Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED Vibration Reduction Zoom Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras

I've been researching telephoto zooms here for a while as I was trying to decide which one to get. I narrowed it down to the Tamron 150-600, Sigma 150-600 and this lens the Nikon 200-500. After reading/watching a bunch of reviews and comparisons of the lenses I decided to go with the Nikon, mainly because of it's sharpness throughout all focal lengths but also because of it's incredible VR (Vibration Reduction). Apart from being a great quality lens it's also affordable. For what you are getting it's a steal! Compared the it's Big Brother the Nikon 500m f4 Prime it's about 9 grand less and produces just about the same amazing quality. The lens itself is fairly new, it was released in 2015 I believe and because of that there isn't a whole of info out there like there is for other lenses. As of writing this review there is still no DXO Mark score which really bothers me, but hopefully they will get it up at some point. The real beauty of this lens is it's VR, it's Nikons latest generation of Vibration Reduction and it's incredible! It's really quite amazing how low you can drop the shutter speeds. I posted some pics with my review that hopefully help give some ideas as to what to expect with this lens. One of the pics was taken at 1/8th a second at 500mm handheld, that's just insane! Obviously you wouldn't want to be shooting at that speed if you don't have to, I just wanted to test the capabilities. At 1/8th I couldn't land a super tack sharp pic, but scaled down to any reasonable size it then looks totally sharp. In general I was able to land tack sharp images at 1/25h and lower, and 1/100 to 1/300 gave me super sharp images almost every time, even at 500mm focus. The bokeh on this thing is impeccable, blowing out the backgrounds is a snap with this lens. Colors are also deep and saturated with good contrast. Chromatic Aberration isn't a problem either, however I've noticed a very slight hint of CA on a few images, though I am talking about a very minimal amount, if you weren't pixel peeping you would never see it, and even then you might still might miss it. Focusing isn't as snappy as the 500mm f4 prime, but at 1/10th the cost the focusing works pretty darn good. Once you get used to it and know how much time you need to adjust you will get the hang of controlling the focus properly. The zoom wheel also requires a bit too much turn to go from 200-500, you won't be able to make a full transition in a single hand turn which is a bit of a bummer especially if your starting at 200 and zooming is as your tracking your subject, but again this will improve over time once you practice with it. My only other criticism thus far is the weight. It's definitely light enough to hand hold, but holding it up to track a bird or take a series of pics can get tiresome pretty quickly. However, this too will get better with practice as you build up some muscles. All in all I would say this is one of the best telephoto zooms to date, if not the best if you take the price into consideration. This is about as good as it gets at this price range, you really won't find a better lens. It's extremely versatile, you can focus close enough to take some macro shots as well (a few included in my review), you can use this lens for tight portraits, candid shots, birding, macro, and even landscapes to a lesser extent.

This is a great lens (Nikon 200-500) for nature and sports photography. I did learn the hard way, if you use any filters on this lens, they must be of good quality. I used an inexpensive Circular Polarizer Filter that caused fuzziness in any photo I took with this lens. It also caused auto focus issues sometimes, and I found when I removed the filter, everything worked well with excellent picture quality. For the money, it's a bargain. Note it is very heavy for us older folks, so I would recommend using either a monopod or tripod if possible. The Vibration Reduction does eliminate any shake if handholding the lens. I was quite pleased with how fast the auto focus is.

I never thought I'd say this about a $1,400.00 super-zoom telephoto lens, but,.. it is phenomenal. This lens is sharp! The VR is very effective as well. It allows me to hand-hold the lens to below 1/100s at any focal length and get sharp results, provided the subject isn't moving much. Being able to focus on subjects close or far away and being able to zoom in or out is also a bonus. I shoot a lot of wildlife, birds in flight, surfing and so on, and needed a longer lens. I was using my 300mm f/4D AF-S plus Nikon 1.4TCII, which got me to 420mm at f/5.6. This combo works really well due to sharpness, light weight, smaller size and good reach. That being said, I'm shooting with the D750 which is full frame, so I've always wanted just a little more reach than that and something I didn't need a TC for. I was looking at the new Tamron 150-600mm G2 and this Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6VR. I decided to go down to Sammy's Camera to give them both a try to see which one I'd like better. Though I'm sure the Tamron is great, I ended up really liking the Nikon. It just seemed to work better with my D750 as far as low light focus and VR were concerned. I liked it so much, that although I planned on buying it online, I couldn't help myself and handed over the cash so I could take it home that minute. I have read that there could be some copy variation and that some of these perform better than others. The one I picked up is flawless. It is pin-sharp wide open at every focal length with no AF fine tune necessary. Though it is a bit slow to focus on a subject initially, once it locks on, it tracks that subject very well. I haven't missed any shots so far, so long as I was able to keep the lens on the subject. It's larger and heavier than my 300mm f/4D and TC combo, so it did take some getting used to. I would highly recommend this lens to any Nikon shooter needing more reach. This lens delivers even with a 1.4TC attached! I've only tried it with my 1.4TC II (which holds up really well though it was first announced in 2001!), but plan on buying the 1.4TC III for improved focus, optics and VR with this lens. The TC brings you to 700mm at f/8. I was getting sharp results on subjects that were moving slower, but for flying birds it didn't quite work out. I'm confident that the 1.4TC III will improve that quite a bit, since it's meant to work better with these new "E" lenses.

