What Do I Think of the Nikon AF-S 80-400mm f/4.5~5.6 VR II—Part 3

 

Back to the evaluation of the Nikon AF-S 80-400mm f/4.5~5.6 VR II.

Ken Rockwell writes reviews of equipment and he said:

“This new Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 AF-S VR is a big, expensive lens that's super sharp, focuses fast and has a great image stabilization for hand-held shots at foolishly long exposure times. It focuses as close as most 80-200mm f/2.8 zooms.

“For those of you looking for the ultimate long Nikon zoom, this new 80-400 VR is it.”

You can read his review of the lens here.

I am not that experienced with long lenses, so I will take Ken’s word on how the lens compares with other long lenses.

As to my experience of the  lens’ overall performance, I would have to rate it as Excellent.  It focuses fast in most light but does sometimes have a little problem in low light.  The lens is very sharp at f/8 through f/16.  But at lower and higher apertures, I find the results to be not quite as good.  The VR II works extremely well and it allows you to hand-hold shots at much slower shutter speeds than you might expect; however, I must admit that I find my best shots at the higher shutter speeds, which means, it’s the photographer, not the lens that is having problems.

Today’s shot is from Brazos Bend State Park and was taken on a very windy day.  The lens tracked the dragonfly perfectly and I found that most of the shots were in perfect focus.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D800 (DX format), 80-400mm f/4.5~5.6 at 600mm (effectively), ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/1000^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and added some sharpness.