Finally, it’s still possible, though unlikely, that lingering supply chain issues could push the remaining 35mm lens to 2024. Analyzing the Future Lenses Again, the Nikon 70-200mm f/4G VR shows superb performance. It might be a bit weaker in the center, but its corners clearly look better, which is something I did not expect to see.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/4G ED VR Lens Review Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/4G ED VR Lens Review

Again, vignetting is relatively easy to fix in Lightroom via the Lens Correction module. Ghosting and Flare

Summary and verdict

For not much more money you can go ƒ/2.8, if you don't mind going out of the Nikon camp. The Sigma has its own issues with corner softness when used on full-frame, but otherwise, it's about on-par with the 70-200mm ƒ/4.

Nikon 70-200mm f/4G VR Review - Photography Life

In common with several recent high-end Nikon lenses, theAF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/4G ED VR features a Nano Crystal coated element, which should reduce flare and internal reflections. Although not as versatile in poor light as its 2.8 cousin, the new lens features an improved Vibration Reduction system which Nikon claims should be able to deliver up to 5 EV of stabilization, potentially allowing you to get sharp pictures at shutter speeds as low as 1/6 sec at 200mm. Although this can't do anything about subject movement, it should greatly expand theusabilityof the lens in marginal lighting conditions. Autofocus is rapid and whisper-quiet, based on a ring-type ultrasonic system that comes complete with the usual focus distance scale and manual override. Indeed, switchable modes give priority to autofocus or manual override, as well as fully manual focusing. There’s also an autofocus range limiter switch. The minimum focus distance is pretty short at 1m, enabling a maximum magnification ratio of 0.274x. When I read about Nikon’s announcement of the new Vibration Reduction III technology in the 70-200mm f/4G VR, I was a little skeptical that it would be in any way better than VR II. While image stabilization technology is certainly effective on any lens, I never quite agreed with Nikon’s bold “4 stop advantage” claims in their VR II. In my experience, 2-3 stops is a more realistic number. So when Nikon announced VR III with “5 stops of advantage”, I wondered if it meant an improvement of 1 stop over the realistic 2-3 stops, or another marketing lie.

Alternatives

Corner shading is not evident when the lens is mounted on a sub-frame camera such as the D7000. On the full-frame D800e, it was a bit more prominent, but not enough to really be worried about. At its worst result, (105+mm, ƒ/4) the extreme corners of an image were just over a half-stop darker than the center of the image. Move the aperture down by just one stop, and there is no corner shading of note.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70 - 200 mm f/2.8E FL ED VR Lens - Black Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70 - 200 mm f/2.8E FL ED VR Lens - Black

The not yet released Tamron SP AF 70-200mm 2.8 Di VC USD: The cheapest listing of around 1500 EUR certainly is not a real street price yet. At 70mm, the Nikon 70-200mm f/4G VR yields better contrast from center to corners than the 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, which is very impressive. The Nikon 70-200mm f/4G seems to start off a tad worse in the center sharpness-wise, but yields better corner performance wide open (again, my lab tests confirm this). Now let’s see what happens at 200mm: Using the 2-lens combo will give you slightly better sharpness overall, but forces you to change lenses or carry even more weight (two cameras). At least the 70-200f4 is very small and light so easier to handhold.

This telephoto zoom lens from Nikon is something Nikon users have been crying out for, for years. It covers the popular 70-200m range with a constant maximum aperture of f/4, which means this lens is considerably lighter weight than its f/2.8 equivalent. It also sports Nikon's latest Vibration Reduction technology, which promises sharp hand-held images at shutter speeds up to five stops slower than would be possible without. Nikon's Nano-Crystal coatings have also been applied to lens surfaces to help suppress flare and ghosting. One of the main attractions of this lens is the versatile focal range that goes from moderate to close-up telephoto. In addition to the focus and zoom rings, there is one bank of switches which controls the operations of the lens. As previously described, two switches control the activation or deactivation of autofocus, as well as focus limiting; two additional switches activate or deactivate image stabilization, and which image stabilization mode is selected (passive, for correcting camera movement in the vertical direction only, or active, which corrects in all four directions).