First off I am an amateur photographer who enjoys shooting birds and wild life. I love the lens for the reach and quality of the photo. In my opinion the auto focus is very fast an accurate. After much research I settled on this lens because of the ability to have a quality 500mm lens for a reasonable price. The Nikon non-zoom in 500mm is way more expensive. I typically shoot using a monopod which doubles as a walking stick on hikes. Due to it's weight, shooting without the mono pod/tripod is a challenge. Also I have not found a backpack that is built for a lens this size. Overall I love the lens and it has allowed me to take much better pictures than with my Nikon 70-300mm that came with the camera. Only negative so far is weight and with image stabilization on, the image tends to jump a little after the shot. Regarding image stabilization, you can do a search and some reviews will discuss this in dept.

I spent a long time deciding if I should purchase this. To read the specs of this lens, this was exactly what I needed. Some negative aspects that took a long time to get past. I finally decided the lens was what I needed I took it on a 4 day shoot, took thousands of pictures. If you read the rest of the reviews, they are pretty close. The one star are just bad lenses. That happens. Always check to make sure you have a good lens. Clear photos and a quality lens. Nice Job Nikon. With that said, is this the perfect lens. NO. Most of my lenses are faster. I had a learning curve to power through. I knew purchasing this, I would need to get used to using this. Work with it before you go. Autofocus is a little slow. Not bad but since I use faster lenses, I noticed. Take your time and make sure you are focused on exactly what you want. The pictures are top of the line from 200 to 500. I found no weak area. I started on a tripod because it is a bigger lens. Others complained about the mount foot and balance. I would say a little off but easy enough to adjust if your tripod mount has a little adjustment. Not a problem for me. I hand shoot most of the time. That was my biggest concern of buying this. Can I carry it all day and can I hold it steady enough. Again Nikon killed it. I shot for hours hand held and the pictures are perfect. It did wear my arms down. Now if you are thinking the camera is not fast enough for you, I am a wildlife photographer. The conditions are perfect about one percent of the time. This lens did just as well as any of my other lenses could have done. Speed might have cost me a few shots, but not a huge deal. Impressed on how close I could focus at 200mm. But it is 200mm. You need a second camera for closer work. Overall, this is an awesome lens. I watched one review where the presenter said if you do not have perfect shots, it is not the lenses fault. I have to agree with him. This lens is capable if you learn to be proficient with it. I like staying inside the range of my 200mm, but not all the critters agree. I do not give up quality with this at a farther distance. Very happy with my purchase. Not a point and shoot. Takes effort. I left out a lot of the fine details because I thought others were very accurate on the lens reviews. Buy it.

I absolutely love the Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED Vibration Reduction Zoom Lens. The quality and build of this lens are outstanding. While working in Alaska, I managed to get incredible shots of wildlife, thanks to its impressive performance. The vibration reduction feature is a game-changer, ensuring sharp images even at maximum zoom. I’m very happy with this purchase, and the price was quite reasonable for the value it offers. Highly recommended for any wildlife photography enthusiast!

