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I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.
The biggest help is when you use any of when you get anything. It costs you nothing, and is this site’s, and thus my family’s, biggest source of support. These places always have the best prices and service, which is why I’ve used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.
If you find this page as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.
If you’ve gotten your gear through one of my or helped otherwise, you’re family. It’s great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!
If you haven’t helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.
As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!
Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.
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FX VR ED N: World’s Best 70-200mm
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8E FL (metal 77mm filter thread, 50.3 oz./1,425g with tripod collar, 3.6’/1.1m close-focus, $1,897 new or about $1,500 used if you know How to Win at eBay.) bigger. I got mine at Adorama; I’d also get it at Amazon, at B&H, at Crutchfield or used at eBay.
This all-content, junk-free website’s biggest source of support is when you use those or any of when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Nikon does not seal its boxes in any way, so never buy at retail or any other source not on since you’ll have no way of knowing if you’re missing accessories, getting a defective, damaged, returned, store demo or used camera. Buy only from the for the best prices, service, return policies and selection. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.
December 2020 Nikon Nikon Lenses All Reviews
See also the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 VR that works about as well for less than half the price.
2) Общие впечатления и рекомендации
Думаю, не стоит говорить, что объектив просто великолепен во всем. Но на некоторых моментах я остановлюсь подробнее.
Я владею этим объектив уже почти 1,5 года. Он стал вторым моим основным объективом, практически ни одна вылазка без него не обходится.
Nikon 70-200/f2.8 VR II очень резкий объектив по всему полю кадра, даже на своей максимальной диафрагме. Это я позже покажу в графиках.
Если вы снимаете репортажи — это определенно ваш объектив. Бритвенно резкий, очень светлый и быстрый, как молния
Он не упустит ни одного важного момента и создаст незабываемые фотографии.
Эти фотографии были сделаны мной на фестивале «Битва на Неве», который проходил у стен Петропавловской крепости. Если интересно, читайте статью, там много фотографий.
С другой стороны, я считаю, что Nikon 70-200/f2.8 VR II абсолютно не подходит для портретов
В нем не хватает пластики, картинка получается плоская и неживая.
Сразу оговорюсь, это мое мнение, думаю многие фотографы со мной не согласятся. Но все же для портрета я бы выбрал фикс Nikon 85mm или Nikon 135mm.
Кстати, фотографии с той же «Битвы на Неве».
Думаю многие знают, что я в первую очередь предпочитаю снимать пейзажи и архитектуру. И тут возникает вопрос: «Как это ты снимаешь пейзажи, а второе твое любимое стекло это Nikon 70-200/f2.8 VR II?»
Пейзажная фотография — это не только широкие углы. Не менее редко это еще и детали, где-то там вдалеке. Я довольно часто встречаю вещи, которые просто не под силу достать с более коротких фокусных расстояний.
В конце концов телеобъективы обладают удивительным свойством сжимать перспективу. Именно за эту особенность их так любят фотографы городской архитектуры и те, кто предпочитает съемку в горах. Ведь именно в таких условиях Nikon 70-200/f2.8 VR II позволяет достичь непередаваемого эффекта.
Кстати, я также использовал его при съемке натюрмортов в домашних условиях. Тут вообще получилась очень интересная история. Читайте про «Пленочных братьев».
Help Me Help You
I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.
The biggest help is when you use any of when you get anything. It costs you nothing, and is this site’s, and thus my family’s, biggest source of support. These places always have the best prices and service, which is why I’ve used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.
If you find this
page as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may
have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.
If you’ve gotten your gear through one of my or helped otherwise, you’re family. It’s great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!
If you haven’t helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.
As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!
Thanks for reading!
Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.
