Nikon AF 70-300/4.0-5.6 G Black Nikkor Lens (not compatible with D40/D40x/D60/D5000)

This purchase was for my daughter who wanted to up date from a pocket size camera to a DSLR to record the progress and changes in our new Grand-Daughter, I bought her a D3200 , for her birthday, I am a very keen amateur photographer myself and have just upgraded my seven year old D700 to a D810 and already have one of these lenses, my daughter thought she would like one, so I lent her mine to try, after a very short time she said she would like to have one of her own, hence this purchase, as a new one would cost more than the camera, and she was paying this time I suggested a good used one. My one was new when I bought it and still looks like new today after seven or so years of careful use. The only piece of equipment I have purchased used was a Nikon SB 900 flash gun, which was all complete in its original box and in like new condition. I suggested we look carefully, and for one complete with all parts both lens caps, lens hood, and pouch type case all in its original box, I feel that someone that has kept the box has more likely treated the lens carefully. The lens arrived and I tried it on my D810 it looked as good as my own one and performed perfectly, my daughter is very happy with this purchase. Now I must review this lens, before I started I decided to look at the existing reviews already written. I found it unbelievable of some reviews, particularly the person who had returned the lens claiming the rear lens cap was stuck, I presume it was fitted with a pattern cap rather than an original Nikon one, as my one is marked with an arrow and the word " open " in the clockwise direction, YES IT IS LEFT HAND Thread Bayonet. There is many more I could comment on but it would make this too long. The 70-300 is a superb lens I have had a lot of use from mine, the quality of prints from it are excellent and I frequently print at A3, I am an aircraft enthusiast and have taken some superb shots at air shows, of Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mustangs, I must admit photographing, "The Red Arrows" is a little more challenging, but I have worked out a focusing technique which gives me around 90% success. The auto focus locks quickly and quietly but I do not use auto for" The Reds", I will comment on another review, which annoyed me slightly, this person said that taking pictures of small birds in flight or birds perching a good distance away the lens was useless this is not the fault of the lens, he should have gone for at least a 500mm or got closer. I cannot fault this lens if it is used sensibly. I will just say if you are a Nikon user, I would not use any other than Nikon lenses for picture and build quality, you would not buy a Rolls Royce and put a Ford engine in it.

I haven't got the experience to rate this lens from a professional photographers eye, but for me, what it does is extremely good and for the money it is an absolute steal. Like all moderately priced big zooms I can confirm what other reviewers have said about the drop off in sharpness at the extreme end, but seriously, what do you expect for a lens aimed at and priced at the keen amateur end of the market? Because I'm especially keen on wildlife and candid people shots I tend to leave the lens on the camera all the time and switch to my lesser used 18-105mm for everything else. It is extremely heavy and feels very solid. Coupled with the weight of my D7000 I could never forget I'm carrying it. Only once have I missed a shot when the camera would not autofocus on a fairly dull day as a spitfire passed on its way to an air show. The grey body against the grey sky with rubbish light was a little too much for it and I couldn't fire one shot off. That minor disappointment aside, it is a great piece of glass. The pro version(2.8 hole) will set you back a thousand pounds and more and I really can't justify that kind of outlay for what I do with a camera. Ultimately I would say it is well worth the money and so long as you don't try to shoot in adverse conditions it will do what you ask of it. VR Stability works very well and I leave it on all the time. I have not tried the VR panning setting yet as I tend not to do this and so it stays in full control.

Having long since ceased to use my old AF Nikkor 70-300mm 4.5-5.6D ED because of dissatisfaction with picture quality I fairly recently bought the excellent SF-S 18-200mm 3.5.5.6 VR DX lens, from Amazon which has become my general workhorse. A Sigma 170-500mm 5-6.3 has been my 'birdwatching' tool for some time but with poor results at full stretch. The Nikon VR lenses do offer a lot more scope for hand held shots and I first considered the 80-400mm lens but with reports of slow AF and a price of £1,100 plus I eventually went for the 70-300mm, much cheaper, lens with the hope that the sacrifice of 100mm could be made up by a bit of digital processing!!!! (When taking wild bird pictures the focal length never seems long enough!!!) At less than £400 at Amazon the consistent 'good' quality, fast focus and VR convenience this proves to be value for money and one of the better performance/ price medium telephotos on the market. My trial day, with a Nikon D300, at an equestrian event was very satisfying. In a large arena the full 300mm range was often necessary and by stopping down a couple of levels the results were crisp and sharp. I have noticed some quality fall off from 200mm upwards. Subjectively, the overall performance is not quite as good as the 18-200mm VR, which will still remain attached to my camera most of the time. However, unless you are prepared to spend several £,000 for the top quality Nikon Zooms this lens should satisfy most keen amateurs and semi-pros! Recommended!

