My 80-200 spent a lot of time on film cameras, where I thought it was great. It spent very little time on my D70s, D200 or D300, because I never liked the focal range on DX. (Too long on the short end for people much of the time, not long enough on the long end for wildlife). It found renewed like on my D700 for several years. The only issue on my sample is that it's *extremely* soft when used at its closest focusing distance at 200mm. Overall, the Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D is a great alternative for it's more expensive modern counterparts. Don't be fooled by its relatively dated design. It's an amazing performer at a bargain price. And at least for me, it's Pros ultimately outweighs it's Cons.

Bought Kenko 300 Pro x1.4 TC to replace my x2, but haven't a chance to test it - if it's possible I'll update this review with the details later. Ideal Uses: Fast general-purpose AF tele zoom, especially portraits and indoor concerts and theater. Perfect for use on FX digital, DX digital and film.Build quality is fantastic. I have only owned Nikon consumer lenses before and the difference is staggering in every respect. All contols have a silky smoothness about them.

When you used the 80-200 on your D800, were the corners soft and center sharp wide open or was the whole frame soft wide open? B/c if it was just corners it wouldn't matter on dx. Katie swinging, 28 July 2016. 2016 Nikon D5 at 1/1,250 at 12 FPS at Auto ISO 100, 1999 Nikon 80-200mm AF-S at 200mm at f/2.8. bigger or full-resolution file to explore on your computer (mobile devices rarely display high resolution files properly). Here's an example image I shot using this lens by zone-focusing, and tweaking the contrast up a little bit in Aperture. Although the VR is said to give 4 stops advantage over a similar lens, this advantage becomes minimal when you consider that the VR needs to be stopped down to f8 or f11 before it appears to deliver its best definition. On the other hand my 80-200 is very sharp from f4 so I reasoned that this took care of two or three stops advantage straight away. The Kenko 1.4x and 1.5x converters work quite ok with ALL AF 80-200/2.8 (they share the same optical formula) but only the new DGX ones display the 'real' aperture in EXIF.Unlike amateur plastic lenses, and even professional AF-S and VR lenses, I suspect that most of these lenses will still be cranking out great images 30 years from now, while the newer lenses with more features are far more likely to have been cast aside as unrepairable when critical AF-S and VR system parts become unavailable. This 80-200mm f/2.8 AF was Nikon's top pro zoom from 1988-1992. Optically this lens is unsurpassed and the same optical design is still sold today.