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Overall conclusion
The Nikon AF-S VR 70-200mm F2.8G is a lens which would, were it designated ‘DX’, be fully deserving of the highest accolades. On the smaller sensor format, results are nothing short of spectacular — resolution is excellent even wide open, chromatic aberration and geometric distortion are low, and falloff negligible. Combine this with the impeccable build quality, excellent autofocus, and effective image stabilization, and this lens is getting close to flawless; only the occasional, but severe flare problems really count against it. And let’s face it, this verdict applies for the overwhelming majority of current Nikon users, who will only be delighted with the performance of this lens on their DX crop cameras.
The problem is that, with the introduction of the D3, DX is no longer the pre-eminent format in Nikon’s DSLR line, and 35mm full-frame has re-arisen from the ashes in the guise of FX. This of course places different demands on lenses, which now need to cover properly an image circle 43mm in diameter, as opposed to the 28mm of DX. And the D3 is a top-end camera, so it seems reasonable to assume that Nikon’s workhorse professional lenses should give excellent results on it; sadly, the 70-200mm F2.8 VR doesn’t quite manage this, with significant vignetting at wide apertures throughout the zoom range, and distinctly soft corners at longer focal lengths. The big problem here is that many D3 owners will likely need to use a fast telezoom on a daily basis, and for some, the 70-200mm VR’s performance will simply not be up to scratch.
Now it’s certainly arguable that a little corner softness and vignetting isn’t necessarily a huge issue when it comes to telezooms; the corners of the frame are often outside the depth of field anyway, and a little vignetting can serve to ‘frame’ a portrait subject more effectively. Plus, the D3 now has vignetting correction as a firmware option, so can mitigate one of these issues to some extent (although at the price of slightly increased noise towards the corners of the frame). Unfortunately the big problem is that we’re not dealing with just a little corner softness and vignetting, but a lot, and there’s simply no way to sharpen up those soft corners.
So overall we’re left with a lens which is a great option for most potential buyers, but simply isn’t quite up to the demands of full frame capture. For anyone using the Nikon’s DX format DSLRs, the incorporation of image stabilization alone means that it’s the best option currently available, but FX shooters may well wish to think long and hard before buying.
| Detail |
Rating (out of 10)ON A DX CAMERA |
Rating (out of 10)ON AN FX CAMERA |
| Build quality | 9.0 | 9.0 |
| Ergonomics & handling | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Features | 9.0 | 9.0 |
| Image quality | 9.0 | 8.0 |
| Value | 7.5 | 7.0 |
Highly recommended (for DX cameras)Recommended (for FX cameras)
Specific image quality issues
As always, our studio tests are backed up by taking hundreds of photographs with the lens across a range of subjects, and examining them in detail. This allows us to confirm our studio observations, and identify any other issues which don’t show up in the tests. The 70-200mm F2.8 VR II is a very solid performer indeed, consistently delivering sharp, properly focused images with the minimum of fuss.
Flare
The 70-200mm F2.8 VR II proudly displays a large gold ‘N’ badge on its name-plate, indicating the use of Nikon’s latest ‘Nano-Crystal Coat’ for the suppression of flare (interestingly Canon has chosen not to use its similar-technology, but less marketably-entitled ‘Sub Wavelength Structure Coating’ on its own revised 70-200mm). Overall the lens seems to do a pretty good of dealing with difficult lighting, but that ‘N’ clearly isn’t a panacea, and in difficult situations it’s still capable of being completely overwhelmed by stray light.
With the sun placed in the frame, there’s generally very little loss of contrast. just a typical diagonal flare spot pattern which gets progressively more delineated on stopping down. So far so good, but what can be rather more problematic is when the sun is outside the frame, but still impinging on the front element of the lens. Under these situations the image can lose contrast dramatically due to veiling flare.
| 70mm F22, Nikon D3X | 70mm F4, Nikon D300 |
|---|
One contributory factor to this problem is that the HC-48 hood supplied with the lens is rather shallow — other telezooms tend to use deeper designs. But there appears to be no good reason for this — some ad hoc testing showed that the hood could be at least an inch deeper all round without showing any vignetting on FX. So, as it stands, the hood is simply less effective than it should be at shading the lens from the kind of lighting it finds most problematic.
