Columbia River Gorge,
Oregon.
Just back from many days on the road, first in Bali, then in Oregon. I mentioned in an earlier post about how much I like the Nikon 300mm F4 PFED. After continued testing, I like it even more. Many reviews mention an issue with VR not working correctly around 1/125 of a second. I specifically shot around this shutter speed and didn’t experience a problem. Perhaps earlier versions of this lens had this issue.
As mentioned in my earlier post, the reason to love this lens is two fold. First, it is just tack sharp. I look at a lot of lenses for sharpness, both my own and ones I see on workshops. This lens is one of sharpness I’ve used. Second, and what really got my attention, is the size and weight. The image above shows the 24-70mm F2.8 on left, and the 300mm F4 on the right. The 300mm F4 is just slightly longer, but actually weighs a little less (1.6 pounds weight). Using a fixed bright F4 aperture, the lens focuses faster than the super zooms on the market such as the 80-400mm or 200-500mm. When I attach this lens on a D500, I have the equivalent angle of view of 450mm in a very light, compact system. I plan on using this combo for many of my wildlife and sports shoots where using my 500 F4 slows me down due to size and weight.
The 300mm F4 sells for $1996. If you shop the refurbished gear at Nikon USA, you can get the lens for a few hundred dollars cheaper. Bottom line; if you want a light telephoto lens with excellent performance, the 300mm PF ED F4 is the one.