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

Superb lens. Mine is coupled to 1.4 Nikon teleconverter and D500. A brilliant lightweight 600mm combination. Autofocus really fast and even faster when when VC control turned off at fast shooting speeds. Images are really sharp. I love it and it saves lugging around my heavy Sigma 150-600. Total weight including camera is only 2.1kg and at 25 cm in length (inc camera) it is really easy to wield around all day.

It's a little soft at f/4, but for the size, weight and price, this lens is brilliant. You can pay through the nose for the f2.8 version, and lug around considerable weight for your money, or you can get this great telephoto lens and capture images in a discreet, quiet and lightweight package.

Recently procured without too much use at the present time. I bought this to work alongside a 300 f2.8 VRII which I just find too heavy for general use. Very impressed by the quality and light weight of this new lens. I wish this lens had been available at the time I bought the f2.8 as I would have saved a lot of money and used the lens more. The f2-8 was bought mainly for taking wildlife in low light conditions where I found my 70 -300 VR having difficulty in focusing in low light wet and steamy jungle conditions in Africa but believe this lens would have served my purpose just as well and been much easier to carry

It's everything I hoped for: light, small, sharp, fast and accurate AF. The VR is also incredible: I can get pixel-perfect shots pretty reliably at 1/10s, most of the time at 1/5s, and even at 1/3s I usually get a sharp shot. This is probably the only time I've had a lens significantly outperform the claimed VR effectiveness -- I'd call it a 6 stop improvement.That said, the issue of the D800 mirror slap seems to still be real and ongoing. My serial number starts 210, so it ought to be fixed, but I still frequently notice horizontal lines getting doubled when the shutter speed is about 1/100s. Some other commentators have suggested that holding the camera loosely, and not holding the lens at all, seems to help, and I have found this to be true, although I still get sharper shots at 1/10 than at 1/100. But I still give it 5* because a) I'd rather have functional VR at 1/10 than at 1/100, b) apparently it doesn't affect all bodies, and c) adjusting the grip seems to mostly avoid the issue. If I could award 4.8* I would.

I bought this lens as a lightweight alternative to a f/2.8 300mm Nikkor lens that I have used routinely for bird photography over the last few years. This purchase was made following a recent Antarctic cruise, during which I saw a fellow birder producing great photos without the chore having to carrying a heavy-weight lens around! I have been really impressed with the results so far. This is clearly a high performance lens with excellent auto-focus and vibration reduction capabilities, greatly enabling the tracking of and focusing on birds in flight. Importantly, it works seamlessly with the TC-1.4E III teleconverter (aperture reduced to f/5.6) that I had already, with no obvious performance impairment. I cannot wait to use it on an upcoming trip to Iceland. The big decision now is whether or not to keep my heavy F/2.8 300mm lens; its so easy to carry around the 300mm PF! The use of a tripod collar ring is to be recommended (but Nikon-branded expensive).

This is a great lens. I use it with my D7100. The major reason for this one over the various zoom lens from Nikon, Tokina etc. is weight. You can carry this thing all day and hand hold for birding etc without any problem. It is sharp. Love it.

As an owner of a Nikon D810 I was fully aware that the initial shipment of this lens in 2015 had issues with the VR function at low shutter speeds. I waited in high expectation that a Nikon firmware update would resolve said issues. So after a year since its release date I placed an order with Amazon and my shiny new lens arrived the next day.My initial impressions of this lens were very praise worthy. The size, weight and build quality was of a very high standard and equally as good as other Nikon pro lenses I've owned.Performance wise this lens is capable of delivering excellent pin sharp images with fine contrast. The catch however, is that I don't think Nikon has fully resolved the now well documented VR issues at low shutter speeds. I found that images were very hit and miss at speeds lower than 250th/sec even with VR engaged. This I found very disappointing and kind of defeats the object of having a small telephoto designed specifically for hand held use. I really wanted this lens because as I say it is capable of delivering fine images but it’s simply not worth paying the extra premium for its size and portability if you're stuck with using a tripod as the light fades. The problem appears to relate only to the D8xx series of cameras so others no doubt will enjoy an otherwise spectacular lens.Overall then if you're owner of any modern Nikon camera other than a D8xx genre I'm sure you won't be disappointed with this lens and would highly recommend. For us D8xx owners however, just be aware that everything might not be as good as expected.Reluctantly I returned the lens to Amazon.

Great lens for bird photography - light to hold and tack sharp; creates a nice bokeh. Great when used on a dx Nikon camera.