Very Durable, Heavy, professional grade lens. Like I said above this is the best lens that I have ever used, including a 50,000 lens for a Television camera.

Heavy. Very Heavy.

The best lens I have ever had, very rugged very sharp, very heavy. I would recommend this lens to anyone that needs fast glass for not a lot of money.

Able to get good results in low light
Sharp at all distances
I am so happy that I bought this lens with a teleconverter I have sidestepped buying a 5000 dollar lens for my nature photographs.

HEAVY none other than that It is worth it's weight in gold. I love it It will be my main lens from now on. Great portrait lens

This 80-200 lens is the best I have used yet. I take a lot of photos in low light and 2.8 is just what I needed. I have been using a kenko 2x teleconverter at times with the lens. the pictures are sharp and colors are great. It requires a tripod most oif the time though with 2.8 the shutter speed is faster than with my 70-300 at 4.5. I am very happy with this lens.

Sharp, fast enough AF for sport and animal photographing

no tripod holder, the cola is no fixed with this lens

I just buy this lens today, i have a very good feeling about it, even though i was looking for the 80 200 with cola second hand then i found this one 98 %, and build quality is superp, its easy to zoom and manual focus also like dream.

Customer Service

i bought this one in Hanoi Vietnam

Similar Products Used:

80 200 F/2.8. 70 200 VR

Everything!

Nothing!

I bought this lens in 2/07. I have no complaints about the lens whatsoever. The chromes have excellent contrast, color and sharpness. It feels like a pro lens and looks like a pro lens (crinkle finish) and all. When I put this lens on my F3 or FE2, it just feels right. It has the stiffness I like on both rings. I believe it's got 3 ED elements and the first one if I remember right is the front one. That's where I like a lens with ED to start (Just a personal preference). I thought at first I really wanted the AF-S version of the 80-200. However, the price was insane, even on "sleeze-bay) and it would have been used as well. I understand also that the weight is quite substantial. Forget that! So, for $800 you get a new lens, lighter than the AF-S and produces some outstanding chromes. A no brainer....

Customer Service

No need (Knock on wood).

Similar Products Used:

Every Nikkor I can think of.

fast focus in daylight, tack sharp in all aspects.

it takes awile in low light to find its focus

Beautiful lens, exeptionally sharp at all focal leangths. sharpest lens i've ever used at f/2.8. beautiful contrast. highly recomended.

Customer Service

350$ is no joke.. i guess i was just in the right place at the right time!

Similar Products Used:

70-200 f/2.8 VR

Overall, really solid, focuses fast, and pics are VERY sharp.

Forward focuses a bit at wide open/close-up on autofocus. Weight could be an issue for some people.

Received this lens about ten days ago, and thus far vary happy with it. In reading reviews of this lens vs. the older AF-S version, I was afraid the focusing would be 'so slow'. Well, it's not....if I had an AF-S version here I'm sure I'd see a minute difference, but in real life shooting it's pretty darn fast. It's a HEAVY lens, but that was expected. The only reason i don't give this lens a top rating is that in testing it via a focusing chart, I found that it is forward focusing about 1 inch ahead when using auto focus at f2.8. Now, this 'could be' the camera (5 month old D200).....but I don't think so. In real world shooting, I don't think this will be a problem, so still deciding what i want to do--get it looked at by Nikon to be adjusted, or get another copy from Cameta, or simply keep it.

If I had the $1600 to get the 70-200mm VR, surely I would have. At just over half that amount, though--it's a reallly nice lens.

Similar Products Used:

Olympus 50-200mm Zuiko.

Tack Sharp Images. Good quality images. Forgiving with shaky hands even though there's no VR. Well Built, has a nice feel to it. Good for bird pictures. Tripod Mount. Manual focus is easy to use and get quality images.

Although it's affordable for the quality, 850 is a lot of money. Sometimes on AF it searches too long. No VR.

This lens is everything I was looking for. Tack sharp images even at 200mm. Although it does not have VR sharpness is not a problem. Handheld this lens produced sharp colorful images. I have only done a few test shots outside of some birds and I am amazed at the clarity and quality of just a few snapshots i took. If you are looking for a good telephoto zoom lens at an affordable price this is the lens for you.

