AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

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When it comes to chromatic aberration (CA), the lens has very little lateral CA from 70 to 85mm. As you zoom in, lateral CA definitely increases, with 200mm showing the highest levels at the maximum aperture. Unfortunately, stopping down does not do much to reduce chromatic aberration. Take a look at the below chart by Imatest: Optics: 21 elements in 16 groups. 32 air/glass-surfaces provide a lot of opportunities for flares and ghosts. Nikon has applied their special Nano Crystal Coat on some elements. We’ll see how this works out in practice. The cross-section shows a lot of special elements: seven extra-low dispersion elements. [0] As expected from a high-end professional lens, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II does not disappoint when it comes to sharpness. When compared to the previous generation Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR, it is not only sharper in the center, but also significantly superior in the mid-frame and the extreme corners. This lens performs so well at f/2.8, that you wouldn’t want to shoot it at larger apertures, unless you need to increase depth of field or improve corner sharpness. In fact, once I saw how good the shots were coming out at f/2.8, I just kept shooting wide open and really loving the results! Best of all, the lens has consistent sharpness across the board, from 70mm all the way to 200mm. Color and contrast have also been improved over the previous 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR, thanks to better coating and superior optical design. NIKON D3S + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 155mm, ISO 200, 6sm f/11 New Nikon Winter instant rebate (Sofortrabatt) started in Germany: up to €600 off on select products Hmm...point taken, Sorry. The 18-55, 55-200, and 18-105 that are bundled with the consumer DX bodies are VR I, and are the least expensive zooms in Nikon's lineup. The 18-200, 16-85, 55-300, and 70-300 are VR II. What threw me off is that VR II started showing up on the metal-mount DX line BEFORE the 18-55, 55-200, and 18-105 came out - in the 16-85, 18-200, and 70-300.

The shape of the new design is reminiscent of the older AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8, with a wide body that does not taper towards the lens mount until the tripod collar. Build quality is excellent throughout, with much of the lens being constructed of magnesium. As a result this lens is heavy. Very heavy in fact, weighing in at over 1.5kg, which is noticeably more than its predecessor. The lens is weather-sealed and designed to cope with the rigours of daily professional use in harsh conditions. Zoom and focus are performed internally and as a result the lens remains the same length at all times. I am not a big fan of the sun stars this lens produces and it comes down to the 9 rounded blades. The peaks in the sun star as you can see above are split and look messy to me. I much more prefer the sun stars that straight blades gives, but I also understand why Nikon has made the rounded blades, as most users in their target group prefer bokeh over sunstars. Bokeh No. These are generations of VR technology. The less expensive lenses - which in the current Nikon lineup are usually DX but not always, have VR I. The more expensive lenses, DX or FX, have VR II.Distance information is relayed to the camera, so the Nikon body can do all the advanced exposure-related stuff with this lens. But this is true for all alternatives too. [+] All in all, you get the impression from handling this lens that it is built for professional use and designed to withstand a lot of beating from daily use in all kinds of weather. Sharpness / contrast The lens works incredibly well with the Nikon 1.4x teleconverter at all apertures, even wide open. Although sharpness is definitely impacted (as expected with any teleconverter), you will not notice a visible drop in sharpness in your images. If the corners look a bit fuzzy, just stop the lens down to f/5.6 and smaller, and they will improve dramatically. I have tested both the TC-14E II and TC-14E III with the 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II and both teleconverters performed admirably. When measuring the performance of the teleconverters in Imatest, I did not notice any drastic sharpness differences in the center of the frame, but the TC-14E III did show slight advantages in the extreme corners. If you already own the TC-14E II, there is no need, in my opinion, to upgrade to the TC-14E III for use with this lens. The TC-14E III performs a tad better with the latest generation Nikkor prime lenses, as it is specifically designed for them. Zoom is now a separate ring instead of push-pull combined with focus as every previous production lens has been.

The lenses with f/11 for both “Acceptable” and “Optimal” sharpness produce very unreliable results. NIKON D3S + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 370mm, ISO 280, 1/1250, f/8.0 Lens Construction and Handling Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots. Repeatability (the accuracy of focus on the same subject after repeated focus-acquisition) of this lens is very good with no outliers over a series of 40 shots. And there is no performance variation whether the lens focuses coming from infinity or from minimum focus distance. The lens focuses pretty fast: around 0.6 sec from infinity to 1.4m, which is a good value. Then again, if you’re very concerned about sharpness and you actually don’t need f/2.8 that desperately, don’t hesitate to get the 70-200mm f/4 VR instead. If you’re a landscape photographer toting around a D800e, for example, the 70-200mm f/4 VR is definitely going to be a fantastic choice. Or if you shoot mostly in daylight or casual conditions and are simply looking for something robust and reliable, the DOF / bokeh of the 70-200mm f/4 is still fantastic and beautiful. Again, personally, if I shoot Canon or Nikon it doesn’t matter: I’d still rather have an 85 and 135 prime for most shooting conditions, so that is why I would opt for one of the more affordable 70-200mm options. Besides if I really need boat-loads of sharpness or bokeh, I feel like that is what primes are for! I know that many probably don’t feel the same way, but hopefully there are also many photographers out there who can relate.Due to the use of low dispersion glass, Chromatic Aberrations are very well controlled peaking at around 0.8 pixel widths at 135mm towards the edges of the image area. At both the long and short ends of the zoom range are of little concern and barely register 0.25 pixel widths. Most people will struggle to notice this, even if they go hunting for it. As you can see in the picture, the room was poorly lit with candles and very dim light and yet the lens focused fast and dead-on, wide open at f/2.8. Out of approximately 250 pictures that I took that day, only about 5 were slightly out of focus, mainly due to the limited amount of light in the meeting room. Vibration Reduction – VR II

