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

Highly recommended, a great affordable lens,... picture quality is amazing and VR is a plus.

Got this lens right after it came out back in September. Wonderfully sharp. Not to bad to hand hold for short periods. Great balance. Good with a monopod to ease the weight! Superb bokeh. Competitive price. Way better than Sigma and Tamron alternatives. Highly recommended.

Why can´t all Nikkor´s be like this? I´ve had for >1mo now, birds, wildlife, plane spotting. since this is my first ´´super telephoto´´ I should be careful not to blather on about how wonderful it is, but comparing to a 400mm lens, I think this delivers almost as good and certainly good enough performance for a non professional. I´ve used it at ISO 12800 on a D7200 and shot (braced) handheld at dusk --- and got quite useful shots with a little NR.

I´ve done more hand held than monopod or tripod shooting, and would be lying if it didn´t tell you it got quite heavy after a bit. My wrists ache after an hour or so... for days, but the images are worth the suffering ! The IS is absolutely stunning, especially for planespotting. I was able to string up 4 planes in a line on approach and stabilize for composition. What surprised me was how little battery drain there was for what must be a very complex mechanism, bonus.

I am a believer in waiting a bit for this lens. On Dx or Fx the results should not disappoint anyone.

While I don´t currently own a 200-500 or the 80-400 I´ve had the first release of the 80-400, a 200-400 f4, a 500 f4, and currently own a 600 f4, all by Nikon. While neither the 200-500 or the 80-400 is as heavy as the 600 I do have concerns that their respective 5 lbs and 3 1/2 lbs would stress the camera mount unduly without being able to attach a carrying strap directly to the lens body. Sales personnel at a local shop have no practical answer aside from cost savings, which I can´t accept, frankly. This, for me, is an oversight that should be corrected, ´especially with the heavier 200-500. That being said, my trial with the 200-500 today at the shop left me very impressed, particularly the VR. What a difference it makes, even hand-held!

Quick focusing, very sharp optics. A little heavy but manageable. I love it! The price is great also.

I pre ordered the lens and got it a few days ago. I was excited from the reviews I had read so when it came I was ready for it. My first thoughts was ´´ that´s a big lens´´ but the packaging is a little misleading since the hood is packaged in it´s separate cardboard container and set on top of the lens in the main box. So it wasn´t quite as large as first thought but when I got it out of the box and it´s bubble wrapped bag I thought, ´´That´s still a big lens´´ It wasn´t as heavy as I was expecting from what other reviewers had said. I had mixed feeling since some said I would need a tripod and others said handheld was fine. I am basically a handheld kind of a guy but after I mounted it on my D800, I grabbed a monopod and headed for the wetlands see how it handled. I wanted to see how it ´´worked´´ in my shooting style - Handheld and on the move - something that is not set up or in the studio.
Since it does extend when you zoom there is a little difference in the balance but not too much and once realized it was a non problem.
It comes with a mounting collar for a tripod or monopod and at first I thought it was a little odd and might be in the way for hand holding but it turned out to be a good handle and a resting point for reaching the focus ring when I wanted to adjust the focus manually. If it bothers you, it does come off. It has a 2 position switch for focus - #M# manual and #M/A# Auto with manual override. That came in real handy when shooting birds that were inside tree branches. The auto focus would want to lock on the branches in front but a slight adjustment with the thumb on the focus ring corrected that. It is big and after about an hour or more I was thinking ´´This thing is heavy´´. So I put it on the Monopod for a while.
Since it is a 5.6 lens I was expecting to up the ISO to get a good a shutter speed. My first thought was something that would keep me above 1/1000 of a sec. #2 x 500 focal length# to help keeping things sharp but I found myself easily going well below 1/200 sec. and even down to less than 1/60 in some cased. All the while maintaining an ISO of 200. Truth in advertising – it was midday and bright out. Plus I was glad it did have the VR. It was a noticeable difference at the slower shutter speeds.
There was nothing scientific here, I shot across the range from 200 – 500 and from 5.6 – 27 #it´s rated to 32 but I deleted those files and cannot actually include them in my review#. At the end of the day I found I had mostly selected a lot of 40-50 mm increments #200, 240, 300, etc# and I was getting clear sharp shots all across the range. I also favored the f5.6 – f8 range too. Most of those that were fuzzy were me not the lens or the camera. The worst thing I can say right now is maybe out past f11 or 16 - a little softer in the corners that could be attributed to the lens but I had to look for it. Also on the big screen in some shots, I did see a little chromatic aberration - mostly purple. It was easily corrected and if you are looking for it and had some straight lines on the very edges of the frame there was some distortion. One click in PS and it was gone.
I have not pushed the VR in Panning situations but I did do a couple shots at night using a porch light, a stucco wall and a couple things against the wall to see how well the VR worked. It is an excellent feature. I don´t know if everyone will get 4and1/2 f-stop with it but it is good.
So where does that leave me on this lens - It was larger than expected, Do not kid yourself – it is for distance shooting as it won´t close focus unless you consider greater than 7 feet close. You are probably not going to use this one for around the house snaps. It can be used very successfully handheld. It can and will get heavy. As with all large lenses #or any lens# mounting them ensures a sharper image. I was amazed at the image quality. I did not expect it to be as good as it is. It did auto focus slower than I expected. On a D800 I shot the lens at 500mm and then cropped the image to only 10% of the frame and it was still sharp. This lens is a good deal. I still have more tests but I´m happy with it so far.

Just recently purchased this lens and overall, big bang for the bucks. I have fell in love with the crisp pictures this lens produces even handheld in low light conditions. Most shots were taken handheld or with minimal support with excellent results. I love the VR with this lens, it has given me the ability to get handheld shots that would have otherwise been lost without a tripod. This lens has basically retired my heavy old 400 2.8.

The AF-S Nikkor 200-500 f5.6E ED VR is a superb lens! It is sharp, focuses quickly, and has the ´´reach´´ to enable sports (in daylight), landscapes, wildlife and birding photography. Nikon obviously had to cut some corners to get the price point to compete with similar lenses from Sigma and Tamron. There is no Nano coating, for example, and the lens´ length increases as it is zoomed from 200 to 500. Others report hand holding the lens and I can do that for brief periods. Tripod or monopod is preferred.

I purchased this lens after reading all the reviews. Stopped into our local camera shop and tried the one they had in stock and was sold immediately. I own and shoot several long lenses including the 600mm but this lens will get more use that any of them. For what it is the weight is very manageable not to mention the super sharp images that it produces.

I have added some Raven shots to demonstrate what a great piece of glass this is.