Quite often people dismiss cheap lenses (under $200). While there are certainly bad lenses in this price range, there are often lenses that are surprisingly good. Many of these are Nikon's cheaper consumer lenses. I bought this lens for use on my Nikon D700 and D40 until I get around to buy a nicer telephoto, which would cost significantly more. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but I have been pleasantly surprised with the quality of the pictures for the price. The sharpness and colors are significantly better than another Cheap lens at 70-210mm (can't remember the brand, it was an off-brand). There are a few drawbacks to this lens, of course. This lens does auto-focus on cameras with AF and G capability, but must be manually focused on cameras that do not. This includes some other 35mm SLRs as well as Nikon's newer consumer SLRs that don't contain a focusing motor. These cameras would include the D40, D40x, D60, D3000, D3100, and D5000. I own a D40 and can use this lens on it, but have to focus manually. You also can't adjust the aperture on old manual-focus cameras. There is also no image stabilization, therefore to take consistent sharp images in low light you need to use a fast shutter speed, which may not always be easy to do. This isn't the fastest lens either, starting at f/4 at 70mm and f/5.6 at 300mm. Because of both of these omissions this lens works best in good light unless you have a camera that performs well at higher-ISO settings or you have a flash that can compensate. I've also noticed that the autofocus is a bit slow, as well as loud. It's not as bad when the focus adjustments are small however, making it usually fine for tracking moving subjects, it just becomes inconvenient if for example you are tracking a soccer player and at some point accidently focus on the background and have to go back. The final drawback I noticed is there seems to be a little bit of distortion and softness as you reach 300, but it's acceptable considering the price of this lens. Overall this is a great deal. There are some conveniences and frills that are left out, as mentioned above, but considering this is only $130 I feel you can't go wrong. If you don't have a telephoto for your Nikon and considering this because you don't want to spend $500+, buy this. It's worlds better than nothing. Just keep in mind that the autofocus will not work if you have a D40/40x/60/3000/3100/5000.

I have a Nikon D90 camera. Note that this is a DX camera and, therefore, I am only using the middle part of the image focused by this lens. Since that portion is typically the best part of the image, those of you using cameras with full-framed sensors (such as the D3 line or the D700) should look elsewhere for advise. I have had this lens a little more than a week and have been very impressed with auto-focus speed (assuming enough light, but see below), sharpness, and basic lack of notable aberrations. I am using Photo Shop CS5 for processing and both the raw-image and main dialogs provide (from Adobe) distortion correction profiles for this lens. A plus. I am using a 16-bit per color channel process and typically making 13" x 19" prints, occasionally with some cropping. This is enough magnification to see most sorts of lens flaws. Given this setup and my DX camera, I'm rating this lens five-star. Whenever I get a new lens, I practice using it around the house and neighborhood for several days to become acquainted with its quirks. I did so with this lens and found two quirks that are noteworthy. First, this is a BIG lens, particularly where extended to a full 300mm and the lens shade is snapped on. In fact the weight makes it difficult to hold steady and the focal length amplifies user shake. I had to practice my technique so that VR and me together could take super pictures. If you have enough light to shoot at 1/100 sec or faster, this problem will seem to go away. However, if your technique isn't good, you will end up with a sharp picture offset somewhat from what you thought you were shooting. In other words, you need good technique (or a tripod or a monopod) to supplement VR at all shutter speeds. Another issue caused by length and weight is that it is much harder to steady the camera when used in portrait orientation than in landscape. This is because the camera grip on Nikon cameras is put on the right and that means it is on the bottom (or top) in portrait mode. Since your wrist is twisted, it is harder to steady. Second, auto-focus wont zip from 70mm to 300mm or vice versa in most instances. My advice is to use the manual focus ring to get close to focus when you start way out of focus. Make it a habit to do so. Otherwise, you will miss some pictures while the lens stays confused. Depth of field is negligible when you use a long telephoto and 300mm qualifies to that description. So the lens needs some help. It's not the lens' fault, it's just physics. I bought this lens to replace my Nikon 55-200mm VR. That lens is great and costs less that half as much as the lens I'm reviewing. I believe the new lens is worth the extra money but the 55-200mm is certainly a good alternative if budget is an issue. The extra 100mm on the long end is worth it and the lens is sharper, to my eyes, at equivalent focal lengths. Of course you are considering buying this lens because of the extra 100mm or because you have a non-DX camera and have no other Nikon choices in this price range. The build quality is also better; since I don't plan to bounce either lens on the floor, that is a minor consideration.

初心者で評価と値段で買ってしまったんですが、AF-Sと勘違いしてしまいやってしまった‥と思っていましたが、慣れてきたら初心者でも綺麗な写真が撮れて満足しています

Bien reçu, j'ai pu le tester et il fonctionne parfaitement,les photos sont parfaites. Juste une petite bosse sur le filtre de protection que je vais remplacer.

ズームも滑らかでよいぞぉ 光学性能的にはDXの70-300と大差ないかな