Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4E PF ED VR Lens

Product Information

The ∞ - 3m setting (∞ - 10') prevents the lens from focusing closer than 3m/10.' Use this only if you're having problems with the lens jumping all over the range from very close to very far. That leaves Nikon’s own predecessor, the AF-S 300/4.0D. As you’ve seen in the comparison above, that lens is big, heavy and not stabilized. It’s image quality has a good reputation and we’ll see in my tests that this is indeed justified. So for those who don’t need small and light and have no problems to shoot 300mm without image stabilization that may well be the best alternative to the new lens. This Nikon 300mm f/4 VR PF is for the photographer who actually shoots, as opposed to just talking about it. It's half the weight of other 300mm lenses, so this is the 300mm you'll actually take out and use.

Distance information is relayed to the camera, so the Nikon body can do all the advanced exposure-related stuff with this lens. [+] Electronically controlled for quieter operation, but isn't compatible with cameras made before about 2007. Sealing: yes! A rubber grommet at the lens-mount and a rubberized front-end that acts as a seal when the lens-cap is attached. The 300/4.0D does not offer that kind of protection. [+] This Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S is an extremely sharp 300mm lens designed for those who shoot with tripods and demand the sharpest 300mm lens possible. If you count all your pixels, this lens is sharper than any of Nikon's zoom lenses. This Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S is for the photographer who shoots on a tripod. It's the perfect 300mm lens for the sorts of people who love to shoot raw and demand the absolute highest technical image quality.It does not shorten at closer distances as seen in many zooms like the 28-300mm VR. Here are two shots made from the same position with each of these lenses: TO get sunstars, you need to stop down to around f/32 to get 18-pointed sunstars on brilliant points of light:

on the lens focus ring itself. If you leave the lens' focus mode selector set to MF, then the big fat manual focus ring rotates as the camera As you can see from the above chart, the lens provides excellent resolution at its maximum aperture of f/4, with very sharp center / mid-frame performance and slightly worse corners. Stopping down the lens does not do much to improve performance and the sweet spot seems to be at around f/5.6. If you want to compare the lens performance to other lenses like Nikon 80-400mm, see the Lens Comparisons section of this review.The Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S is compatible with all current and older Nikon teleconverters. So far I have mentioned the Nikon TC-14E II (which pretty much stays glued to my 300mm f/4), but both the TC-17E II and the TC-20E III teleconverters will also physically attach to the lens. However, it does not mean that you can effectively use the lens with all three teleconverters. In my experience, the lens suffers quite a bit when using anything other than 1.4x teleconverters. Some people are quite happy with the TC-17E II, which makes the 300mm f/4 a 510mm f/6.3 lens, but I personally have not had great success with this combo. The newer DSLRs such as Nikon D7100, D800 and D4 with the “Advanced Multi-CAM 3500” AF module certainly work better with this combo, however, I am still not very happy with the wide-open performance of the lens. Stopped down to f/8, the combo can produce pretty good results, but AF accuracy certainly suffers and you have to watch out for camera shake (keep that shutter speed high). Forget about using the TC-20E II or III (2x) teleconverters with this lens – there is too much loss of IQ with this combo. Added to all this, those with a DSLR camera sporting an APS-C sensor will boost the focal length up to around 450mm without any loss of light while those with a tele-extender will lose a stop to f/5.6. (But then again, in the digital age, a boost up with the ISO will negate this slight shortcoming without any problems.) I tried it on my Nikon FM3a, and it also works great, of course with manual focus, no VR and only at f/4. With its rounded diaphragm, the 300/4 PF rarely makes any kid of sunstars on brilliant points of light.