fast focus,silent. quite easy to handhold,and good price

tripod collar is a bit weak. i think that one shoulden´t rotate it. use the ballhead instead.

easy to handhold,great optical qualities. affordable price means you can´t go wrong with this lens. a little minus for the weak tripod collar but a big big plus for the close focusing distance of 1,45 meters it is very useful

Customer Service

nikon sweden sucks

Similar Products Used:

tokina atx 300 2,8 and canon fdn 300 4,0 L

Fast,Light, Silent.

Not Sexy,Plastic Lens Hood. Flexy Tripod Mount. The older 300mm has a stiffer mount

Ok, I blew the money on it knowing the comments on the internet on the tripod mount. So I did my standard newspaper test(frame filling image of a double spread newspaper on a wall) to see how bad it really is. There are 3 categories of the newspaper image just looking at the standard text print of the newspaper.

Crisp,Legible,Illegible
Test done with F5 mounted on a Gitzo 1325 CF tripod with Arca Swiss B1. Tripod legs at Medium height.Timer on 10 sec delay.Slide viewed under a 8x lupe.
Shutter Speed Quality
------------- -------
1/125 Crisp
1/60 Legible
1/30 Illegible
1/15 Illegible
1/8 Illegible
1/4 Illegible
1/2 Legible

With Mirror Lock Up with the same speed settings. ALL 7 images were crisp.

Without Timer, Without MLU, Just left hand supported from the top on the lens like normal long lens use!!!

1/100 - Crisp
1/50 - Legible
1/25 - Barely Legible
1/15 - Barely Legible
1/8 - Crisp
1/4 - Crisp
1/2 - Crisp

Bottom Line: The same thing happens with my AFS 80-200 between 1/30-1/4 sec at 200mm. So just stay away from the dreaded "vibration zone" I did the same test with the F100 and the vibration is a lot less...about 50% is my best guess. Yep that F5 can really kick!!!!

SHould you get it????

Well I got this lens to solve the problem of not having AF with the TC 14e telecon with the old lens. Its very sharp, as sharp if not sharper than the old lens under normal use. If you need to go to the vibration speed zone, use the mirror lock up!!! Other than its not sexy.....but it. Its cheaper and lighter than the 300f2.8

Customer Service

Very Good

Similar Products Used:

Older AF 300f4 ED-IF

AF & Tracking
Build Quality
Ergonomics

Some complain about the tripod collar. Whatever. My work requires mobility of a hand-held package.

Decided to kick down and buy this lens last month even though I was getting solid 5/5 performance from my existing AF300/4 ED-IF. Figured that if it didn't live up to expectations right off the bat, I would return it. Not only have I decided to keep the AF-S, but I promptly traded my used 300 for a new TC-14E.
I shoot motorsports with a digital Kodak 620x. The the body's 1.6 focal length conversion factor results equiv to 480mm/4 with AF-S bare, 672mm/5.6 with TC-14E. Either way, the AF-S is fast & accurate optically, electronically and mechanically. It nails down the sharp images. It will earn it keep.

Customer Service

n/a

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor AF300/4 ED-IF.

An amazing optical performance for a very reasonable price.
A compact size.

Design of tripoid collar.

This is one of the best telephoto lenses NIKON has ever been released,a really fast autofocus operation,same optical quality as the 2.8 (about US$3,500.00 cheaper),the size is very portable.

Customer Service

Never tried.

Similar Products Used:

AF300mmF2.8EDIF
400mmF2.8EDIF
AF80-200mmF2.8EDIF-S

build quality
built-in hood
e d glass
not too big and heavy

only the flimsy collar (too flexible) when used on monopod...

As i mostly shoot various motorsports i need a lens that can keep up with fast moving bikes etc.and this is not a problem with this lens on my f100...also bought the tc14e for the extra reach i need at the track and it's performance and resolution is fantastic,especially at this price, given that the 300mm f2.8 in australia costs approx.$11,500 ($6000 u.s).Great package for my needs and budget and not too heavy to drag around all day...5 stars if the collar was as good as the 80-200 2.8...

Customer Service

store model did not auto-focus??? mine did when i picked one up...!
no problems.

