Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens Imported

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

Used to take pictures of wild life in the Texas Hill Country!! Everything going very well so far.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I use this lens primarily for wildlife, including birds. Auto-focus is fast, especially when limited to 3m to infinity. Lightweight, produces sharp images wide open and can be hand-held. I've also used this lens for landscape and portraits with excellent results. Overall an excellent lens for a reasonable price.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I use the nikkor lens for wildlife an far away landscapes. You can get great seperation with this lens wide open. It brings far away mountain peak into great landscapes. Iam just too shaky ( I like to think too fast) to use this lens without a tripod or a monopod. VR sure would help this great lens!! A faster auto focus would help. I know some people us it for bird shots but I find running antelope hard to keep focused

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I got this after I feel my Nikon 70-300mm does not have enough reach. I get 300mm because I want to shoot handheld and be able to carry it with me while traveling, with or without tripod. I also change the original collar to Kirk NC-300, plus getting together Nikon TC/14EII. With this combination, I get 420mm and light weight combination, able to go into my Thinktank UD35 without any problem. Truly portable and travel friendly.
One thing I observed is that if shoot below f/8, the DOF is rather narrow.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I LOVE this lens for any telephoto purpose. Super-sharp, a bit bulky but quite manageable, and not too heavy. If Nikon had put a bit of thought and effort into the tripod collar I would have given it five stars. THROW THE TRIPOD COLLAR AWAY and replace it with the Kirk model; in fact, buy the Kirk collar when you buy the lens and save yourself the aggravation. Collar issues aside, it is a lovely lens.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I primarily use this lens for nature (birds, flowers, insects, wildlife) and scenic photos. The sharpness and overall image quality are superb, and combined with the D7000 makes for a great nature lens even with significant cropping. VR could be useful, although that would add some complexity and cost that may not be worthwhile. And even though this is not a lightweight lens when compared to say a 35mm f/1.8, in the realm of super telephoto, it may be the best weight to performance ratio value in the Nikkor lineup.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I bought this as a backup to my 300 f2.8. I have been very impressed with the image quality from this lens. Some people have complained of "slow" focus, but I have not experienced anything like that. 4 stars due to the "clunky" tripod mount. Otherwise, great lens!

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

An excellent value, incredibly sharp and fast lens, cost alot less then f2.8 version. Highly recommended.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

Amm: Bird photographer
Sharp as a tack in good light
For hand held it is A bit heavy, But I can work with it. will know more in the future

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I upgraded from the Nikon 70-300 VR with the intention of photographing birds on a budget. This lens is a major improvement in almost every way over the 70-300. It focuses faster, is far sharper and has much nicer color rendition. Coupled with the Nikon 1.4 TC, this lens give you adequate reach to photograph smallish birds up to 40-50 feet away and larger birds up to 100 or so feet away. If you are patient and can get closer to the birds, then the lens performs tremendously. Highly recommended if your intention is a to take adequate bird photographs without spending many thousands of dollars on the exotic 500/600mm lenses.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I think that this is a great telephoto for someone who wants to travel light: images are sharp at all distances, it focuses quickly (on a D5000), and it is relatively small. I cannot give the lens a 5-star rating, however, because the tripod collar/foot assembly is really poorly designed: (1) when I have left the collar slightly loose to rotate the camera from landscape to portrait orientation and back, often the lens will come partially out of the collar (when pins on the lens align with the slots in the collar that allow the collar to be removed) forcing me to stop photographing and re-seat the lens in the collar; and (2) the lens vibrates horribly because of a poorly designed tripod foot. My solution was to by a Kirk after-market replacement collar that solves both of the problems noted above. The replacement collar is designed so that it cannot fall away from the lens during rotation, and the lens is visibly more stable. I convinced myself of the latter by using live view on maximum magnification with the lens locked down on a sturdy tripod and ball head first with the Nikon collar and then the after-market replacement; with the stock collar the image in live view essentially never stopped vibrating if I was touching the camera or seemingly even breathing on it, but with the replacement collar any vibrations quickly damped out to nothing and holding the camera gently did not induce vibration.

One other point: this lens works better with some teleconverters than others. I have used this lens with both Nikon 1.4 and 1.7X teleconverters and a Tamron/Kenko 1.4X teleconverter and I have been hard pressed to find any image degradation even with the lens wide open with either 1.4X converter (to my eye the Nikon teleconverter seems to produce photos with richer colours and more contrast wide open, but sharpness is very comparable with both converters to the lens by itself). Using a Nikon 1.7X teleconverter the lens will autofocus a bit slower but it did focus for me in all but low (outdoors dusk) light levels; however, I have never been able to produce a picture that was acceptably sharp not matter what aperture or shutter speed I used or how solidly my tripod was locked down. Depending on your definition of "acceptably sharp", I think that you will or will not be happy. Personally, I find that cropping photos taken with a 1.4X converter gave me more acceptable images than comparably-sized images using the 1.7X converter.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

This lens is everything people said it was and more!!! The photos are TACK SHARP straight out of the camera! The Bokeh is incredible!!

I don't understand why people are saying it's heavy. I'm a woman that weighs 130lbs and I find that its so light, it's almost toy-like. It's lighter than the Nikon 70-200 VR I....

At 1/3 of the price of the 2.8 version, it just makes it that much better!!! This lens is for people that want a pro-nikon lens but do not want to pay the pro-nikon price!!!

