to manual focus. The camera is an F-100, film is 100 ISO Sensia II. Nikon took the lens back for testing, and I switched to the Canon 100-400. I don't much like EOS cameras but the IS lenses are excellent, and very bright, with instant autofocus. I don't want to knock Nikon -- maybe I got a lemon -- but I would be interested in other photographer's comparisons with the Canon IS lenses. You do need to try both for comparison, and perhaps I was spoiled by the ease of use and excellence of Canon's 300 IS -- with and without the 1.4 extender (which allows normal auto focus and IS functions). When it comes to battteries all stabilized lenses tend to be gas guzzlers, so keep spare batteries handy. If Nikon does some redesigning and tweaking on the VR 80-400 I will be the first to try it, but right now I am sticking with Canon for stabilization, speed of autofocus, brightness, and instant focus over-ride.

Customer Service

Fine. Good. Nikon Canada is always there for you.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 300 IS
Canon 100-400 IS

Sharp! Hand holding at slow speeds. Well made lens, I consider it the best 35mm camera lens I have ever used.

None, this lens is perfect.

It seems to me most reviewers are missing the point with this wonderful lens. Yeah, it is slower than the motor lenses, but it is not as heavy! (It will focus as fast as a bird can fly, and much faster than a quarter back can carry a football.) I notice it focuses faster on my F5 than on my F100.
No, it is not as fast as a big fat 2.8 lens, but it is a nice compact size! Smaller is better to pack around and hand hold.
The lens takes razor sharp photos. I compared it to my 80/200 2.8 and my 180 2.8, and consider it sharper, and having more contrast! But, the color rendition is slightly better on the other two lenses.
Nikon wanted to make us a hand holdable lens, well constructed and with a very useful zoom range. They did it with this VR. Buy this lens!

Customer Service

Have local warranty service, but I have not used it with this lens.

Similar Products Used:

I have a lot of Nikon lenses.

Vibration Reduction is superb. Sharpness, contrast are excellent at all focal lengths. Compact size is great in the field.

It would be nice if it were an AF-S. Not as fast as my 80-200 AF-S.

Great overall lense! My experience shows that the VR works better than the Canon IS. The Canon USM is faster focusing, however.

Customer Service

Never needed it.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 300 f4.0 IS