gkramer's reviews

Nikon 200-400mm f/4G ED-IF VR AF-S Nikkor

I've been using this lens since December 2004 for wildlife (mainly birds), on both the D70 and D2X, mostly with a shoulder stock. It' s a superb lens for this work, especially with the D2X, which balances better (and whose High-Speed crop mode is often useful for an "instant' 1.5X telextender). The only real weaknesses I've noted, aside from price and weight (it's about as big as I'd care to use with a shoulder stock) are a tendencey to ghosting and flare on backlit subjects (common to most of Nikon's newer lenses, I gather), and that is does not work well with the Nikon 2X telextender: a careful 2X uprez in Photoshop will yield a better image. (Haven't tested carefully with the 1.4X telextender yet). The various focus lock & memory buttons also aren't well positioned for a shoulder stock, tho are presumably OK for tripod use. But all said, it's a super wildlife lens, both because of the excellent VR function, and overall image quality.