Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VRII Review

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VRII Handling and features

The weight of 2.9 kilogrammes alone makes this lens impractical as something you'd carry around on a daily basis, unless you needed to. The huge weight of this lens is partly due to the amount of glass inside, as well as the tank-like build quality. The lens is sealed against ingress of dust and moisture and comes equipped with a permanently attached tripod collar, which has a contoured plate which doubles as a handy carry handle. Loops for a heavy duty strap are also provided on the collar, which will allow the lens to be slung over one shoulder, ready for when it's needed. Despite the weight of the lens, it makes a very hand-holdable combination with the Nikon D700 body used for testing, although the use of a battery grip does help to balance the combination.

Auto focus is powered by a silent wave motor, and autofocus speeds are extremely fast. Manual adjustments can be applied at any time via the wide rubberised focusing ring, which only takes a light touch to operate, but is smooth to operate, making applying fine adjustments a pleasure. Four focus lock buttons are provided just beyond the focusing ring.



Closest focus distance is 2.3m, and focusing is performed internally. The front element is too large to accept filters and there is no thread to attach them with. Nikon 52mm filters can be used via an internal filter carrier.

The Vibration Reduction II system this lens is equipped with promises sharp hand held shooting at shutter speeds up to four times slower than would be possible without the technology. So long as the system is given time to kick in properly, (which can take up to a second) and images are shot with care, hand-held shots at 1/20sec are possible around three quarters of the time, which is around four stops slower than the usual rule of thumb would normally recommend. The system works well with Nikon's teleconverters also allowing sharp hand-held images at 1/25sec with a the 1.4x TC-14E II and 1/30 sec with the 1.7x TC-17E II.

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