AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

Product Information

I just had very same problem (D7000) - lens would not auto focus, and it hadn't been used in a while. The 'fix' of moving the focus ring a few times worked on 1st try!

An update to Nikon’s legendary f/2.8 fixed aperture telephoto zoom lens, the AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II captures stunning full-frame images with remarkable speed. Nikon VR (Vibration Reduction) image stabilization provides 3.5 stops* of blur free handheld shooting, assuring dramatically sharper still images and HD video capture. Silent Wave Motor (SWM) enables ultra-fast, ultra-quiet autofocusing with seamless manual focus override. No matter what you’re shooting, you’ll capture it with uncompromising speed and precision—at any focal length.Its only vice is that the corners are never super-duper sharp for landscape photographers at the 200mm end, but these lenses have always been for sports, low light and portraits, not tripods. I bought my lens for 900 EUR used (2020), and it came in good condition. Even though prices fluctuate over time, it is a rather expensive lens also used, but certainly much more within reach than the original list price of 2400 USD in 2009. Build and layout The lens comes with 4 buttons, two to control the AF, and two to control the VR. In addition good wide rubber grips are there for manual focus and zoom (just left of the buttons). As usual I’ll have a look at the technical data first. I’ve rated the features with a [+] (or [++]), when it’s better than average or even state of the art, a [0] if it’s standard or just average, and [-] if there’s a disadvantage. The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens has a close-focus point of 1.4m throughout its zoom range (measured from the sensor plane rather than the front lens element). Nikon claims a maximum magnification of 0.12x at the telephoto end. No. These are generations of VR technology. The less expensive lenses - which in the current Nikon lineup are usually DX but not always, have VR I. The more expensive lenses, DX or FX, have VR II.

Detailed specifications for the lens, along with MTF charts and other useful data can be found in our lens database. NIKON D3S + 300mm f/2.8 @ 600mm, ISO 560, 1/500, f/5.6 Lenses – Should have no marks on the elements andoptically clear. There may be light dust present that will not effect theimagery. There is a large amount of dust/debris inside the lens which may / may not affect the image quality. When it comes to autofocus performance, the Nikon 2x teleconverters have always been the worst (when compared to other Nikon teleconverters), since they slow down lenses by two full stops and degrade image quality. The quality of light that reaches the autofocus sensor is often poor and only large aperture lenses that pass through lots of light can focus well enough with the TC-20E III. For example, the Nikon 200mm f/2.0 works very well with the TC-20E III and autofocus is often both fast and accurate. Slower f/2.8 prime lenses are a little worse, but still accurate enough in bright conditions. As lighting conditions worsen, the autofocus performance gets less accurate and lenses might start “hunting”– that’s when the lens goes from infinity to close focus, unable to stop at a particular focus mark. We see even a better pattern here – the Nikon 70-200mm f/4G VR not only has better contrast throughout the frame wide open, but its resolution is also significantly higher throughout the frame, especially in the corners. Imatest Results

The optics, as we'd expect for this kind of lens, are pretty exotic, with 21 elements in 16 groups. No fewer than 7 of these are fashioned from Extra-Low Dispersion (ED) glass to minimize aberrations, and Nikon's latest Nano Crystal Coating is employed to combat flare. One handling improvement is the addition of a new A/M focus mode, which prevents accidental movements of the focus ring from overriding the autofocus while it's operating. The build quality is appropriate for a professional workhorse lens, with a barrel that's made from magnesium alloy like the bodies of Nikon's pro-level DSLRs, and extensive sealing against dust and moisture. The not yet released Tamron SP AF 70-200mm 2.8 Di VC USD: The cheapest listing of around 1500 EUR certainly is not a real street price yet. Focus, build quality, and image stabilization Cameras – LCD screen is heavily worn either by de-lamination or has scratches to it. Rubber grips are starting to come away from the body. The moment you do that, you lose image detail. That was was bad way of doing that, and rendered your results null and void. Leave the images in their raw, uncorrected state. No image resizing, no optical lens correction.

Nikon's Nano-Crystal-Coat does a sterling job of minimising flare and ghosting and the lens performs well for a design comprised of so many elements. A lens constructed of 21 elements in 16 groups would normally be an absolute nightmare for this. With a strong light source placed just out of the image, some ghosting and loss of contrast is present, but not to anywhere near the extent of the previous model. Shooting straight at a strong light source is also surprisingly ghost-free, with only a small amount of blooming around the edges of the light source. I am a bit concerned now if this is a sign the lens will get worse, i.e. if the screeching symptom mentioned earlier in the thread, or some failure, will happen next. An electromagnetic diaphragm mechanism in the lens barrel provides highly accurate electronic diaphragm or aperture blade control when using auto exposure during continuous shooting. With conventional D/G type lenses, the diaphragm blades are operated by mechanical linkage levers.

There are many reservations to make before studying an MTF chart, and one of them is that your lens and your camera team up to produce the images, and hence studying a camera agnostic MTF chart may not reveal how your specific camera performs with this lens. And then Nikon does not provide data other than wide open and at the far extremes of this lens (wide and tele respectively), so we cannot see from the MTF chart how it performs in between. The MTF chart as provided by Nikon. Although I no longer have my old 70-200mm lens (I sold it at a higher price than what I paid for it 3 years ago) to compare with, I feel that the bokeh actually looks better on this lens than on its predecessor. I went through some of my archived images and I can say that the bokeh on the previous 70-200mm does look a little harsher, although I rarely shot the older lens wide open, due to softness at very large apertures between f/2.8 and f/4.

The purpose of teleconverters is to increase the focal length of lenses, in other words to get closer to subjects, and the TC-20E III is the biggest and the longest teleconverter manufactured by Nikon – it doubles the focal length of a lens. While this teleconverter works with any professional Nikon lens that can take teleconverters, it is specifically designed to work with fast prime lenses with an aperture of f/2.8 and larger. The Nikon TC-20E III is targeted at sports, wildlife and other types of telephoto photography where the photographer cannot physically approach subjects. In general the impression of build quality is that of a pro-level lens: A high quality metal/plastic construction combined with a weather sealed metal lens-mount, and nine rounded aperture blades.

The last handling feature I’ll mention is stabilization. Unlike most Nikon Z lenses so far, the 70-200mm f/2.8 S has built-in vibration reduction (VR). Even though most photographers will be using this lens with a Nikon Z camera that has in-body image stabilization (IBIS) like the Nikon Z6 II or Z7 II, the VR feature is still helpful if you want to use this lens on a camera like the Nikon Z50 and Nikon Zfc that doesn’t have IBIS. Nikon introduced its first autofocus pro zoom, the 80-200mm f/2.8 ED AF. You can identify this version by its big multi-position focus-limiter ring. It takes the HN-28 screw-in metal crinkle-coat hood. Hmm...point taken, Sorry. The 18-55, 55-200, and 18-105 that are bundled with the consumer DX bodies are VR I, and are the least expensive zooms in Nikon's lineup. The 18-200, 16-85, 55-300, and 70-300 are VR II. What threw me off is that VR II started showing up on the metal-mount DX line BEFORE the 18-55, 55-200, and 18-105 came out - in the 16-85, 18-200, and 70-300.