AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

I purchased this lens when I realized that there were some situations that my 70-200mm f2.8 zoom just couldn´t capture properly, even with ´´digital zooming´´ accomplished by cropping the generous digital images captured by by D810. I might have preferred the new 180-400 mm f4.0 zoom with built-in 1.4x teleconverter, but the reality is that this lens will see occasional use, and there is absolutely no way that the cost of that lens is justifiable in my case.

Based on my initial use, I have been extremely pleased with my purchase. Images are sharp and clear, focus is extremely fast, and the new ´´E´´ system for setting the diaphragm works perfectly. In addition, the image stabilization allows me to hand hold the camera and lens in most lighting situations even while using ´´reasonable´´ ISO settings. So I rate this lens as an excellent purchase and a good value. I do not agree with some other reviews which hint that it is underpriced, however. I believe that the current price is consistent with the design, build quality, and materials used, but I do not sense that this lens is of the same ruggedness and durability as the higher priced truly professional grade lenses in my bag.

As for the big disappointment, I do believe that there is one major miss in the accessories provided with this lens. It is at the edge of my current photographic needs, and I don´t expect to use it more than 5 or maybe 10% of the time. It is also very heavy. For those reasons, I expect that it will be carried separately from the rest of my equipment. Unfortunately, it is provided only with a mostly cosmetic bag, not with any sort of useful pouch or other container that would provide any level of protection and perhaps a handle or strap to facilitate carrying. Nor have I yet been able to identify any sort of reasonably convenient bag from Nikon that would work. I would have gladly paid a higher price if the box had included a zipper-front pouch similar to the one supplied with the 70-200 zoom.

Lack of an acceptable bag is the only thing preventing me from givin this lens 5 stars.

I have been using another manufactures lens of similar focal length for the last 3 years, lost a number of shots due to focus sensitivity and speed. I got this lens for Christmas, and have been using it for about a month now. The lens is very quick to focus, with the focus ring in the correct spot to make fine manual adjustments when birds or animals are in dense foliage. The optical stabilization is superb, I have been shooting a lot of low shutter speeds while hand holding with very pleasing results. It is a little heavy, and with my D800 the combination can become a little bit of a workout when hiking. I have found that attaching a monopod allows me to sling the camera over my shoulder to transfer some of the load. This is a great lens for the price, and provides sharp satisfying results. I highly recommend it.

This lens has an altitude problem.

When the lens arrived, I took a couple of test shots in my back yard (elevation 1200) to make sure it was working properly. The shots were clear and sharp even though I was hand-holding at twilight. The next time I used the lens was at 9500 feet in New Mexico. Before I took the first shot, it was obvious in the viewfinder the lens was not focused. The shots weren´t just soft, they were blurry. The focus limiter and M/A switches were set correctly. I cleaned the camera electrical contacts. I put the lens on two other bodies. No help. OK, I thought, Nikon had a bad day. I returned it and received an exchange.

I tested the second lens (elevation 1200) more carefully. Once again, the shots were clear and sharp. The next time I used the lens was at elevation 8500 in Colorado. Same problem. While in Estes Park CO (elevation 7522), I tried to autofocus fine tune the lens on my D700 body. A license plate about 50 feet away was my test target. All shots were on a tripod, ISO 200 (the camera´s minimum), and f/8 using a remote shutter release and mirror-up mode. Both camera and lens were set to autofocus. The target was center frame.

The autofocus fine tune limits are -20 and . See attached shots. I also tested at -10 and with similar results.

The lens is sharp at 200mm – the serial number on the yellow annual sticker is even readable! - but is somewhere between bad and awful at all other focal lengths. Fine tuning allows the focus quality to be improved somewhat at either 300mm, 400mm or 500mm, but to the detriment of the other two.

I´ve never heard of any lens being affected by altitude, but I can´t think of another cause which would explain this problem. This lens is made for nature, and nature often lives at high altitude. This lens isn´t acceptable.

For sports, wildlife or any shot requiring long focal lengths in reasonably good lighting conditions, this lens is a must have. The speed and sharpness is extraordinary for a zoom. Its size and weight combined with the flexibility that comes with a 200mm-500mm focal length range has made it my go to lens when out in nature. It even works reasonably well with teleconverters so long as the lighting does not become too challenging. The VR is fantastic and works as advertised.

I´ve included 2 shot that I recently took while in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. The owl was taken with the TC-20EIII teleconverter (1000mm), handheld with VR on. The Bison was taken using the lens only (340mm), tripod mounted. Both pictures were made using the Nikon D850. All in all, I can´t say enough good things about the performance of this lens. Highly recommended!

If you´ve taken pictures for a long time, you have a style. You know what you ´´see´´. I see ´´far´´. I´ll use a wide-angle lens for landscapes, but it never seems natural. I´ve always said that if I could only have one lens, I´d pick my 80--200mm F2.8. And really, that´s because for most of my photography life, it´s the longest lens I could afford. I covet a 200-400mm F4. I have for decades. But as a (dedicated) amateur, I don´t have $7-10K to spend on a lens. (At least that´s what my wife tells me.)

So I finally gave in and bought the 200-500mm F5.6, simply because it was affordable. I shoot a lot of rodeo (just for fun) and I knew going in that it would be too slow for an indoor arena. It is. But I just got to shoot my first outdoor (open air) rodeo and I´m ecstatic about this lens. I´d already noticed it was sharper than I expected, just in my daily photography. But the level of detail I was getting in shots all the way across the rodeo arena was beyond my expectations. I´m not a pixel-peeper. I rarely print anything and I just want my pictures to look good at Flickr and Facebook resolutions. But I think this is the sharpest lens I´ve ever owned.

So, my advice? Don´t wait until you can afford the pro lens. Go buy this one as soon as you can afford it.

The image quality is amazing. I love the bokeh for portraits and VR is really good. This lens is very fast. However this lens has got infected by fungus twice and in terms of build quality the thread on the front filter is made of really cheap plastic that I did not expect.

I came into some unexpected money and decided to go for this lens. First I checked on ebay for used ones...there were none...which meant nobody was trading them in, a good sign! So I bought it, despite the Holy Trinity naysayers that poo-poohed this lens without owning it. I must say it is very impressive. My bird shots are really sharp, something I could never get before. As much as I love my 18-300mm VR II, it did not have the reach that this does. It is a bit heavy, but that´s to be expected. Do not hesitate to buy this lens. These were taken with a D3300, single point focus, spot metering.

It looks like I´m the least lucky one, I bought the refurbished one but the AF is not working properly, I use it with my Nikon D850, not sure if it is because the camera is very new so it doesn´t talk well with the lense,

I purchased this lens last year. Once there is enough light, it will perform! Good price and quality. And good weight too, you can carry it around whole day without problem. Much lighter than the 400mm/2.8. You do need a monopod to stabilize the camera.