Get it, you will be glad you did!!!

I can't say enough about this lens!

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I bought this to add a little reach to my kit. I mostly shoot fast and wide (24mm f/1.4G is my everything lens). I have the 70-200 VR II but didn't really like it for bird photos--not enough contrast and reach. Plus I am interested in more wildlife photography in general. Anyway, I picked up this lens and I think it's just nifty! I don't know what people are talking about regarding the tripod collar--the one on my 300 seems rock solid.

The lens hunts a little for focus in dim lighting with little contrast, but not nearly as much as my 105 f/2.8G. (I have black dogs and I'm always wanting to photograph them after dark. This is disastrous even for a f/1.4 sometimes!)

I think this 300 will really rock with good lighting. I'm looking forward to discovering the pleasures of the longer telephoto. And I appreciate that Nikon makes a longer prime like this that is affordable for the rest of us. Those big f/2.8s are way out of my price range.

The only caveat with this lens: there is no back glass--the back of the lens is open to the aperture blades--so you won't be changing lenses in a dusty environment--particles that enter will end up behind the glass of the front element.

I say it's "heavy" but I imagine the faster telephotos are even more oppressive. This 300 seems about the same size and weight as my 70-200. With either, I have to brace myself.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I really like this lens. I mounted it on a D7000 to take pictures of birds or other wildlife. I use it on a tripod, so VR is not that important to me (I would not mind having it though). The lens is light enough to carry it for hours. The picture is very sharp even with a TC14 converter. I replaced the lens collar with a Kirk which is more convenient and may add a bit of rigidity.The first lens I received did not focus well manually[...] I find the autofocus accurate, but sometimes a bit slow.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I shoot a lot of sports photography as a stringer for a number of local newspapers. Primarily I've been using the Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 lens, but I wanted a lens with just a little more reach. The f/2.8 super telephoto lenses are more costly than I wanted to spend at the moment, but the 300mm f/4 was reasonable although admittedly an older lens. I've owned this lens 2 weeks now, and have put it through it's paces at high school baseball and girls soccer. It is crisp and sharp; has excellent color, near to no distortion and shooting mounted on a monopod is well balanced.

I have seen lots of complaints regarding the stock lens collar. I won't make any comment regarding it's build. All of my gear is equiped with quick release plates so I further invested on the Kirk replacement collar for personal convenience. I can say that the Kirk collar is built substantially more stable and looks like it would be much easier to use than the standard stock collar.

I honestly don't care about the lack of VR on this lens. Shooting fast moving sports action isn't something suited for VR anyway. I don't mind the lack of VR it hasn't affected my image quality and a good photographer knows what he's capable of and what his gear can capture anyway.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

This is an amazing lens! Don't let the lack of zoom fool you! This lens is fast enough to handhold, tack sharp, and has the ability to take the Nikon teleconverters. Pair this up with a DX camera body, and you have an affordable birding setup with the reach you need. Beautiful lens to use at the zoo as well! You can even use the close focus to get frame filling images of flowers too! This lens stays on more than any other.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I purchased the grey market version, together with the 3-year insurance contract. I had been unhappy with the 70-200mm VR1 Nikon both with and w/o Nikon 1.4EII teleconverter, for birding at 200mm range. After looking at reviews of the 300mm f/4 AF-S, I decided to give it a try. My expectations have been more than met; sharpness and contrast are great. The lack of VR just means that I have had to work harder on hand-held technique and break out the tripod; not a problem. I highly recommend this lens as an affordable alternative to the VR versions of 200mm and up for birding at a distance. There is no noticeable degradation with the Nikon 1.4EII T/C. Although I have read complaints about the stock tripod collar, it has worked fine for me. I use this lens with a D300.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I wanted a birding lens that I could walk around with and shoot decent quality ID pictures handheld, and that was capable of really good image quality if I had the time and the lighting for it. I also had some budgetary constraints or I might have gone for a higher end lens. On paper this lens plus a TC1.4 converter looked perfect except that it doesn't have VR. But on balance, the best option Nikon offers for what I wanted.

So a few weeks ago I bought this lens plus the TC1.4, and boy have I not been disappointed! At shutter speeds of 1/500th and above, you can get quite good image quality handheld. And on a tripod the sharpness of this combination is very impressive.

The lens isn't light, and there is no question that if you want to hand hold the 35mm equivalent of 630mm and get good images, you have to be careful with shutter speed and you have to really work at being still. But if you do, this lens definitely delivers!

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

This is a great lens. From the moment I open the box and hold the lens in hand I can feel it's a well made product. The build is solid and you can tell it's of good quality. The glass looks cool and the hood is well mounted. The tripod collar is also well made in my opinion. The drawback is its design: the foot of the collar is flat and can only be connected to another plat or directly to the base of tripod with a bolt. I did not use it because I have to use ballhead with quick release. Since a plate has to be used with the collar and that adds one more connection between the lens and ballhead an dhence add more instability. So I ordered the Kirk collar which is much better. I took some shots and the photos are very nice, sharp and with natural beautiful color. And the bokeh looks very nice. Haven't used it much but so far it's great. I could recommend this to anybody who needs a 300mm prime but not to get the f2.8 VR Nano lens. It's a great budget 300mm prime with high quality.

Comments about Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Autofocus Lens:

I was looking for more reach and alot less weight then my 300mm f2.8 VR....this lens worked out well. Fast focus, great image clarity and contrast.