300mm f/2.8G AF-S VR

This is my first 'big' lens, a retirement present to myself. Because it was pricy I swithered for a couple of months before taking the plunge, but I'm so glad I did. The pro's of the optical side of this masterpiece of lens engineering has been said by people with far more experience than me. What I will say though is that I use mine with a beanbag quiet a lot and I much prefer it to using a tripod, quicker and easier to set up. I sometimes use a Slik monopod too, great for over shoulder carrying. I struggled with finding the optimum settings for a while but finally it's starting to come together. I use the Nikon TC-1.7 teleconverter and don't see a discernible difference in my images. I've not always been happy with the sharpness of some of my images though and then I read an article by Thom Hogan, one I think everyone should read if you have a VR lens: www.bythom.com/nikon-vr.htm

I have one last 'word' of advice, if you're humming and arrging about buying this lens just do it, you won't regret it. Remember, we only live once and life is short.

p.s. For some reason the 'indicated price' won't show, for info I paid 3,995.

This lens is happy on a 681B monopod over my shoulder on 10 mile hikes. Much easier to pack / Haul than the longer lenses .
There is a bit of a learning curve on the lens operation for the sweet spot . Once you can fine tune focus to help or over ride field conditions . Life is good .

Hans K.

I bought one of these 300mm 2.8 a couple of years ago. Excellent lens, a real step change from my 160 -500mm Sigma. The results have been quite amazing. The only drawback is portability. Its heavy to cart around on your shoulder/neck. I use a Kata photo rucsac which is excellent. The only problem is when you need the camera in a hurry, it takes a good minute to open bag, reverse the lens hood and get the kit shooting.
On the whole though, the 300mm 2.8 combined with a 1.7tc is an excellent birders lens.

Richard

First off, the AF-S 300mm 2.8 VR is far more compact than I had imagined (I have previously owned a Nikkor 300/2.8) and this one seems far shorter in length, I think some Japanese designer has been active with a hacksaw on the hood or it is a trick of the eye with the main lens barrel being so fat.

Weight wise it does seem lighter in weight, but I know this is solely because I am now used to lugging a 600/4 around.

I purchased the lens solely as a walkaround lens. with a strengthened optech neoprene strap, it is very easy to walk around with this lens around your neck for many hours.

Tripod foot seems minute compared to my bigger lens... and it was removed very quickly (half hoped it would weigh a fair bit, but its removal did not shed too many grams). The facility to remove the whole collar was attractive until I realised that I would lose the lugs for the shoulder/neck-strap so that idea was ditched, not that collar removal seems to be in the realm of the user but a shop job.

VR seems more far responsive and rapid in kicking-in than the 80-400, though it does seem a little noisier than the 80-400mm VR

AF is very rapid... but most USM/HSM/AF-S lenses are, and the main questions these days revolve around the camera side of the AF equation.

What I had presumed to be nothing more than 4 AF lock buttons on the lens barrel (as with my 600/4) turn out to be multi purpose, the most useful purpose being that a press on any of them will take you straight to a preset focus point (excellent).

Lots of sliding switches on this lens, most are just a waste of space really.

Initial results;
300mm bare = sharpness beyond belief, never had a lens this sharp. Backgrounds were totally convincing, natural and smooth fall-off. No real evidence of improvement to image after stopping down. Colours looked totally accurate to me.

300mm + TC-14E = as above, no visible loss of any aspect of the above... even wide open at f4.

300mm + TC-17E = A major (and pleasant) surprise to me. Wide open at f4.8 there was no significant degradation to the image, just very minor softening. at f5.6 we were back to images all but identical from the bare lens

More, including photos at http://www.digiscoped.com/Nikon300mmVR.html