Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II Review

The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II ($5,499.95) is one of those lenses that hobbyists lust after and certain professionals absolutely need to get their jobs done.

Its long focal length and bright aperture make it a solid choice for shooting sports, especially in the difficult lighting you find in many venues, and wildlife photographers will appreciate the ability to pair with a teleconverter and still focus and track moving subjects at full speed.

Its image quality, focus performance, and build quality earn our Editors' Choice.

Design: No Corners Cut

The 300mm f/2.8G ($5,496.95 at Amazon) is huge.

It measures 10.5 by 4.9 inches (HD) and weighs 6.4 pounds.

But despite its bulk, I found it comfortable to handhold for short periods of time, though I'd recommend pairing with a monopod for extended use.

There's an integrated tripod collar; it rotates so you can switch from landscape to portrait orientation and has a thumbscrew to lock it in place.

The front element is huge, so to save you from having to purchase obnoxiously expensive front filters, Nikon has included a rear drop-in filter holder.

It supports the 52mm size.

If you want to use a circular polarizer you'll need to purchase the C-PL1L filter ($398), which has a mechanism to rotate the internal filter in order to change the polarization.

The included lens hood is carbon fiber, so it doesn't add a lot of weight to the front of the lens, while at the same time protecting the front element and blocking stray light from hitting the lens from odd angles.

It attaches via a thumbscrew and is reversible.

Instead of a cap, Nikon includes a soft lens cover to protect the front element during storage and transport.

You also get the standard rear cap, a carrying strap, and a soft carrying case.

The lens barrel is all metal, finished in matte black.

There's hard rubber covering toward the front, which you can use to more comfortably cradle the lens with your left hand when handholding.

The manual focus ring occupies about three inches of the center.

It's also covered in hard rubber and turns comfortably.

About 200 degrees of throw is required to move from the minimum focus distance to infinity.

There are a bunch of other on-lens controls.

The VR (stabilization) can be turned on or off using a ring control, located toward the base of the lens.

It's quick to find by feel, so you can quickly disable VR for a panning shot, and turn it back on as needed without taking your eye off the action.

Nikon promises three stops of vibration correction, which means you should be able to get consistently blur-free images when shooting handheld at shutter speeds as long as 1/40-second.

I found that the lens is able to do that without breaking a sweat, even on the high-resolution D850 body.

If you're sitting or using a monopod you'll be able to push it well beyond that—with some care I was able to get consistently blur-free results at 1/10-second, and 1/20-second when working in a faster, real-world pace.

Several toggle switches sit on the left side, just ahead of the VR toggle.

Starting at the top you get the focus mode switch, with A/M, M/A, and M settings.

A/M is the default, standard operation, which allows you to override autofocus at any time by focusing manually.

M/A does the same thing, but is better suited for shooting action as even a minor move of the ring makes a manual focus ring—there's a slight delay with A/M as to prevent accidental adjustments.

Finally, M mode puts the lens in full-time manual focus.

Next is the focus limiter, with a Full setting that allows autofocus to range across the entire distance at which the lens can focus.

The secondary position limits focus from 6 meters (19.7 feet), ideal for situations where you're only concerned about locking on to more distant subjects.

It will prevent subjects passing in front of your lens at close distances from throwing off the autofocus system, and speeds target acquisition.

Even without the limiter enabled, I found focus in the real world to be extremely quick.

I had no problems locking on to fast-moving targets like birds in flight, and was able to track them effectively with both the D850 and D500.

The VR switch controls how the stabilization system works when it's turned on.

You can set it to Normal, which should be used in most situations, or Active, which is the right choice when you're working from an unstable platform—a moving car, boat, or helicopter, for example.

The next toggle switch adjusts how the four push buttons, placed at 90-degree intervals just ahead of the manual focus ring, work.

It has three settings—AF-L, Memory Recall, and AF ON.

AF-L prevents the camera's autofocus system from working when any of the four buttons is held down, while AF ON activates autofocus whenever one of the buttons is pressed.

