Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR review - 56k warning!

[dewey]

So I've had one of Nikon's 70 or 80-200's of some kind for years... bought and traded a few times. I recently received my 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR and I thought I would post a quick review. I'd been reading about it for a while and being my first VR lens I was a little nervous about it... plus it's freakin expensive.

I won't go into too much detail like some reviews - you can Google those reviews for all kinds of technical data. I just wanted to share some shots from the first day in use. I've had it for about a week but I've been too busy to bust it out.

The VR is amazing... there's just no other way to describe it. A sharp shot at 1/15 of a second at 200mm handheld?? I know I read about it performing well but I didn't REALLY believe it until I saw it.

I find this lens just as sharp as my old 70-200, maybe a tad sharper if that's possible. The color and contrast is amazing as expected and of course nice DOF in the 2.8 area. All in all I think it will make an excellent replacement for me. The moral to my story is if you rely on your lens to make you money and you want the freedom to handhold shots you otherwise wouldn't be - BUY THIS LENS. BUY IT TODAY, just don't tell your significant other how much it costs.

However if this lens is not in your budget don't sweat it - you can find older 70-200's for much cheaper and if they're in good shape they're just as sharp as this lens, just bring a tripod or monopod.

So onto the review:

DISTORTION: No I didn't take any pictures of brick walls, there isn't much distortion and what is there can be easily removed.

GENERAL: This lens is a nice balance on a D80 or a D200 with a battery grip... I'm sure it would be fine without the grip too. The supplied lens hood is ample to protect from unwanted light. The included carry pouch will sit in my closet for all of eternity.

The 4 switches on the lens are for focus control, focus travel, VR and VR mode. The zoom and focus control is precise and smooth.

WEIGHT: The lens isn't as heavy as some gripe about it, but I guess that's a personal preference. I carried it around all day today and it never really wore on me.

LENS FLARE: Although I did see some flare it's not much worse than the 17-55... but when you DO get flare it's BAD. Here is this mornings sunrise and it's flare free enough for me:

VR: Now let's get VR out of the way. I'm still new to it - less than 8 hours and only about 1000 shots so far - so I'm by no means an expert on VR. I can say that it works very well at stabilizing shots. I'm anxious to try it out in a test inside of a dimly lit church to see how it performs. Fo now here is a 100% crop of a feather at the beach shot at 1/15sec at 200mm handheld. It's just amazing to me... and yes I could have grabbed the same shot with my old 70-200 2.8 but I would have needed a tripod ot get this shot at 1/15! 1/15 of a second... still amazing to me.

Here are a variety of shots from my testing today, all are handheld. If anyone has any specific questions please let me know and I'll give you my experience with this lens. Thanks for looking.

 

[ericande]

thanks for the review, what kind of processing did you do on the shots? Are they all touched up? They look SHARP

 

[dewey]

Duh... good point. :mrgreen:

I did some color correction on the Pelican head - I bumped the saturation a bit. I didn't play with the sharpness on the shots, but I did run noise ninja on the sunrise photo. Other than that they're just cropped.

The lens is almost too sharp, which sounds funny but I have some bird shots from today that look unnatural they're so sharp. Certainly a problem I'm glad to have.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

When I got my 24-120 VR I was just blown away that I could shoot as low as 1/4 of a second at 24mm-70mm and still get sharp images. It almost obsoletes a tripod, i love it! My 35-70 f/2.8 is worlds sharper though. Night and day difference. But I can't hand hold my 35-70 at 1/4th of a second.

My 80-200 f/2.8 is alot like the 70-200 VR when you say it's too sharp. There are times when my D70's AA filter is worthless and i get crazy moire on buildings or people's clothing. It's not really noticeable unless you view it at 100% though.

 

[mascafe]

Hi, DEWEY,

Nice review and photos. The 70-200 VR is a very sharp lens. I can confirm this, my copy is as sharp as you describe yours. Professional feel and very well constructed.

Cheers.

 

[ravikiran]

Excellent review Dewey. I am thankful to you as my thoughts linger over the VR versions of the lens. If possible I want to go to 80-400 VR Nikon lens. But the problem is they won't work in combination with the Nikon D50 which I possess.
Do 70-200 VR work with D50? And how the combo will perform?
Thank you once again for the review,

amiably,
Ravi.

 

[RMThompson]

What are some of the other VR lenses out of curiousity.