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

Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G AF-S VR Nikkor Performance

As is often the case with high ratio zooms, this lens starts off very sharp at 70mm. In fact the sharpness is excellent in the centre and very good towards the edges when shooting wide open.

Peak quality across the frame is achieved between f/5.6 and f/8 where sharpness is also excellent in the centre and very good towards the edges.

With the lens zoomed to 135mm the excellent sharpness in the centre is maintained at maximum aperture, but the quality towards the edges drops to fairly good levels. Stopping the lens down improves the clarity towards the edges, but it doesn't reach good levels until f/11.

At 300mm sharpness decreases somewhat and is only fairly good in the centre at f/5.6, and fair towards the edges. As the lens is stopped down, sharpness increases until f/11, where the clarity achieved is very good in the centre and good towards the edges.

70mm	135mm
300mm	How to read our graphs
	The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon D700 using Imatest.

At shorter focal lengths, chromatic aberrations are well controlled and won't pose an issue, even at large print sizes. However, at 300mm, levels of fringing towards the edges of the frame exceeds three pixel widths in size, which may be visible along high contrast edges.

70mm	135mm
300mm	How to read our graphs
	Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon D700 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination is well controlled throughout the zoom range. At 70mm the corners are 1.06 stops darker than the image centre and at 300mm the corners are still only 1.11 stop darker. Visually uniform illumination is achieved at f/8 throughout the zoom range.

2.37% barrel distortion is present at 70mm and 1.53% pincushion distortion at 300mm. For most applications, these mild levels of distortion won't pose any issues. It will only become apparent where there are straight lines parallel to the edges of the frame. If perfectly straight lines are paramount, the distortion should be simple enough to correct in image editing software afterwards as the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame.

A deep circular hood comes supplied with the lens, which does an excellent job of shielding the optics from extraneous light that may cause flare or loss of contrast. When shooting directly at a strong light source, this lens can be prone to a reduction of contrast, so care may need to be taken in those circumstances.

Wideangle - ISO200, 1/1000, f/8, 70mm	Telephoto - ISO200, 1/1000, f/8, 300mm
Sharpness at 300mm is good when the lens is stopped down - ISO500, 1/500, f/8, 300mm	At shorter focal lengths, sharpness is good at all apertures, especially in the centre - ISO900, 1/250, f/8, 165mm
ISO720, 1/250, f/11, 300mm	ISO640, 1/250, f/8, 122mm
ISO500, 1/250, f/9, 300mm	ISO3600, 1/250, f/5.6, 300mm

Add your message