Memory Recall is a feature you'll only find on pro-grade lenses.

It works with a Memory Set button, located on the right side of the barrel, very close to the lens mount.

It allows you to set focus at a particular distance, and return to that setting at any time.

It's incredibly useful for sports photographers.

If you're photographing baseball you can set a focus point for a point of interest on the field, say second base, so you can quickly pan over and capture a baserunner stealing a bag, even if your lens had been trained on a pitcher or batter a split-second before.

There's a chime option to alert you when the focus point has been saved, but you can turn it on with the final toggle switch if you're working in an environment where silence is imperative.

The lens is capable of focusing as close as 7.6 feet (2.3 meters).

It's not a macro, delivering just 1:6.25 life-size magnification when focused as close as possible.

You'll still be able to capture some close-up shots, like the image of the lily below, but you won't get the tiniest details that you can with a true 1:1 macro lens.

Because the lens has an f/2.8 aperture, it can be used with teleconverters without sacrificing focus speed on any of Nikon's current pro bodies, including the D500, D850, and D5.

I tried it out with the AF-S Teleconverter TC-20E III on both the D500 and D850.

I found focus to be just as speedy as without, and image quality to be strong.

Remember that adding a teleconverter does effectively cut the amount of light hitting the sensor.

When paired with the 2x extender, the 300mm f/2.8 turns into a 600mm f/5.6.

That's a stop slower than the AF-S Nikkor 600mm f/4E FL ED VR, but remember that is a $13,000 lens.

Image Quality: A Razor-Sharp Telephoto

I benchmarked the 300mm f/2.8 using the 45.6MP D850 and Imatest software.

It delivers strong results on the demanding high-resolution sensor.

At f/2.8 the combination resolves 3,779 lines on Imatest's sharpness test.

The evaluation is center-weighted, but that doesn't matter—results at the extreme edges of the frame are as good as in the center.

We classify the performance in the very good range, with 2,750 lines as the lowest acceptable score.

Stopping down to f/4 pushes the lens into excellent territory as resolution climbs to 4,427 lines, the sharpest score we saw across its aperture range.

It's almost as good at f/5.6 (4,344 lines), and remains quite good at f/8 (4,050 lines) and f/11 (4,157 lines).

You should avoid shooting at narrower settings as diffraction cuts into resolution—it drops to 3,760 lines at f/16 and 2,978 lines at f/22.

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There's no visible distortion of which to speak.

We do see a bit of a vignette at the corners when shooting at f/2.8—about a -2.4EV drop compared with the center.

If you shoot in JPG format and don't fiddle with you camera settings, Nikon's automatic Vignette Control cuts the deficit to an almost negligible -1.6EV.

Raw photographers can remove any vignette using software tools, like Lightroom's lens profile.

At settings narrower than f/2.8, the vignette isn't visible.

A Nice Lens, If You Can Afford It

There's no question, the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II is an exceptional lens.

The biggest hurdle that many will face is its asking price.

For hobbyists and enthusiasts, it's a big pill to swallow, but working pros will find that it will pay for itself in time.

There aren't any serious flaws in its optical quality or nitpicks about its design and build to call out.

There are more affordable options out there.

Nikon's AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED doesn't capture as much light, but it's priced at $2,000 and weighs just 1.7 pounds.

Sigma makes a 120-300mm F2.8 zoom that is also more affordably priced at $3,399, but is a heavy beast at 7.5 pounds.

Sigma also has a 300mm F2.8 prime for the same $3,399, but we've not yet had a chance to test it to see how it compares.

It's an older design, dating back from before Sigma introduced its Global Vision line of Art, Contemporary, and Sports lenses.

Most other alternatives are zooms with narrower f-stops, which are in a completely different price and performance class.

They are still a viable option if you tend to shoot under bright sunlight and don't have a $5,500 budget for a long lens.

Among our favorites are the Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2, the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR, and the Sigma 100-400mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary.