Nikon AF 80-400mm VR

Nikon AF 80-400mm

First an admission, this is not a lens I use for work. It is one I bought purely for pleasure to use when I am photographing for fun and need longer reach. I find the Nikon 80-400mm a rather unusual lens as its certainly not in the same professional league as the 400mm f/2.8 category of course, but yet its not a consumer lens either which can be plainly witnessed by its price tag. Its the only Nikon brand lens that gets you to 400mm and yet still be within reach of someone who wants to shoot for pleasure or anybody that hasn’t won the lottery - thats not to say its cheap because it most certainly isn’t, and a comment on that in the last paragraph.

Back when Nikon released this lens, they were just starting to add Vibration Reduction to their lenses. They had started adding AF-S motors a little earlier but taken as a whole, they didn’t have that many with the AF-S AF technology either. When they announced this lens, people were excited to have a Nikon lens up to 400mm with VR, but were a little surprised by the lack of AF-S.

As normal I’ll start with the good, as this lens does have a lot going for it. It has a genuinely useful range that is even more impressive when used on a DX cropped sensor camera. Because its full frame you get the sweet spot advantage on a copped camera too. Perhaps because of this, it is a very sharp lens and that’s putting it rather mildly. Down by one stop, I am sometimes surprised just how sharp a performance this lens is capable of. Even wide open it gives a very, very good performance with the exception of its extreme 400mm setting where its still very good, but perhaps just a hair less sharp than the rest of the range.

The build quality is also rather good. Its not in the same league as the 70-200mm VR, but its not far off either. The other thing I like is that its not a G lens, so its does still have an aperture ring - although this is certainly not a deal breaker one way or the other these days. It is not sealed against the elements though, which is not surprising considering when this lens was released.

The VR works as advertised, and definitely helps up-to about 2 stops in my use, 3 often but not guaranteed. The newer VR lenses give a little more help, but that’s simply a matter of new technology and the help available on this lens is noticeable for sure. I find it is best to turn off VR on this particular lens when I have it mounted on a tripod. And the tripod mount is serviceable, but not the absolute best Nikon has ever produced which is why there are quite a few 3rd party alternatives available. The good news is that the lens is light enough to be used hand-held quite easily if you’ve got the light in your favor.

The biggest gripe people have with this lens is the auto-focus performance and lack of AF-S of course. I have to say I have heard people go on and on about this and the lens isn’t nearly so bad as people seem to imply. The auto-focus isn’t what I’d call exceptionally fast, but if you have a camera with a good built-in AF motor, then its not terrible by any stretch of the imagination. It is certainly not silent though. I remember last year being asked to shoot Puffins and thank goodness they are fairly used to people as the noise from the AF was noticeable to them. On a last note about the AF performance, there is a limit switch on this lens like you often see on a macro. I find it is well worth taking advantage of as it helps a great deal as the lens doesn’t have nearly so far to go when trying to AF from extreme to extreme.

As I said above the sharpness of the lens is very good so no real concerns there. There is very little vignetting either so that isn’t a problem either, in fact I find it preforms very well in that regard as well as having precious little distortions and even more so when considering the zoom range. CA’s can be noticeable at the shorter end of the zoom range when its set to the larger apertures. Again though, of all the optical issue’s a lens can have, CA is the easiest to fix with software these days and anyhow its not a deal breaker on this lens.

If you want a 400mm Nikon lens with VR capability, then this is the lens for you. Are there things that could be improved, you better believe it. It would be helpful if it was a little faster as far as aperture, of course this could very well increase the price though too, as well as the weight so everything is a compromise. The VR is great, but it would be nice if it had the newest version so that it could help out even more than it does in its current form. Lastly, if there ever was a lens crying out for an AF-S motor to be added, this is it. I have no doubt Nikon is developing an updated version of this lens and I will be buying it as soon as its released. I do find this lens is a little on the expensive side for what it offers, and hope Nikon can find a way to reduce the price by several hundred dollars next time. That being said, this lens is capable of giving great results as it is and once you’ve learned what its capable of, I think you will find it a useful addition to your bag - unless of course you shoot sports/wildlife for a living in which case, I’m afraid its several thousand more and a much heavier f/2.8 lens thats in your future.