Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR Nikkor Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

I purchased this lens over a year ago and to date, it is still one of my favorite lenses to use. If you reading this review, you probably have read all of the other reviews and heard about its minor quirks (slow AF speed and softness at 300mm). However, if you know its limits, you can work around most of these issues.I mainly use this lens for daytime bird photography on my D90 with the occasional sports/triathlon picture taking. This lens has a maximum aperture of f/4.5 at 70mm which increases to f/5.6 when zoomed to 300mm. Because it is a relatively "slow" lens, I wouldn't recommend taking low-light pics with it. Unless if you are into abstract photography or something and dig blurry or light streaked pictures.Build Quality:The lens feels really good. A little too plasticy but still pretty good. It has a pretty nice heft to it too. It is mostly made out of plastic with the exception of the metal top bit of the lens just after the zoom ring. The lens mount is also metal which is lovely. The zoom ring feels fine and decently smooth. The focus ring is a little stickier and offers a bit more friction but it is still easy to operate. I have had no issues with zoom creep when the lens is pointing downwards. This lens also features a rubber gasket around the mount of the lens. This further protects your camera and the lens from dust and debris. The petal-type lens hood that the lens comes with is fairly large and does its job well. The lens also smells nice too. A bit of rubbery smell mixed with with a hint of new electronics smell. The anti-glare coating also casts a pretty cool mix of colors when you look into the glass. It's a sort of greenish, redish, yellow.Image Quality:This is where some of the minor flaws of the lens comes in. The pictures from this lens are tack sharp in the 70-200mm range even at the maximum aperture. From 200-300mm, the images soften considerably at max aperture. It isn't really a big deal and not noticeable unless if you aggressively crop your images. At 300mm, if you stop up (or is it down?) the aperture to f8 or f11, the images do get sharper but aren't as sharp as in the 70-200mm range. Comparing it to the Nikon 300mm f4 which I recently acquired, the 70-300mm definitely isn't as sharp as the 300mm/f4 even when stopped down. The 300mm f4 is just a beast of a lens.Autofocus Speed:Decently fast at 70mm, slows a little at 150mm, slows down a little more at 210mm, slows down considerably at 300mm. Hunts a lot at 300mm, especially when focusing in the dimly lit environments. This lens has a manual AF over-ride which enables you to grab the focus ring at any time. I use this feature a lot to conk the lens back on track if it starts to focus hunt in the wrong direction. Not a major issue, but I can definitely see it becoming a little annoying if you are trying to focus in on something fast moving. AF is quiet which is nice.The 70-300mm lens also features Nikon's Vibration Reduction tech which helps you avoid shaky pictures from shaky hands when you are using slower shutter speeds. It really works well and its a wonderful addition to this lens.Overall, a good but not perfect lens. It is definitely a step-up from its little brother, the 55-200mm in terms of IQ and AF speed.

I have a Nikon D90 camera. Note that this is a DX camera and, therefore, I am only using the middle part of the image focused by this lens. Since that portion is typically the best part of the image, those of you using cameras with full-framed sensors (such as the D3 line or the D700) should look elsewhere for advise.I have had this lens a little more than a week and have been very impressed with auto-focus speed (assuming enough light, but see below), sharpness, and basic lack of notable aberrations. I am using Photo Shop CS5 for processing and both the raw-image and main dialogs provide (from Adobe) distortion correction profiles for this lens. A plus. I am using a 16-bit per color channel process and typically making 13" x 19" prints, occasionally with some cropping. This is enough magnification to see most sorts of lens flaws. Given this setup and my DX camera, I'm rating this lens five-star.Whenever I get a new lens, I practice using it around the house and neighborhood for several days to become acquainted with its quirks. I did so with this lens and found two quirks that are noteworthy. First, this is a BIG lens, particularly where extended to a full 300mm and the lens shade is snapped on. In fact the weight makes it difficult to hold steady and the focal length amplifies user shake. I had to practice my technique so that VR and me together could take super pictures. If you have enough light to shoot at 1/100 sec or faster, this problem will seem to go away. However, if your technique isn't good, you will end up with a sharp picture offset somewhat from what you thought you were shooting. In other words, you need good technique (or a tripod or a monopod) to supplement VR at all shutter speeds. Another issue caused by length and weight is that it is much harder to steady the camera when used in portrait orientation than in landscape. This is because the camera grip on Nikon cameras is put on the right and that means it is on the bottom (or top) in portrait mode. Since your wrist is twisted, it is harder to steady. Second, auto-focus wont zip from 70mm to 300mm or vice versa in most instances. My advice is to use the manual focus ring to get close to focus when you start way out of focus. Make it a habit to do so. Otherwise, you will miss some pictures while the lens stays confused. Depth of field is negligible when you use a long telephoto and 300mm qualifies to that description. So the lens needs some help. It's not the lens' fault, it's just physics.I bought this lens to replace my Nikon 55-200mm VR. That lens is great and costs less that half as much as the lens I'm reviewing. I believe the new lens is worth the extra money but the 55-200mm is certainly a good alternative if budget is an issue. The extra 100mm on the long end is worth it and the lens is sharper, to my eyes, at equivalent focal lengths. Of course you are considering buying this lens because of the extra 100mm or because you have a non-DX camera and have no other Nikon choices in this price range. The build quality is also better; since I don't plan to bounce either lens on the floor, that is a minor consideration.