Customer Service

B & H customer service= Professional, would order from them again.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon D70, Nikon D200, Nikon 18-70mm 3.5-4.5G, Nikon 105mm f/2.8D, Nikon 70-300mmG

There are so many to mention. Tack sharp images. Very fast AF even on a D50. The 2.8 max aperture allows for high shutter speeds in low light and indoors. I prefer paying less for the 2.8 aperture than several hundred more for the 80-400 VR. The VR helps stablilize the whole image in low light, but won't freeze motion. The 2.8 aperture gives you a much better chance of freezing the motion. Also, the DOF with the 2.8 is fantastic. It allows you to very effectively isolate the subject. Be careful though, it is entirely possible to focus on the nose but have eyes be soft in headshots. Bokeh on this lense is also quite pleasing The construction is solid and can stand up to heavy everyday use. I haven't seen how well it plays with TC's yet, but it has plenty of sharpness to spare and the 2.8 aperture allows you maintain autofocus up to a 2x TC (and not sure why you would ever want more than 2x). But to maintain the AF, you will need to look at something like the Kenko Pro 300 series. The Nikon TC's will not maintain the physical connections from the lense to the camera required for AF. But again, I haven't actually tested it with a TC. I assume it would perform well, but I'm not sure. The focus and zoom rings are well greased and very smooth. I have had absolutly no problems with CA or distortion.

Since it's a pro lense, it's fairly heavy and large. Not a big issue for me, but I can have a sore neck and arm after shooting landings all day. There is fall off wide open, but it disappears quickly with smaller apertures. At 200mm fall off is basically unoticable in real world shots by f/5.6, and completely gone in test shots by f/8. But honestly, I often like fall off in some of my photos. I fell it adds artistic value to the photos. If you've got the extra money just sitting around, get the 70-200mm VR. Or get the 80-200mm AF-D and take that money you saved to go on a great photo trip. I would pass up the 80-400mm VR for both of these though. A 80-200mm AF-D + Kenko Pro 300 1.4x TC + Kenko Pro 300 2x TC is still over $100 cheaper than the 80-400mm VR. But that's just me, almost all my really long work is in bright light. Otherwise the 80-200 range is fantastic, and the 2.8 aperture will give you the shutter speed you need.

The 80-200mm AF-D lense is an absolutely fantastic lense. I would recommend this to anyone looking to make a step up from the consumer level telephoto zooms. It is now 2 generations behind the current lense in this family, the 70-200mm VR. But it still performs wonderfully, and is definetly a pro quality lense. So far, I primarily have used this lense for shooting aircraft. The photos are beautifully saturated, SHARP, and always spot on focus.

Customer Service

none needed

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 80-400mm VR

It has an aperture ring, unlike the 70-200 VR.
Heavy!! love heavy lenses. combined with an F5/F6 it's a dream!
SUPER fast AF. SWM. you can manually focus when you want W/O switching the focus mode

EXTREMELY sharp at f/2.8 in any focal length.
Build quality is excellent.
Beautiful quality of blur-Bokeh.
No problems with the hood...

for beginners, It Takes time to get used to a heavy lens.
Not the best tripod collar, not the worst either.
useless AF lock buttons

As a wedding photographer, I can easily say the lens is nothing short of AMAZING!
The lens has presence, so if you're shooting a la PJ, you'll get noticed. beautiful bokeh. sharp as hell at f/2.8 in either the long or short end. I shoot no more than f4.5, and I have no need for a lens that can't perform at open aperture.
I like it's feel better than the VR equivalent. Super fast AF. HARDLY ever hunts (sometimes in low light), and locks on super fast.
The tripod collar is a small problem. It's not THE most stable collar in Nikon's lineup, but I can deal with it no problem.
The hood is humungous! be prepared to get noticed!!
It's a Little shorter than the 70-200 VR, it's barrel is bigger, and it doesn't have a taper throughout the whole body, except the aperture ring..DUH!
The edge of the lens has this rubber protection so if you have the hood off it will somehow protect hits around the edge(not the glass obviously), but if have a filter on it will no longer do it's job as it no protected by the filter...
I've used the 70-200 VR and all the hype that it's better than the 80-200 AFS is a CR~~K of S~~T and a flase statement!! I've used them both and can tell you I'll take the 80-200 AFS ANYDAY over the VR lens.
you can see some of my work :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/98903765@N00/

These were done with the 80-200 AFS:
walk on beach
sunset
flowers 2
wine glasses
hugging kissing

Customer Service

Nikon CS s~~ks C~~P. Plain and simple...

Similar Products Used:

To much to list and to tired to post...At least i'm telling the truth.

Build quality, pin sharp wide open,

Does not like teleconverters, a little heavy if carried about to long.

This is a very sharp lens indeed, used mainly for weddings, portraits, & nature, for the latter it is not quite long enough so i tried it with a converter but it softend it to much for my liking. Other than that i would highly recommend it as a general knock about lens. It is is very high quality in both build & clarity even wide open.
I have given it four stars just because it doesn't like teleconverters.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

sigma 100-300mm