The focal range from 70-200 makes lenses like this one a workhorse for portrait photographers, sports, some wildlife, photo journalists and wedding photographers. It is simply a super important range for many pros, and hence a lens that major lens manufacturers work very hard to get it absolutely right.Nikon showed a prototype of the first 80-200mm f/2.8 ED. It was never sold or seen again. It took an 86mm filter, as did the 18mm f/4 of its day. The last few of these to leave the production line were updated to "D," as seen on their identity plates. Distortion is also well controlled and will cause very few issues in most circumstances with only 0.6% barrel at 70mm and 1.5% pincushion at 200mm. The second version was released in the middle of 2009. It has a completely different optical design, a more advanced VR system and it is fully optimised for full frame coverage. The only issue some people have with it is that when focused close to minimum focusing distance at the 200 mm end of the zoom range its acctual focal length is reduced to about 130 mm. This is perfectly fine for some people, yet it bothers others. But the lens is very sharp corner to corner, it has less vignetting, and some even say it has improved contrast and superior colour rendering over the first generation lens. The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8G ED VR II was announced in July 2009, as the second iteration of the company's professional stabilized fast telezoom. It's the successor to the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8G ED VR which first appeared in 2003, and brings to the table an entirely remastered optical system designed to match the demands of the latest high resolution FX format cameras such as the D3X, accompanied by an improved vibration reduction system which Nikon claims offers up to four stops stabilization.

Still, the Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S is hardly the heaviest 70-200mm f/2.8 on the market; that dubious crown belongs to some older generation 70-200mm f/2.8 DSLR lenses. In fact, when the Nikon F-mount 70-200mm f/2.8E FL came out in 2016, we praised it for its relatively light weight compared to prior 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses. While standards have risen in recent years (partly Nikon’s own doing thanks to their excellent and lightweight Z lenses), the fact remains that the Z 70-200mm f/2.8’s weight is manageable and not unusually high for such a lens. NIKON Z 7 II + NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S @ 200mm, ISO 250, 1/1250, f/2.8 When the TC-20E III is used with slow f/4 aperture lenses, autofocus stops working completely or becomes extremely unreliable. With the exception of the new Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, zoom lenses also start acting up in daylight with very mixed results. The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II works surprisingly well with the TC-20E III and I found the autofocus performance to be good in bright conditions, although the lens also works very well with the TC-14E II and TC-17E II teleconverters. The same cannot be said about the older 70-200mm f/2.8 lens – it is only known to work well with the TC-14E II. The above table chart outlines which lenses perform best at what aperture with the TC-20E III. When photographing sports, wildlife and other fast-action photography, you have to be extremely careful when using the TC-20E III. Some photographers may be wondering about the tripod foot that’s coupled with the Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S. In the past, Nikon has used non-standard, non-Arca-Swiss tripod feet on their high-end lenses, and unfortunately this one is no different. If you want to attach the 70-200mm f/2.8 S to an Arca Swiss-type tripod head, you’ll need to buy a separate tripod foot and replace the one Nikon included. Or, you could add a standard Arca Swiss plate to the bottom at the expense of a bit more weight and an extra attachment point.

That is why some say that if you have DX then the earlier lens will be fine, but if you use FX then its worthwhile to spend the extra money and get the MkII. Lenses – The lens has dust inside that may affect images. The rubber zoom/focus ring is coming away from the barrel of the lens. My advice to you is consider if alternatives with more reach or maybe some lighter primes. There are also alternatives in the same range from Sigma and Tamron – or the not so fast f/4 version from Nikon. The purpose of teleconverters is to increase the focal length of lenses, in other words to get closer to subjects, and the TC-20E III is the biggest and the longest teleconverter manufactured by Nikon – it doubles the focal length of a lens. While this teleconverter works with any professional Nikon lens that can take teleconverters, it is specifically designed to work with fast prime lenses with an aperture of f/2.8 and larger. The Nikon TC-20E III is targeted at sports, wildlife and other types of telephoto photography where the photographer cannot physically approach subjects.