Background Blur (‘bokeh’)
One genuinely desirable, but difficult to measure aspect of a lens’s performance is the ability to deliver smoothly blurred out-of-focus regions when trying to isolate a subject from the background, generally when using a long focal length and large aperture. This is always a complex subject, highly dependent upon both the subject and background (or indeed foreground) distances.
After shooting hundreds of frames with the lens, it appears to have something of a split personality in this regard. At close distance in particular, it can give marked double-image ‘nissen’ bokeh, which isn’t pretty. But more distant backgrounds are rendered very smoothly indeed, and in reality this is likely to be more representative of the most typical uses of this lens.
| Close-up bokeh | Distant Bokeh |
|---|---|
| 200mm F2.8, Nikon D300 | 200mm F2.8, Nikon D3X |
| 33% crop, lower right — ‘nissen’ bokeh | 33% crop, center |
Chromatic Aberration
Lateral chromatic aberration is pretty well-controlled, but it can be visible at the two extremes of the zoom range. Note that many current and recent Nikon bodies process this out automatically when shooting in JPEG, as does ViewNX when processing RAW files — but if you use RAW with a more workflow-friendly 3rd party converter, you’ll see this fringing in all its glory.
The D3X samples below show this, using Adobe Camera RAW as the processor. At 70mm we can see red/cyan fringing in the extreme corner of the frame, but bearing in mind this is a 100% crop from a 24Mp file, it would be churlish to complain too much about it. At 200mm there’s a little bit of fringing, but its visibility is generally lower as it’s mainly blue/yellow in character, with a very small red component. In both cases, the in-camera JPEG processing removes it very effectively.
| D3X, 70mm F8 | D3X, 200mm F2.8 |
|---|---|
| RAW + ACR | RAW + ACR |
| 100% crop, top left of frame | 100% crop, left of frame |
| 100% crop, camera JPEG | 100% crop, camera JPEG |
If you look very closely indeed, you can also sometimes see a hint of bokeh chromatic aberration (magenta in front of the plane of focus, green behind), but it’s unlikely to be a concern to most users.
| 70mm F4, Nikon D300 | |
|---|---|
| 100% crop, center left | 100% crop, center right |
Introduction
The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II is a FX-format telephoto zoom lens with versatile 70-200mm focal range and constant f/2.8 aperture. Weighing in at over 1,500 grams, the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II features an inner focusing mechanism, with autofocus controlled by a Silent Wave Motor (SWM). The optical formula comprises 21 elements in 16 groups, including seven ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements to minimize chromatic aberration, while Nikon’s Nano Crystal Coat is employed to combat flare and ghosting. The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 is equipped with Nikon’s Vibration Reduction II system that allows for up to 4-stops of compensation. The minimum focus distance is 1.4m from the focal plane at all focal lengths. Also featuring an iris diaphragm with 9 rounded blades for a pleasing bokeh, the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II takes 77mm filters and comes with an HB-48 lens hood and a CL-M4 lens case as standard. The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens is available now priced at £2,085.99 / €2,430.00 / $2399.95.
Samples Gallery
There are 30 images in the samples gallery. Please do
not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter / magazine
without prior permission (see our copyright
page). We make the originals available for private users to download
to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction
with this review), we do so in good faith, please don’t abuse it.
Unless otherwise noted images taken with no particular
settings at full resolution. To provide the fairest impression of the lens itself, images are shot in RAW and converted using Adobe Camera Raw at default settings (to bypass the test cameras’ automatic JPEG chromatic aberration correction). A reduced size image (within 1024 x 1024
bounds) is provided to be more easily viewed in your browser. As always
the original untouched image is available by clicking on this reduced
image.
Specifications
Name
Identity Plate: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR.
