VR VR VR if like myself your hands struggle to hold the malt then VR is a godsend, it is heavy but if you want to know heavy try the sigma, the sharpness of the photo's is amaing

price but this is UK (rip-off-ville) other than that none £800 UK

Hi I read many conflicting reviews on this lens but decided to have a go anyway, I am delighted it is fantastic had the sigms 50-500 for a month but being so heavy I had to part with it, no regrets the nikon is in my opinion a far better option mainly because of the VR , the results far exceed my expectations, if in doubt GET ONE

Customer Service

no experience

Similar Products Used:

sigma 50-500 nikon 70-200vr

VR, does help but is not the cure all. It takes great images just like you would expect for the money it costs. I got mine from a person I knew and the lens was in great condition. If you van find one for 1000 dollars or so it is worth every cent. New they are not priced to bad, but is still alot of money.

Excellent feel and build quality. I would recommend this lens and would have paid full price if I had not got the deal I got. It is worth it.

It is heavy and slow in focusing, but it is abig lens. I do not if this is really a weakness for what it is designed to do. I do not think it was intended for action sports. I have used it for sports and got some great shots. It just takes some paitence. I think the price ought to be a little lower with the other VR Lenses that Nikon has come out with, but this is really the only Nikon Vr targeted to nature shooters in this price range, so they kinda got us.

The lens does work well. It takes great images. The VR does work but dont believe the hype about total stability. It works well in daylight. I used it hand held and noted blurring in numerous images. I now use it on a monopod with the VR on and the limiy set to full. It works alot better on the monopod and distibutes the weight a little better. This lens is heavy and you feel it after carrying this thing around for awhile. Make sure you have good monopod, the big ones. I used it on a smaller monopod at first and that set up was not the best. After getting used to the lens and its limitations most of the images I get are great as far as being in focus. The image quality is on par for a high end Nikon Lens. The 400mm focal length is great for wildlife shots, though I never go all the way out to 400, image quality tends to suffer abit at the long range. Most people buy this thinking they can chunk the tripod, you will end up using a monopod, if nothing else to help with carrying this monster around. The plus is the images are great, color and detail. I used a Sigma 500mm APO as well. It took great images as well but only mounted on a tripod with more or less stationary subjects. The Sigma Lens works well and cost alot less, but it does limit you oprions of use and ease of use. The Sugma Lens does not feel near as nice in build quality as the Nikon. The Nikon is well built and sturdy. I love this lens, but it can get tiring if you do a alot of walking, the images usually make up for that. Look at like carrying a dumb bell around to excersise. Works great on my D200.

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Sugma 170-500mm APO-Not to bad of a lens. I got mine for 550 at a local camera shop new. Tripod required.

Nikon 300mm-Not long enough, excellent images.

Nikon 200mm F2.8-Great images, way to short for wildlife at a distance. Handy when limited on light. I have used a teleconverter on it but got mixed results depending on conditions.

VR Focal range. Price

AF hunting Weight

Great zoom for the $ but dont expect VR to make you a pro. VR takes the shake out and lets you go handheld at long lengths, but only in bright light as its still slow. AF hunts, a lot! Weighs a ton.

versatile focal range VR! can be used handheld

slow focus slight CA

The choice was between the SIgma and the Nikon. The Sigma one is slightly bigger and the handling of the Nikon is better imo. My impressions are that it is very sharp, better than my 24-120 and it's amazing to get razor sharp pictures handheld at 400mm at 1/40s! True not every 1/40 is good but it fits the bill for the purpose I bought it for: handheld outside shooting, wandering around in city's and taking pictures of people and situations from a distance without them noticing it too much. Focussing is slow as said here before, ceratinly not for sports but other than that there is not much wrong wiith this lens. I have some CA in big contrast areas at the wide end. but this could be my copy.

Customer Service

not experienced

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 24-120, 35F2, 18-70; Sigma 18-125, 18-200; 15F2.8, 15-30; Canon 70-200LIS 2.8, 28-135, 28F1.8, 50F1.8, 28-105, 17-40L

The overall quality in just about every aspect of the productions shines through. Hail to the Japanese and their technology and craftsmanship. Solid materials, outstanding bild quality, colour rendering and sharpness. Works absolutely fantastic with the Velvial 50 slide film, that is if you do want to get it right.

A bit heavy - but who cares anyways. Occasional focus hunting is possible when you don't want to use the VR, but then, if you have an F5 you can just use your AF Lock On and you are laughing.

