Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5 - 5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR

plastii · Jan 1, 2008

Hello everyone.

I'm thinking about buying this lens but I was wondering if anyone of you did use it. The on-line reviews were pretty good buy what is your opinion about it?

Thanks.
Marek

Mav · Jan 1, 2008

Santa just brought me this lens for Christmas and I love it already.

Haven't shot with it too much yet, but I'll try to post some samples tomorrow.

johnmh · Jan 1, 2008

Good value for the money. Have gotten some good shots with this lens over the years. Shooting across Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point on a D70, I could make out the dead tree at the base of Vernal Falls when blowing up in photoshop....... a mile's distance?

It's not super fast but the VR is very useful. You'll get your money's worth from it.

You'll want to pair this lens with a wider one - the 18-70 is supposedly good quality and complements the 70-300 nicely though any of the kit lenses work well in that respect 18-55, 18-135, etc

Bevel Heaven · Jan 1, 2008

I had that lens for awhile and thought I was able to pull of some pretty good shots with it. I give it specifically 2 thumbs up :thumbup::thumbup:

plastii · Jan 2, 2008

Thanks guys. I think I'll get it

petey · Jan 2, 2008

I want this one next.

Mav · Jan 2, 2008

The 70-300VR straight off the D40, no processing of any kind. Looks like I'll need to push these about a stop or so to lighten them up. All were taken at 1/60s, even at 300mm. No problems! Also made framing the shot a ton easier without a constantly shaking/jiggling viewfinder. That was one thing about VR that I didn't appreciate until trying it. Once you get out to 300mm w/o a tripod you really start to need that.

70mm, 1/60s, f/4.5 (wide-open), VR on, bounced SB-400, Auto ISO chose 250.

240mm, 1/60s, f/5.6 (wide-open), VR on, bounced SB-400, Auto ISO chose 450.

300mm, 1/60s, f/5.6, VR on, bounced SB-400, Auto ISO chose 560

Trenton Romulox · Jan 2, 2008

I looked at the 70-300 for a while, but decided it just wasn't fast enough for the light I'd be using it in (indoor sports). But I have heard good things about it, and it's a good deal I think. By the way, Mav, I notice a nice Apple keyoard, iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro? What you sportin'?

plastii · Jan 2, 2008

Mav, sweet pictures. I can't wait for my 70-300

Mav · Jan 2, 2008

Trenton Romulox said:
I looked at the 70-300 for a while, but decided it just wasn't fast enough for the light I'd be using it in (indoor sports). But I have heard good things about it, and it's a good deal I think. By the way, Mav, I notice a nice Apple keyoard, iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro? What you sportin'?

Good eye. :mrgreen: I just picked up a 24" iMac (2.8 GHz) for Christmas. Before that I had a Mac Mini (1.66 GHz Core Duo, late 2006 model) that I tried out just to get my feet wet in the Apple brand after dumping PCs. Loved it, so here I am on a 24" iMac. The Mini Me Mac is about to get eBayed.

When I get around to it I'll up the iMac to 4GB of RAM at get parallels up and running with Vista so I can also run some of my engineering apps on the side.

As for the 70-300VR, yeah it's not quick at all, but I'll eventually pickup either an f/2.8 telephoto *OR* upgrade to the coming full-frame / amateur body DSLR from Nikon which will give me enough extra speed on the body. Gotta love the D3's clean iso6400 performance! Just need to put it in a Canon 5D sized body now at a similar price point and I'll be sold.

Mav · Jan 2, 2008

plastii said:
Mav, sweet pictures. I can't wait for my 70-300

thanks! you'll love it! :mrgreen: Can't wait to try mine out at the zoo, beach, park, etc this summer.

Dweller · May 16, 2008

Bumping an old thread to ask about focus speed on this lens. I have a Quantaray 70-300 now and the autofocus is noisy and slow but otherwise its a good lens. I am surprised at some of the shots I get from it.

I am considering stepping up to the Nikon for the VR and for a hopefully quieter and faster focus motor, but some reviews I read mention slow focus. I hope to get my hands on one here in the next few days to do a side by side comparison but wanted to hear from you guys too.

Thanks!

mike55 · May 17, 2008

Dweller said:
Bumping an old thread to ask about focus speed on this lens. I have a Quantaray 70-300 now and the autofocus is noisy and slow but otherwise its a good lens. I am surprised at some of the shots I get from it.

I am considering stepping up to the Nikon for the VR and for a hopefully quieter and faster focus motor, but some reviews I read mention slow focus. I hope to get my hands on one here in the next few days to do a side by side comparison but wanted to hear from you guys too.

Thanks!

Hi Dweller

I have the 70-300mm AF-S VR lens and it is a good lens to use. The optics is good with the 2 Ed glass, fast AF-S motor and VR mark II and filter size 67mm ( for UV & polarizer filters). I bought my lens on Ebay which was cheaper than buying it from the camera shop!!!
The lens is design to be use with the 35mm camera and can be use on digital cameras DX in which it does in crease to 105mm to 450mm like the nikon D80/D200/D300/ D2X and so on.
The 70-300mm AF-S VR G lens is fast when use on the camera like the F5/F6/D2X/D3/D200/D300 but not as fast on the D80 and may slow when used with the D40/D60 small cameras.
With the V.R. on you can shot up to four stops in low light. I have use this lens with the VR on at 300mm there is hardly any shake in low light and the V.R. off you do see the little shake through the viewfinder, so the V.R. works. The AF-S is fast in focusing and quiet when focus on a subject but can hunt a little in low light.

I hope you have a chance to try out the lens and enjoy using it.

Mike...................click on the fotki website to see few pics of the Nikon F5 Pro camera and the 70-300mm G VR AF-S lens.
http://public.fotki.com/mike4/nikkor-70-300mm-g-v/