One of the reasons I buy from Amazon - no, I'm not a shill - is its seamless return policy. I'd only used it once, when I returned an 18-300mm lens that I'd bought for my D7100 because it wasn't substantially better than my 18-140mm kit lens. By allowing me to do that, though, I was able to buy a 70-200mm f/2.8 that changed my photography life. Amazon has its reasons. Fast forward. I now shoot with a D750. The 70-200 - and the 14-24mm and 24-70mm - are still my reference. A week before the 200-500mm was delivered I shot a series with the 70-200mm coupled with a TC-20e 2X extender: Very good, but the degradation at 400mm was obvious. Still, when I received the 200-500 I unpacked carefully, and saved the packaging. If the IQ wasn't going to be substantially better than what I had, I was going to send it back. In fact, I assumed I'd do so. I just threw the packaging away. 1. Image quality is almost - not quite, but almost - up with the Nikon pro zooms. Color, excellent, bokeh, beautiful and smooth. 2. VR is as advertised: 4.5 stops. Stunning. 3. Auto focus is slower than the other pro lenses, but accurate. Fast enough to capture an eagle leaving its nest at 300 yards. 4. With a body that handles noise well - I love the D750 - it's easy to shoot at even ISO 1600 and crank the shutter speed up to 1/4000 to get the in-flight bird shots we all love. Bottom line: Fabulous. Way better than expected. The holy trinity, for me, has become the holy quartet...

I took me a while to justify getting this but I finally caved. I mainly to wildlife/birds and without getting into crazy Prime lenses, this is it. It is heavy but that comes with the territory. It is super sharp at max zoom which is awesome. If I had to nit pick the one thing that is hard to get used to is that twisting to zoom on this can take like 3 regrips to from min to max zoom. I usually just grab the front near the hood attachment and push it out to zoom when I need to get something really fast. This is to be expected though when you want a lense from 200-500mm. this is priced fair in comparison to Sigmas and Tamerons and while I do not own those, I have gotten to shoot with them and really do believe this lense does perform better. My main target is flying birds, especially raptors and after having this I could never go back to something smaller. As with any Camera gear purchase, do your research, a big lense is not always better, it all depends on what will use it for. For the regular photographer, this is not something they really need, If are really into wild animals or other things that require a lot of magnification , this is something to consider.

I enjoy my wildlife photography and although I was getting some decent shots with my 80-400mm, I wanted to fill the viewfinder that bit more. I have been really impressed with the results using this lens, that extra 100mm has made a big difference. The VR is very effective and the autofocus is quick; I had read some reports saying autofocus was a bit slow, but it seems fine with my D810. The lens is a bit heavy, but I've managed to carry it around for over 5 miles without any bother (I'm in my early 60s). The biggest problem I've had is getting a holster that can carry it and the camera, I've settled on a Think Tank one at the moment, but its not ideal as the lens will not fit in with the hood on (this is a wide hood and even reversed will not fit in the bag). To give an idea of quality, the image of the pigeon was the first test shot I took. I was in my garden, the bird was on the apex of the roof; the image is cropped at 100% yet is still quite sharp (500mm f8 @ 1/400th ISO200). All in all I'm very happy with the lens and consider it money well spent.

¡Increíble!, es la mejor palabra para describir este grandioso teleobjetivo. Con un precio muy ajustado para la calidad que ofrece, como siempre Nikon no defrauda, la primera sensación que transmite es su robustez y peso, con una luminosidad asombrosa. Lo mejor aparte del conocido sistema VR, que funciona a la perfección, es su motor de enfoque, no se le oye pero absolutamente nada, cuando empecé a disparar con el miraba el anillo de enfoque para ver si realmente se movía puesto que no me podía creer que viendo el enfoque a través del visor no oyera nada, y además es súper rápido tanto con mi Nikon D80 como con D7100, en ambas funciona a la perfección y cuando seleccionamos el enfoque a partir de 6 metros con el selector que trae para ello, es aún más rápido si cabe. Sin duda lo volvería a comprar. Solo una pega, y es que no tiene ningún punto de anclaje para una correa, por lo que la sujección se hace directamente con la camara, poder usar una correa adicional que vendría bien pues pesa de lo lindo. Incluso a pulso las fotos son nítidas, pero no es un objetivo para tirar a pulso. Con un simple monopie va de fábula y con un trípode es bestial. AMAZON como siempre un 10 tanto en envío, como rápidez y en este caso en concreto en precio: 200 euros de ahorro respecto a otros sitios.

very happy with lens. a bit heavy though. photos very sharp even with an entry level crop sensor camera. beautiful bokeh, lovely colours too money well spent. brings a lot of joy

One of the best bits of photographic equipment I have ever owned or used. It is simply the best.

Hızlı kargo ve bayram sonrasına kalmadığı için Amazon Türkiye'ye ve mng kargoya teşekkür ederim. Doğa ve canlı hayvan çekimi için kullanacağım. Doğayı ve vahşi hayvanları sevenler için. İmkanları dahilinde almalarını tavsiye ederim.