The holy grail. The one lens making your equipment bag a lot lighter and the changing of lenses every 3 seconds in the field obsolete. I wanted this lens ever since Nikon announced it not too long ago. Great for just about any type of photography, but certainly most usefull in the bush or on race track where you can set it up on the tripod. It has everything your Nikon F5 was begging you for. Same robust and solid materials and outstanding balance. While it is not a cheap lens, this is the one you willl eventually buy anyways. So why not now. Save yourself the pain of finding out that you never get anything of quality unless you pay for it...

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There is nothing similar to this one. Believe it.

The obvious--hand holding at slower speeds. Optical Quality. Just what you'd expect from Nikon ED optics. Zoom Range Compact size and weight. Without the tripod collar it's the lightest prosumer zoom lens Nikon makes. It's even lighter than the 80 to 200 (2-ring version) zoom. And much lighter than the AFS version of that lens.

As mentioned, this is not an IF lens. This would help. AFS would be even better. Limiting the focus range helps as well as using the fastest AF body you can (F5, D1 series and D2H).

I just recently purchased this lens after much deliberation and have to say I have no regrets. I, like many, thought about the 70 to 200 with the EC-20E. But realizing I wanted the lens mainly for the 300 to 400 range I decided on the 80 to 400. My brief experience with the lens is very positive. I used it with an F5 (Yes, I'm still shooting film) and the results were outstanding. Film used was Fuji Superia Xtra 400 (latest version which is excellent). I was visiting my sister and family in Ohio and, as we do every year, visited the Columbus Zoo. Being rather disappointed in my lack of photo opps this year I remembered seeing a Blue Heron in the large pond near the entrance. Late in the day when the rest of the family was in the gift shop I decided to look for him. Luckily I spotted him on the shore line and followed him around the lake getting one great shot after another. When I got the pictures back I was stunned to say the least. The detail in its feathers/beak/everything was incredible. I got sharp photos down to 1/60 sec. I was shooting wide open and usually at 400mm. It surprises me as to the wide range of opinions as to the sharpness of this lens. The photos I obtained were every bit as sharp as my 80 to 200 (2-ring) and 300 F/4. That's sharp. In regards to the lens itself, everyone comments on the AF speed. I think some key points need to be mentioned that I have not read/seen anywhere. First this lens is NOT internal focus. The entire lens housing moves forward and backward as you move through the focusing range. If the design was IF it would focus much faster, with or without AFS. The motor in the camera body is moving a lot of mass back and forth. Using the focusing range limiter helps keep the AF from hunting excessively and speeds up the AF response time. This lens obviously is not intended for fast action but with a capable body does a good enough job.

Customer Service

Have never needed to use them but have been helpful with technical questions on other Nikon products when I called.

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 80 to 200 AFD (2-Ring), Nikkor 75-300 AF (a good lens).

reaches out nice, the vr is great pans nice.Just a sharp lens

none it does what it was designed to do.

I compared this lens to the 70-200vr with the TC-20E II . most of my shots were at 400mm The 80-400vr was sharper and had nicer color. So I bought the 80-400.I love this lens no trouble shooting flying ducks and some larger birds.

Customer Service

Got my rebate in just three weeks.Thanks Nikon

Similar Products Used:

70-200vr

Light weight Small size for a 400mm zoom Excellent edge-to-edge sharpness

Extremely slow autofocus Bad low-light performance

It is a great lens in terms of weight to zoom ratio. VR works great handheld. The only complaint that I have had is the slow noisy autofocus. Very frustrating to use on low contrast subjects or nature subjects. The autofocus hunts continuously before it locks on. Thinking of selling it on EBay and buying a faster lens and maybe use a teleconverter.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 300mm f2.8

sharpness vr

Great lens.... such sharp photos and the VR has spoiled me into thinking i should only have a vr lens... great lens and comfortable to pack.

Similar Products Used:

nikon 80-200 2.8 nikon 50mm 1.8 nikon 105 micro 2.8 tokina 28-70 2.6-2.8

Really allows slower hand held shutterspeeds on my objects, with very sharp results !

Haven't used it long enough to find one !

Since I shoot military (fast moving) aircraft with a slow (Kodachrome 64) film, I needed a lens that would help me reduce unsharpness due to slow shutter speeds. Having read several reviews, I bought Nikon's 80-400 VR. No regrets sofar !

Customer Service

no experience

Similar Products Used:

Nikon f4-5.6/70-300mm ED (sold) Sigma f5.6/400mm APO macro (now for sale !)