Bang for the buck!

The second you start looking at telephoto lenses longer than about 200mm you will start to see a HUGE upward spiral in price. Your jaw will drop when you see the $5000 price tag on an F/2.8 Nikkor 300mm or the $10,000 F/2.8 400mm. You might be wondering why anyone would spend that kind of money when many super zooms can extend to 300mm and often cost only a few hundred dollars. I can assure you, from experience, that most zooms fail at both ends of their zoom spectrum...the shortest and the longest focal length and often these zooms show considerable distortion at both ends. Using a prime lens (especially at these long focal lengths) is the way to go if you want distortion free images. The unfortunate tradeoff is in weight and the need to carry extra lenses to cover the shorter focal lengths when you no longer need the 300mm lens.

Nikon has luckily provided its customers with a "bang for the buck" version of its top-shelf telephoto lenses with the 300mm F/4 D AF-S ED-IF lens. It provides most of the performance of its bigger brother ( the $5000 F/2.8 300mm) for a tiny fraction of the price.

lets decipher all the letters in the lens designation first..

300mm.. its a fixed focal length of 300mm. Zoom with your feet:-)

F/4.. its 1 stop slower than its bigger brother ( but $4000 cheaper!)

"D" it is designed for film based cameras and will also work just fine with digital backs. It has an aperture ring so it will work even with manual focus backs.....yet it has a CPU so it will work with even the most sophisticated digital and film backs

"AF-S" the lens is designed with the ability to override the focus manually without hurting the focus mechanism or the motor in the camera. With non-AF-S lenses you need to switch the autofocus off on the camera or the lens to manually focus. This allows for fast and precise focusing.

"ED" the lens uses special ED glass that improves light transmittance and improves color performance

"IF" the lens uses internal focusing which means that all the focusing elements are internal to the lens and do not do odd things like turning the filter ring etc. It is also a much faster method of focusing and allows properly equipped camera bodies to focus much faster in AF mode.

Now...here are the specs from the Nikon USA site..

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Lens Construction: 10 elements in 6 groups (2 ED)

Picture Angle: 8 degrees 10 minutes (35mm format), 5 degrees 20 minutes (Nikon DX format)

Minimum Focus Distance: 4.8 ft.

Maximum Reproduction Ratio (Macro Setting: 1:3.7

Attachment/ Filter Size: 77mm

Dimensions (diameter x length - in.): 3.5 x 8.8

Weight (oz.): 50.8 oz.

Nikon Lens Hood: Built-In

Case(s): Ballistic Nylon -CL-M2

Included Accessories: CL-M2 case, front cover, rear cap


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Construction quality is first rate and everything you would expect from a $1000 lens. Its built as good as anything available in the price range and is made from a significant amount of steel with a rubberized focus ring. I only with that Nikon made its G series lenses with such attention to detail. Everything operates smoothly and precisely. I have heard people complain about the tripod mount on other websites, but I have never had much of a problem with it. I find it to be perfectly adequate so long as you use good technique. If you expect to shoot this lens at 1/30 sec shutter speed you had better have excellent technique no matter how good or bad the tripod mount is. I don't think most people will feel the tripod mount is poor. Like I said, I've never used an F/2.8 version of this lens. Perhaps the extra $4000 for the lens also covers the cost of a better tripod collar?

Image quality is complete perfection. Images are free of distortion and color variations. The images are extremely sharp. I have used the lens with several film backs from FM3A MF backs all the way to F5 auto everything backs and gotten great results. The digital backs ( D70, D80 and D2X) backs that I have used with the lens are spectacular since the crop factor of the digital backs provides for a field of view equivalent to a 450mm lens. THIS was my primary motivation in buying this lens as it provides me with incredible "reach" with a digital back and nice moderately long reach with the film backs.

This is a solid "bang for the buck" lens. You may balk at the price but it is an absolute bargain considering its heritage and optical quality. It's a nice compliment to the 80-200mm F/2.8 AFS ED-IF zoom.

A couple of things I really like about the lens..

1. it includes a nylon case. This is a lens you will not likely leave attached to the camera. The nylon case makes it easy to safely bring the lens with you in the field. It really is a necessity and I'm glad Nikon provided one.

2. The integrated lens hood is awesome. I wish more prime lenses came equipped with retractable lens hoods. You now have no excuse for not using the hood!

3. 77mm filter size.. its practically the industry standard for pro optics so its nice not to have to buy new filters for your 300mm.

4. fantastic construction quality. It may cost $1000 but it also LOOKS like it cost $1000

5. Optical performance is amazing and its a great focal length for both digital and film backs.


what I don't like about the lens

1. no focus "stop" buttons.... many top shelf AFS telephotos have focus lock buttons on the barrel. I rarely use them but it is nice to have them. Some photogs might really miss them

2. I don't have a problem with the tripod collar but I see many reviewers don't like it. Perhaps they are used to the collars on $5000 lenses. I wouldn't know since I don't own any of those :-). If you use good technique you wont have any problem. Its not like it's shaky or wobbly or anything like that.

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update 12/7/2006

I recently purchased Nikon TC14eII and TC20eII teleconverters for use with this lens. WOW!!!! (underlined, bold and in large type!) This lens works SO well with the teleconverters that I totally gave up on any idea I had of saving up the $$$$ needed to purchase a 400 or 600mm lens. Nikon teleconverters only work with a few select lenses and luckily the 300mm F/4 AF-s is one of those lenses. The performance was way beyond my expectations. The TC14eII worked so well that I noticed almost NO difference in the performance or resolution of the lens except the 1 stop loss of light. The TC20eII loses 2 stops and as a result makes AF slow and cumbersome to use, but the resolution and optical quality of the resulting 600mm F/8 lens is simply AWESOME. If your photographic style can get past the slow speed of the lens then this is an AWESOME substitute for 600mm glass. After all, what exactly were you planning on using to get 600mm otherwise? For the price of a Nikon 600mm lens I could buy a whole new professional Nikon camera outfit and top-shelf lenses complete with backup bodies and cover the entire range from 10.5mm-600mm ( using teleconverters and a 300mm F/4). Which would you rather have? of course, if you NEED the speed then there is no substitute. 99.9% of the public doesnt NEED the speed so much that they can invest $7000 in a 600mm F/4 lens.

See my upcoming reviews of the TC14, 17, and 20EII teleconverters.