Use continuous autofocus with focus areas as a d9 (AF-C + d9) or Single autofocus with focus area as S (center point) ( AF-S ) We didn't actually know exactly what we wanted it for, we just knew that we wanted one. . I got the impression watching college students that this mindset was pretty much the norm for newly minted amateurs. I rented one when they first came out, and I found that it was about a 350 ( 300 maybe ) to 500 zoom in one twist. But I use mine in that range most anyway. And if I were using 300mm for example, I'd still probably only want to zoom within that 150mm to 200mm that one twist would provide. There has to be some limitations. Overall, the AF speed and accuracy on the 200-500mm VR are both very good. You can find additional commentary in regards to AF performance when using a teleconverter in the “Teleconverter Use” section of this review. Our team is looking forward to re-testing autofocus performance when coupled with the D5 or the D500. Low-light Performance You can crop 20% into the 500mm shot from the Nikon to get the same angle of view as with the longer zooms at 600mm. This sheds 36% of your pixels, which is equivalent to reducing a 36MP shot on a D810 body to 23MP – which probably is still enough for most purposes. Or you use a teleconverter and zoom in to 600mm.

Bunny Fencing, 29 October 2015. Nikon D810, Nikon 200-500mm VR at 500mm and Nikon TC-14E III, wide-open at f/8 at 1/1,000 hand-held at Auto ISO 1,100. bigger or camera-original 36MP file to explore on your computer (most portable devices can't show all the pixels in the full resolution file). Bokeh has a bit of “onion" to it (concentric rings), and there’s clear coma as you move towards the corners. But in practice I was very pleased with the out of focus rendering on non specular highlights, where these problems simply won't be seen.Shooting with such lenses as the Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E VR hand-held requires a solid image stabilization system, because you are dealing with a relatively slow aperture and long focal length, which puts a heavy burden on the shutter speed and ISO performance of the camera. To be able to keep up with fast shutter speeds, you will find yourself pushing your camera’s ISO quite a bit if you don’t take advantage of image stabilization, which is why it is so important. Nikon TC-20E III (400-1000mm): Slowing down the maximum aperture of the lens to f/11 and significantly reducing the amount of light passing through the lens, it is expected that the TC-20E III would be a bad candidate for the Nikon 200-500mm VR. While being able to reach 1000mm sounds appealing, autofocus is basically dead and you would have to use the manual focus ring to focus on the subject. Sharpness is so greatly impacted with this combo, that I did not bother testing the rig using test charts. I would strongly discourage using this particular combo, because it will only lead to frustration. Vibration Reduction / Image Stabilization Performance Might come down to you get what you pay for. But I think you're getting a lot for what you pay for a 200-500, you're just not getting 300, 400, 500, 600 prime IQ. DSLR Cameras Canon EOS DSLR Cameras Nikon DSLR Cameras Digital Compact Cameras Instant and Single Use Cameras Instant Cameras Instant Camera Film Single Use Cameras Instant Printers

One of the most surprising things about this lens was the fact that it has a constant aperture throughout. Just like the 200-400mm, which has a constant aperture of f/4, this lens won’t vary its maximum aperture depending on your chosen zoom. I have yet to see a budget telephoto lens other than this one that offers this, as the rest will vary between f/5 and f/6.3 across the range. This is a real bonus for wildlife photographers as you often need all the light you can get. Nothing is more frustrating than having to zoom out just because your maximum aperture has shrunk. In Conclusion Longer teleconverters can severely impact autofocus accuracy! Also, because teleconverters effectively increase the focal length of a lens, there is also the added problem of the longer focal length – one has to know how to handle such issues as atmospheric haze, camera shake (see article on reciprocal rule), image stabilization and proper camera + lens handling. In short, the longer the lens, the more the potential problems. NIKON D750 + 200-500mm f/5.6 @ 500mm, ISO 1250, 1/1000, f/8.0

Of course it won't autofocus on manual-focus 35mm cameras, and VR won't work on some of the oldest 35mm cameras either —but that's the case with all lenses on these cameras. As seen above, the lens features a total of four switches on the side of the lens. From top to bottom, there is a focus mode switch that allows switching from autofocus with manual focus override to manual focus, focus limiter switch that goes from close focus to infinity (full range) and 6 meters to infinity, vibration reduction (VR) switch and lastly, vibration reduction mode switch that allows switching between Normal and Sport mode. These brands don't make the effort to update years-old lenses to work with new cameras; they step away from the issue like a hot potato and hope you buy a new lens from them instead seven years from now. Vibration Reduction is excellent. I get perfect results most of the time at 1/15 at 500mm, and I get perfect results about a third of the time at 1/8, hand-held at 500mm!

The Nikon 200-500 is made mostly of plastic in China, which is the same as Nikon lenses that cost twice as much! On the exposed zoom ring, remove the orange tape with 3 silver rectangle embedded (put it somewhere safe). Not only was I able to hold focus through all this, but examining the full sequence of 18 shots, the lens was pretty dead on throughout, even though I was struggling to unwind my body, zoom, and keep the lens aimed right simultaneously. On older versions of cameras, such as Nikon D200, you cannot change the aperture. The aperture will be fixed to f/5.6. Filters (Optional)Special thanks to Tom Redd and John Lawson for sharing their beautiful images for the review. NIKON D800E @ 500mm, ISO 200, 1/500, f/8.0 Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR Overview If you’re handholding, can you really hold seven pounds (camera plus lens) reliably for any length of time? From Nikon there’s the AF-S 80-400mm f4.5-5.6D ED VRii. Read about this lens in my Nikon 80-400mm review. The Nikkor AF-S 200-500mm f5.6E ED VR is a super-telephoto zoom designed for Nikon DSLRs. Announced in August 2015, it represents a new category in the Nikkor range, offering a super-telephoto range at a comfortably lower price than the existing AF-S 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 VR II not to mention a fraction of the high-end AF-S 200-400mm f4G VR, while out-reaching either of them. Indeed at first glance, the AF-S 200-500mm f5.6E would seem like a response to the popular 150-600mm zoom options from Sigma and Tamron which filled a gap missing from both Nikon and Canon’s catalogues. The price of the new Nikkor is also roughly similar to the higher-end Sports version of Sigma’s 150-600mm, but there are of course differences. Most obviously the Sigma and Tamron 150-600mm lenses start wider and end longer with a 4x range versus just 2.5x on the Nikkor. The Tamron lens is lower-priced too, as is the Contemporary version of the Sigma. On the other side of the coin, the Nikkor features a constant f5.6 focal ratio, compared to the f5-6.3 of the Sigma and Tamron. This lens has excellent vibration reduction performance. I have achieved sharp images at 1/30th during low light conditions. Nikon claims to have the benefit of 4½ stops. I always keep the VR “ON.”