Similar Products Used:

80-200 2.8
sigma 300 f4

Excellent image quality
Quick, quiet autofocus
Reasonably fast maximum aperture
Easy to carry & shoot all day without monopod
Compact enough to fit in an airline carry-on case with lots of other gear
Does reasonable macro (~1:4.5) for subjects where stand-off is required

Not f/2.8 (of course)
Bouncy on a tripod at 1/2 to 1/30 second
Not rated by Nikon for use with their new 2X AF-S extender, only with the 1.4X
Autofocus sometimes hunts on action images on the N80; less so on the N90s

This is the Nikkor 300 for non-f/2.8 purists, the standard to which it is invariably compared. (I do not own a 300/2.8.)
Optical quality is excellent. I tried the Sigma product and returned it after 3 rolls.
This lens takes a Tamron 2X autofocus multiplier and produces usable (artistically) action images, although manual focus is required with this combination (600/8).
This lens is light enough to carry all day without a monopod. You can even hold the camera-lens combination with the N80 or N90s by the camera alone - something I'm told never to try with a 300/2.8.
Night-time high school football games reinforced the fact that a f/2.8 would be nice, but in all other ways this a dandy lens that is a fraction of the size, weight, and cost of the Nikkor 300/2.8.

Customer Service

Not required

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 300/4 Macro

The lens is very sharp and the AF is fast.

The tripodcollar is to weak. No focuslock buttons on the lensbarrel.

With a redesigned tripod the lens give me the sharpness which is so well hidden. It is as sharp as the AFS 300/2.8. The big issue is the flimsy tripodcollar, but one way to stabilize the lens is to put a filmcan between the collarfoot and lensbarrel, yes it works!!!

Similar Products Used:

AFS 300/2.8

Great ED glass: very sharp. Relatively compact. S motor provides fast autofocus. Easy to focus manually. 77mm filter thread matches most of my other Nikkor pro lenses. Good pullout lenshood. What's not to like?

Oh, you say the tripod collar isn't so swell. Well it can easily be dealt with in a number of ways. No major weakness there.

Quit whining about the blasted tripod collar! This is a great lens: very sharp, well balanced for hand held work, and the objections to the tripod collar can be overcome with a little creativity. If you need this focal length, and the 300f2.8 is beyond your reach, then do not hesitate to buy this lens.

By the way, I bought mine from B&H, recently. It arrived in perfect condition. I have been extremely pleased with this lens.

Customer Service

None required.

Similar Products Used:

AF-S 28-70f2.8; AF 80-200f2.8 two ring; AF 50f1.8; as well as many MF Nikkor lenses.

super fast AF, great optics, 77mm, blah... blah... ;-)

none that i can see

heard many people complaining about its tripod collar, but i can tell mine is solid! maybe nikon changed the material?
nikon didn't say it's usable on TC-2E, i mated this lens with my Kenko pro 300 Plus and got a 600mm f8 AFS lens! AFS focuses fast outdoor, hunts a bit in dark interiors. did some test shots and will get the result in a couple of days... bottom line - a great and versatile lens!!

Customer Service

not yet needed...

Similar Products Used:

80-200/f2.8 two ring,
75-300/4.5-5.6,
70-300/4-4.6 ED
70-180/4.5-5.6 ED Micro
etc...

razor sharp > 1/125 on a tripod

terrible on a tripod between 1/8 and 1/64

I was the first person on this list to review this lens and just want to follow up on my original observations (which was using it exclusively indoors, close up, with a flash), now that I've had lots of experience with it outdoors, winter and summer. I agree with those who have had problems with this on a tripod between about 1/8 and 1/64 of a second. I can't get sharp pictures in that range, even though I'm using a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod and Arca-Swiss ball head. Outside that range however, I stand by my original assessment: the optics themselves are absolutely stunning, and this includes when it's used with the matching 1.4x extender, which I use quite a lot bringing it up to 420mm. I can't see any degradation at all when using it with the extender, either in sharpness, contrast, or "punch" in the color. I have a collection of absolutely awesome slides of the crags of Mt. Hood, on cross-country hikes I've taken above 6,000 feet: you can see every crack, nook, and cranny in these images, even when the lens has to be stopped down to f4 to get the shutter beyond 1/64. In fact I try always to shoot above 1/200, and then I never miss on sharpness (provided I wait for the wind to die down). However, I wish I had a camera body with mirror lock up so I could shoot in that wobbly range 1/8 to 1/64 and can't wait for the F100 replacement which I dearly hope will have mirror lockup.

Similar Products Used:

previous 300m f4 from Nikon