As you can see, the bokeh on the new 70-200mm VR II is very comparable to the bokeh of 85mm f/1.4 – it is very smooth and “creamy”. Vignetting What's really important is that the corners are now as super-sharp as all the other lenses, not slightly duller as was the previous VR lens at 200mm. There are a couple of differences worth noting here. While the Nikon 70-200mm f/4G has a maximum aperture of f/4, its minimum aperture is also smaller at f/32 (versus f/22 on the 70-200mm f/2.8G). Next, it obviously has a simpler optical design with 20 elements in 14 groups, while the 70-200mm f/2.8G has 21 elements in 16 groups. The new Nikon 70-200mm f/4G VR also comes with a brand new, third generation Vibration Reduction (VR) technology, which Nikon claims can provide up to 5 stops of image stabilization. This is interesting, because while the new 70-200mm f/4 lens is one stop slower than the 70-200mm f/2.8, in some situations it regains the light loss with better VR control. After playing with the lens for sometime, I must admit that the VR on the 70-200mm f/4 is in fact better. I am sure Nikon will be using this new VR system in all future lenses, because it really works. The number of ED elements in the 70-200mm f/4G lens design is fewer: 3 versus 7 on the 70-200mm f/2.8G. A big advantage, in my opinion for the 70-200mm f/4G is its closer focusing distance of 3.28 ft versus 4.6 ft on the f/2.8G version. Because the barrel size is smaller, the filter size is also smaller – 67mm versus 77mm. And lastly, it is a smaller and significantly cheaper lens. But what about everything else? Looks like the rest of the features are pretty much exactly the same. Both lenses have a 9 blade diaphragm, both are coated with Nano Coated glass, both have Super Integrated Coating, AF-S motor and Internal Focusing. MTF and Sharpness I know this isn’t exactly a full 70-200mm review, however I hope it has helped you with your buying decisions!

You will have to accept a pretty high weight at 1.5 kilos, it takes Ø77 mm filters and you won’t be able to go closer to your subject than 1.4 meters. In case you’re wondering, as a Nikon wedding photographer I opted for the original Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR. Why? Not just because it’s “more than sharp enough”, but also admittedly because I hate the weight and I try to avoid using it whenever possible. Don’t get me wrong, I bust it out whenever I need to, however I do prefer my 85mm prime by far. Or maybe Nikon will come out with a new 135mm f/2 VR that will be insanely sharp and weigh a pound or more less than the 70-200’s. Then I could have the best of both worlds!

Vignetting

I am not a big fan of the sun stars this lens produces and it comes down to the 9 rounded blades. The peaks in the sun star as you can see above are split and look messy to me. I much more prefer the sun stars that straight blades gives, but I also understand why Nikon has made the rounded blades, as most users in their target group prefer bokeh over sunstars. Bokeh If I already own the 70-200 2.8 mk1, do I really need to upgrade to the mk2? How much better is the mk1 versus the mk2?” The focal range from 70-200 makes lenses like this one a workhorse for portrait photographers, sports, some wildlife, photo journalists and wedding photographers. It is simply a super important range for many pros, and hence a lens that major lens manufacturers work very hard to get it absolutely right.