Name: Nikon calls this the Nikon AF-S
VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF.
and SWM: Silent Wave Autofocus Motor.
VR: Vibration Reduction, for shooting still subjects without a tripod.
G: , meaning the aperture ring was omitted to save cost. Won’t work on manual focus cameras.
ED: for sharper pictures.
IF: Nothing moves externally as you zoom or focus.
∅77: 77mm filter thread.
Also has:
Couples distance information to the Matrix Meter.
Bottom, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR.
Optics
21 elements in 15 groups.
5 ED extra-low dispersion elements, which help reduce secondary axial chromatic aberration.
Multicoating.
9 blades.
Round at larger apertures, nonagonal at smaller apertures.
Focal Length
70~200mm.
Used on a DX camera, it
sees angles of view similar to what a 105~300mm lens
would give on an FX or 35mm
film camera. See also Crop
Factor.
Internal focus.
No external movement as focused, so no air or dust is sucked in.
Close Focus
5 feet (1.5 meters), marked.
It gets a little closer than that. AF stops just short of the manual focus stop, so if you’re at the edge, twist the focus ring by hand and you may get what you need.
1:5.6 (0.18 ×).
(only 1:6.1 if you stop where the AF stops.)
CL-M2 case included.
| Nikon CL-M2 case. bigger. | Nikon CL-M2 case. bigger. |
Size
8.465″ extension from flange by 3.439″ diameter (215.0 x 87.35mm), measured.
Nikon specifies 3.4
inches (87mm) around and 8.5″ (215mm) long.
Nothing changes when focused or when zoomed.
Weight
51.790 oz. (1,468.15g), measured, with tripod collar.
Nikon specifies 50
oz. or 1,430 g, a little lighter than the 80-200mm
AF-S or a little heavier than the 80-200mm
AF-D.
Тестовые фотографии
Особенностью оптической конструкции
данного объектива является тот факт, что минимальная дистанция фокусировки
уменьшается с уменьшением фокусного расстояния, другими словами, на 70 мм мы
можем сфокусироваться с расстояния 50 см, а на 200 мм – с расстояния 1 м. Таким
образом, подходя к модели ближе или отходя от неё дальше и изменяя при этом
фокусное расстояние, можно получить примерно одинаковую степень увеличения и
кадрирования. Это как раз продемонстрировано на двух фотографиях ниже: лицо
модели-манекена полностью заполняет собой кадр, в то время как эти два снимка
сделаны с различными фокусными расстояниями.
Фокусное расстояние: 70
мм, дистанция фокусировки: 50 см
Фокусное расстояние: 200
мм, дистанция фокусировки: 1 м
Зеркальный объектив Nikkor F-mount 70-200mm f/2.8E FL построен иначе, так как он
обеспечивает постоянную минимальную дистанцию фокусировки на всём диапазоне
зума, которая составляет 1,1 метра, и подобный трюк с помощью этого объектива
построить не получится.
Второй особенностью является удержание
фокуса на объекте при изменении фокусного расстояния. Объектив Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 Sможно
считать парфокальным, то есть во время зумирования он не теряет фокусировку на
объекте, что особенно полезно при съёмке видео, когда можно уверенно сделать
“наезд” и “отъезд” от объекта съёмки, сохранив на нём фокусировку.
Что касается скорости самой фокусировки,
объектив очень быстро фокусируется, и при этом почти бесшумно. На фото
практически отсутствуют оптические искажения в виде виньетирования, бочки и
хроматических аберраций, при обеспечении резкости по всей плоскости
фокусировки. Также можно отметить красивое размытие заднего плана.
Nikon Z6, Nikkor Z
70-200/2.8 S, фокусное расстояние: 200 мм, ISO 2200, f/2.8, выдержка 1/400 с,
Picture Control Auto
Стабилизатор в работе:
1/10 с, f/22, 100 ISO, 200 мм
Nikon Z6, Nikkor Z 70-200/2.8 S, f/2.8
Выпуск объектива в продажу задерживается
по причинам, не зависящим от компании Nikon, и которые весной 2020 года никому
объяснять уже не приходится, пользователям нужно будет ждать минимум несколько
недель до его поступления на рынок. Ресурс Nikon Rumors предупреждает, что в
данном исследовании использовался тестовый образец (сэмпл), который может дать
лишь предварительное представление об объективе, окончательные выводы можно
сделать только с использованием серийных образцов.
Change in Angle of View on Focusing (‘Focus Breathing’)
One of the more striking optical characteristics of the 70-200mm F2.8 VR II is that its angle of view widens considerably on focusing closer. This isn’t, in itself, unusual, but the extent of the change is quite large (and rather more than the old lens). Much of the time it simply doesn’t matter — you can just zoom in a bit, or move slightly closer to compensate — but in certain situations it’s a genuine disadvantage. If you regularly find yourself with the lens always set to 200mm, and at a fixed distance from your subject (closer than about 3m), then the new lens’s design may well cause you some real frustration.
This is an effect that’s quite difficult to demonstrate in a visually meaningful fashion, especially with a 200mm lens, but the rollover below should give some idea of what’s going on. A sequence of frames was shot using the D3X at 200mm F22, simply changing the focus distance as marked. Note how the lens appears to ‘zoom out’ as you focus closer. By our reckoning, at closest focus the image field is about 1.2x larger in each direction, making the effective focal length roughly 160mm at 1.4m.
| Infinity | 10 m | 5 m | 3 m | 2 m | 1.4 m |
Maximum magnification compared to AF-S 70-200mm F2.8 VR
Our macro tests measure the different coverages of the new and old lenses at minimum focus as 11.1 x 7.4 in and 7.6 x 5.2 in respectively on FX. To illustrate this more clearly, the shot below shows the smallest subject area that can be captured by the new lens, with the area covered by the old version outlined in red. Clearly the ‘VR II’ isn’t capable of quite the same tight closeups as its predecessor (note though that our lovely model has a child-sized head). Remember also that the old lens’s higher magnification comes at the cost of relatively poor image quality off-center.
Samples Gallery
There are 40 images in the samples gallery. Please do
not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter / magazine
without prior permission (see our copyright
page). We make the originals available for private users to download
to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction
with this review), we do so in good faith, please don’t abuse it.
Unless otherwise noted images taken with no particular
settings at full resolution. To bypass the camera’s automatic chromatic aberration correction and provide a better impression of the lens itself, images are shot in RAW and converted using Adobe Camera Raw. A reduced size image (within 1024 x 1024
bounds) is provided to be more easily viewed in your browser. As always
the original untouched image is available by clicking on this reduced
image.
Introduction
|
B&H Photo — Video — Pro Audio I buy only from . I can’t vouch for below. |
This Nikon 70-200mm VR was Nikon’s top professional zoom for news and sports photographers from its introduction in 2003 through the Fall of 2009 when it was replaced by the very similar 70-200mm VR II. Today this original 70-200 VR is still a remarkable professional lens. The only things the newer lenses do is focus a little more closely, weigh a little less, or maybe have a hair more sharpness visible only in the laboratory.
The only reason not to get this lens is the price, size
and weight, all of which are to professional standards. You can get the same superb optical performance in lenses that cost much less, but they won’t have VR, or they’ll require moving a switch to get to manual focus, or they won’t zoom, or they won’t autofocus. If you’re shooting DX, the 55-200mm DX VR is just about as sharp, but doesn’t move as fast or take as much of a beating.
The reason the 70-200mm VR costs ten times what other equally sharp lenses might cost are because the 70-200 VR also offers:
1.) Fast f/2.8 speed for low light, soft backgrounds and action-stopping shutter speeds.
2.) Built tough: all metal except for rubber gaskets and bumpers.