Its only vice is that the corners are never super-duper sharp for landscape photographers at the 200mm end, but these lenses have always been for sports, low light and portraits, not tripods. As you may already know, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II was a disappointment for some photographers, because it suffers from a “lens breathing” optical design, where the focal length of the lens varies depending on subject distance. At close distances, the 70-200mm loses quite a bit of the range, which can be a problem for those of us that like to fill the frame with small objects. The Nikon 70-200mm f/4G VR does not have this problem – I measured its focal length and it was exactly 70-200mm, no matter how close or far I focused. Its optical formula is similar to that of the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Macro, which also measured about the same. Now why is this important? If you lose some focal length at close distances, it also means that you will have to zoom in closer with the f/2.8 version to get a similar field of view. And as you may already know, longer focal length translates to shallower depth of field, which translates to better subject isolation and smoother bokeh. When comparing bokeh on the two lenses, if I focused with the 70-200mm f/4G VR at 116mm at a distance of about 5 feet between the lens and the subject, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II required me to zoom in to 200mm to get a similar field of view! That’s a pretty significant difference in focal length… If we use a depth of field calculator, we can plug what a 116mm lens at f/2.8 is like compared to a 200mm lens at f/4, both at 5 feet subject distance. The calculator says that the 70-200mm f/2.8 will yield a depth of field of 0.09 feet, while the 70-200mm f/4 will have 0.04 feet. That’s right – at close distances, the 70-200mm f/4G is actually a better lens to use for subject isolation. Now 5 feet is obviously too close, so let’s do slightly more realistic numbers. When doing my lab tests, I measured that the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II at 200mm is equivalent to the Nikon 70-200mm f/4G VR at 170mm, both at a distance of 13 feet. If I plug those numbers to the same calculator this time, I end up with 0.29 feet of depth of field for both lenses. What this all means, is that the Nikon 70-200mm f/4G yields shallower depth of field than the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G from the closest focusing distance to about 13 feet. Past 13 feet, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G starts to take over, because the lens breathing effect starts to wear out and the lens recovers most of its focal length. Therefore, at close distances, that one stop advantage of the 70-200mm f/2.8 is really not that of an advantage! Some photographers may be wondering about the tripod foot that’s coupled with the Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S. In the past, Nikon has used non-standard, non-Arca-Swiss tripod feet on their high-end lenses, and unfortunately this one is no different. If you want to attach the 70-200mm f/2.8 S to an Arca Swiss-type tripod head, you’ll need to buy a separate tripod foot and replace the one Nikon included. Or, you could add a standard Arca Swiss plate to the bottom at the expense of a bit more weight and an extra attachment point. Similar to other Nikon teleconverters and its predecessor, the Nikon TC-20E III has a rugged all-metal exterior and a metal mount that is built to last a lifetime. The solid construction, along with a whopping 7 elements make it one heavy teleconverter, weighing a total of 330 grams without a lens attached. As a comparison, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G lens weighs only 280 grams. The Nikon TC-14E II and TC-17-E II weigh 200 and 250 grams, respectively. While the number of optical elements has not changed between the new and the older 2x teleconverters, two key differences to note are the redesigned layout/lens groupings and replacement of a regular lens element with an aspherical one. The aspherical element was added to improve image quality by increasing sharpness, decreasing coma and other aberrations. Like other teleconverters, the Nikon TC-20E III has fixed lens elements that do not move when focus ring or zoom ring are touched on the lens. This means that the lens is protected very well against dust and moisture. NIKON D3S + 300mm f/2.8 @ 600mm, ISO 200, 1/800, f/7.1 Autofocus Speed and Accuracy However, for most people the the first generation lens remains a terrific option for DX users, where the lens still performs rather brilliantly.

The lenses with f/11 for both “Acceptable” and “Optimal” sharpness produce very unreliable results. NIKON D3S + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 370mm, ISO 280, 1/1250, f/8.0 Lens Construction and Handling The new vibration reduction system in this lens is truly amazing! I loved my old 70-200mm, but it made me nervous to shoot it below 1/40-1/50th of a second. After I got the new 70-200mm VRII in my hands, I decided to see what I can get with this lens at much lower shutter speeds. Take a look at this shot: NIKON D700 @ 180mm, ISO 400, 1/13, f/2.8 Distortion is controlled quite well on the lens, with the shorter focal lengths having practically no visible distortion. As you zoom in towards 105mm and longer, there is a bit of barrel distortion, with the strongest effect at 200mm. If you happen to use the lens for architectural work and for photographing textures and patterns, you can take care of the problem in Photoshop or Lightroom very easily by using Lens Corrections. NIKON D810 + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm, ISO 220, 1/320, f/2.8 Ghosting and Flare

The VRII version is significantly sharper in the corners, less vignetting and has more contrast, but has much greater focus breathing than the old one. Those advantages don't really show up as well on DX as the size of the DX sensor means the outer portion of the lens aren't projected and only the center portion of the lens is seen by the DX sensor. The VRI version is very good in the center so the advantages of VRII are almost lost on DX. The Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 situation is a little different. Their older f/2.8 L lenses (both IS and non-IS) were never really amazingly sharp, they were mostly just “usable”. Yes, of course innumerable pros loved these lenses and used them daily to make tons of money. However that doesn’t mean they were flawlessly sharp. They were simply the only option, and they got the job done. I don’t have much to say about the vibration reduction other than it works! I have been shooting at 200mm down to 1/80th of a second with no camera shake and it works in a way so I don’t notice it is on. When shooting ICM it is of course turned off! Sun stars Sunstar example: the iPhone in the dark! Hmm...point taken, Sorry. The 18-55, 55-200, and 18-105 that are bundled with the consumer DX bodies are VR I, and are the least expensive zooms in Nikon's lineup. The 18-200, 16-85, 55-300, and 70-300 are VR II. What threw me off is that VR II started showing up on the metal-mount DX line BEFORE the 18-55, 55-200, and 18-105 came out - in the 16-85, 18-200, and 70-300. When it comes to chromatic aberration (CA), the lens has very little lateral CA from 70 to 85mm. As you zoom in, lateral CA definitely increases, with 200mm showing the highest levels at the maximum aperture. Unfortunately, stopping down does not do much to reduce chromatic aberration. Take a look at the below chart by Imatest:

Now that you know exactly what four lenses are included into this test, let me summarize the findings shown in the video above. Focus Breathing Test My advice to you is consider if alternatives with more reach or maybe some lighter primes. There are also alternatives in the same range from Sigma and Tamron – or the not so fast f/4 version from Nikon. Another completely new design, this 70-200mm lens adds slightly closer focus and Nano-Crystal coating as it's gee-whiz features. Weighing 1540g, the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II is one of the biggest and heaviest Nikon pro-level telephoto zoom lens, almost twice as heavy as the new f/4 version that we reviewed last week. We found that though it balanced well on the Nikon D4 body provided for this review, using it handheld for more than a couple of hours soon grew tiring. When the TC-20E III is used with slow f/4 aperture lenses, autofocus stops working completely or becomes extremely unreliable. With the exception of the new Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, zoom lenses also start acting up in daylight with very mixed results. The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II works surprisingly well with the TC-20E III and I found the autofocus performance to be good in bright conditions, although the lens also works very well with the TC-14E II and TC-17E II teleconverters. The same cannot be said about the older 70-200mm f/2.8 lens – it is only known to work well with the TC-14E II. The above table chart outlines which lenses perform best at what aperture with the TC-20E III. When photographing sports, wildlife and other fast-action photography, you have to be extremely careful when using the TC-20E III.

However if you are really the type of shooter who prefers primes, or wider angles, then maybe 70-200mm is just a “fill in the gaps” type of tool that you buy only to get a job done. In this case, you have many more options to choose from. This lens is a professional quality 2.9x zoom with a fast constant f/2.8 aperture and Vibration Reduction. It's version two of Nikon's AF-S 70-200 f/2.8 that has been eagerly awaited for some time now and is a complete redesign of this popular professional workhorse. The Vibration reduction system has been updated and promises to give an extra stop of grace over the previous version. Nikon's Nano-Crystal-Coat has also been employed in this lens, which should improve overall contrast and its resistance to flare and ghosting. The multi-position focus limiter ring is replaced with a simpler and easier to use Limit/Full slide switch. Many of these switches fell off, leaving a hole in the lens which otherwise works swell throughout the entire focus range. The Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR handles similarly to the other top-of-the-line Z-series lenses like the 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, and 105mm f/2.8 macro. It has focus ring, zoom ring, customizable control ring, and an EL display for information like distance and depth of field. You can turn the EL display on and off, as well as change which information it shows, by pressing the “DISP” button nearby. When it comes to speed of focus acquisition, the 70-200mm is one of the best performers in the Nikon line of professional lenses. The lens autofocus system with SWM (Silent Wave Motor) is quiet, while focusing is instant and accurate, even in low light conditions. I recently shot a corporate event with this lens and I was amazed at the speed and accuracy of focus when mounted on an FX sensor. Here is a good example of how the lens focuses in a very dim environment: NIKON D700 @ 200mm, ISO 800, 1/50, f/2.8Closest focus distance/max. magnification: 1.4 m (4.6 ft.) / 1:8.3. In my test I was able to go down to 1: 7.9. This meager magnification also means that the effective focal length shrinks some 30% when focusing close. Similar to what the Sigma achieves. [0] New Nikon Winter instant rebate (Sofortrabatt) started in Germany: up to €600 off on select products The original Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR probably has a slight edge over the original Canon 70-200 2.8 L IS. I am basing this off both the actual optical performance as well as the resale value. In other words, people seem to still desire the older version of the Nikon a little bit more than the older version of the Canon. Due to the use of low dispersion glass, Chromatic Aberrations are very well controlled peaking at around 0.8 pixel widths at 135mm towards the edges of the image area. At both the long and short ends of the zoom range are of little concern and barely register 0.25 pixel widths. Most people will struggle to notice this, even if they go hunting for it. The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8G ED VR II was announced in July 2009, as the second iteration of the company's professional stabilized fast telezoom. It's the successor to the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8G ED VR which first appeared in 2003, and brings to the table an entirely remastered optical system designed to match the demands of the latest high resolution FX format cameras such as the D3X, accompanied by an improved vibration reduction system which Nikon claims offers up to four stops stabilization.