3.) Built to last: many markings are engraved to outlast all of us.
4.) Fast, quiet AF with a silent wave motor. You won’t scare sensitive subjects as other AF lenses might.
5.) Instant manual-focus override: just grab the focus ring at any time
6.) Vibration reduction so you can leave the tripod at home.
7.) Three to lock focus when pressed and held. These are extremely handy once you learn to use them.
8.) Better bokeh than most other Nikkor lenses.
This
70-200mm f/2.8 VR
is one of the two lenses used by most professional photographers
every day. The other lens is usually a wide zoom on a second body.
Nikon’s other 80-200 f/2.8 AF costs much less and offers the same great optics and fast f/2.8 aperture as the VR lens, but doesn’t offer advantages 4~7 above. Nikon’s previous 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-S offered most of the advantages of this 70-200mm VR, except for vibration reduction.
If
you’re contemplating getting this lens, just get it. If you’re more familiar with the plasticy $500 — 1,500 VR lenses like the 18-200mm VR, 70-300mm VR, 24-120mm VR or the 80-400mm VR, then you’ve in for a pleasant
surprise. The mechanical quality of the 70-200mm VR is several steps above any sub-$1,500 lens. It’s completely
metal, completely solid, and a pinnacle of professional durability,
optical quality and precision.
The
70-200 VR is a little lighter than my $1,500 80-200mm AF-S.
Studio Tests — FX format
The 70-200mm VR II performs very well on FX, essentially addressing the criticisms of its predecessor. Direct comparison of our sharpness data between the two lenses is complicated by the very different resolutions of the test bodies, but it’s clear that the problems with soft corners and vignetting towards the tele end have essentially been resolved. An interesting comparison can also be drawn between the FX and DX data — it appears that the VR II design has been very carefully balanced to give equally good corner sharpness on both formats.
| Sharpness | Wide open at F2.8, sharpness is excellent in the center of the frame, but it tends to fall off towards the edges; again best results are obtained at 200mm. Stop down a bit and the corners sharpen up nicely at all focal lengths, with none of the softness towards the tele end that plagued the older 70-200mm. Truly excellent results are obtained from F4 to at least F11 (with F5.6 generally being the very sharpest); stopping down further softens the image a little due to the inevitable effects of diffraction. |
|---|---|
| Chromatic Aberration | Chromatic aberration remains low on FX, with just-visible red/cyan fringing at 70mm, and blue/yellow fringing at 200mm. Again it diminishes on stopping down at 70mm; but in contrast to DX, at 200mm it becomes a bit more visible in the extreme corners at small apertures. Again none of this is much to worry about in real photography. |
| Falloff | We consider falloff to become perceptible when the corner illumination falls to more than 1 stop below the center. Falloff (or vignetting) is notably improved over the older lens; it’s now just a stop and a third at all focal lengths, and the precipitous, fairly extreme drop in brightness towards the corners of the previous design has been eliminated. It also disappears pretty quickly on stopping down, except at full tele, where about a stop persists even at F8 to F11. |
| Distortion | Distortion is generally pretty low, indeed it’s slightly reduced compared to the previous model. It’s near-neutral at 70mm, with progressively increasing pincushion as you zoom in, reaching a maximum of -1.5% at 200mm. This is unlikely to be an problem for most typical uses of the lens. |
Macro Focus
| In a striking illustration of the lens’s relatively low magnification, on full frame it covers an image area larger than our macro chart.However, even under the microscope of the full frame D3X, the image quality is pretty impressive. Central sharpness is high wide open, and while the corners are a little soft, they sharpen up well by F8. Pincushion distortion has become quite noticeable, alongside the merest hint of blue/yellow chromatic aberration, but overall this is pretty impressive. | |
|---|---|
|
Macro — Approx 283 x 189 mm coverage Distortion: Slight pincushion Corner softness: Moderate Focal length: 200mm |