In summary
The AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II is a good performer that will comfortably meet the needs of photographers who require that constant, fast f/2.8 maximum aperture. Its size, build quality and performance make it a good partner for professional cameras like the D4 and D3s/x.
Although the lower end of the focal length range is suitable for portraiture and the f/2.8 maximum aperture will make selective focusing easy, its size and bulk could make this lens a bit too intimidating to be an ideal portrait lens. At the other end of the scale, the 200mm focal length on an FX body is a bit too short for most wildlife photography or covering outdoor sporting events.
For indoor sports, the zoom range would be eminently suitable and the constant f/2.8 maximum aperture would be a decided advantage. Whichever purpose it’s used for, although it’s possible to hand-hold this lens, after a while it becomes very tiring, so a tripod (or monopod) will probably need to become part of your kit.
The weight of this lens will make it unbalanced on Nikon’s lighter DX bodies, although it could be suitable for larger, more substantial cameras, like the D300s. The 1.5x crop factor can be beneficial here, providing an effective focal length gain that pushes the maximum focal length up to 300mm (35mm equivalent), which is suitable for wildlife and sports photography.
Full review
Having recently reviewed the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/4G ED VR, we were keen to look at its larger, faster, professionally-orientated sibling, the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, which is a second-generation version of Nikon’s first fast stabilised tele-zoom that introduces improvements to both optical design and stabilisation. A full f-stop faster than the f/4 lens, this lens is also designed for FX ‘full frame’ cameras and covers the same 2.9x zoom range. It’s been in Nikon’s line-up since June 2009.
The AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, shown without the supplied lens hood. (Source: Nikon.)
The optical design of this lens is relatively complex, with 21 elements in 16 groups. Among them are seven ED (extra low-dispersion) glass elements. There are 32 air/glass-surfaces so Nikon’s Nano-Crystal coatings are applied to some elements to minimise ghosting and flare.
The optical design of the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f f/2.8G ED VR II lens. (Source: Nikon.)
This lens is fitted with Nikon’s second-generation VR II stabilisation system, which claims to provide up to four f-stops of compensation. Two stabilisation modes are available: a normal mode for general use when the camera is on a stable platform and an active mode to compensate for the more substantial and unpredictable shaking encountered when shooting from a moving vehicle.
The AF-S autofocusing system indicates the lens has a built-in focus drive motor that is fast and reliable and doesn’t rotate the front element. It also supports manual focus over-ride in AF mode.
Being a G-type lens, this lens lacks an aperture ring, requiring aperture settings to be adjusted from the camera body. Supplied accessories include front and rear end caps, a petal-shaped bayonet lens hood (HB-48), a detachable tripod mount and a flexible carrying pouch (CL-M4).
Who’s it For?
The size and weight of this lens make it a better partner for Nikon’s FX cameras than DX camera bodies. Essentially, this is a large and relatively heavy lens for its focal length range and will be better paired with larger, professional camera bodies, such as the D4, D300(s/x), D800 and D3 series. We found it slightly unbalanced on the D610 body we used for our tests.
Being substantially heavier than Nikon’s consumer lenses, this lens is unlikely to be a popular travelling companion or find its way into many hikers’ backpacks. You need strong wrists and arm muscles to shoot with it hand-held for any length of time. Overall, this lens is best used on a tripod or monopod, for which it has obviously been designed.
Sports and wildlife photographers (birders in particular) will welcome the fast maximum aperture, which is constant throughout the zoom range. They will also appreciate the effective VR stabilisation, which provides a generous amount of shake compensation. Landscape photographers may also find that extra stop’s advantage useful, since much of the best light occurs around dawn and dusk when a stop can make a difference between having to adjust sensitivity upwards or tolerating a longer exposure.
The closest focusing distance is 1.4 metres, which applies across the zoom range but provides a relatively small magnification ratio. It’s only just adequate at longer focal lengths for shooting close-ups of larger flowers and other subjects. Macro photographers should look elsewhere.
Build and Ergonomics
Although it retains much the same layout, the new lens is slightly shorter and heavier than its predecessor and doesn’t include the AF-stop buttons at the front of the barrel. It’s also almost double the weight of the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/4G ED VR we reviewed recently.
As expected from a professional standard lens, the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II is very well built with most components manufactured from metal alloy. Where plastic is used, it is of high quality and the lens has a weather sealed metal mounting plate to exclude moisture when it’s fitted to a pro camera body. The lens carries a ‘Made in Japan’ label.
Both focusing and zooming are internal, which means the length of the lens remains constant and the front element does not rotate when focal length and/or focus are adjusted. There appears to be little or no movement of the rear elements during zooming.
The front element is flat and sits roughly 60 mm back from the front of the lens. The filter ring on its inner edge accepts standard 77 mm diameter attachments. Behind it is a grip band made from a finely-ribbed rubber-like material. It doesn’t move and seems to have no useful function. It’s also easy to mistake this ring for the focusing ring when you’re trying to locate the latter by feel, so it’s more of a hindrance than a real benefit.
The focusing ring is located approximately 35 mm behind the front of the lens. It’s about 33 mm wide and most of its surface is covered by a ribbed rubberised grip band. Like all modern Nikkors, autofocusing is driven by a Silent Wave (ultrasonic) motor, which is very fast and near-silent in operation and supports manual focus override at any time.
In manual focusing mode, this ring can be turned through about 130 degrees, although it doesn’t rotate in autofocus mode. Focusing is internal. Full-time manual over-ride provides scope for fine-tuning focus when the slider is at the A/M or M/A positions. The difference between them is that the A/M setting makes the lens less sensitive to accidental re-adjustment.
Behind the focusing ring is a small inset distance scale marked in metres and feet from the closest focus of 1.4 metres to infinity. The zoom ring is located just behind these controls. It’s about 33 mm wide and has a 22 mm wide grip band clad with a rubber-like material that has thicker and deeper ridges than the focusing ring.
The trailing edge of the zoom carried indicators for the 70mm, 85mm, 105mm, 135mm and 200mm focal lengths, These are lined up against a white dot on the fixed section of the lens barrel, which carries the main controls. The zoom ring rotates through about 80 degrees as you move between the 70mm and 200mm positions.
On the left hand side of the lens barrel in this section are four sliders. The top one is for switching between auto and manual focus. Below it is the focus limiter with positions for Full and five metres to infinity, which can help to minimise hunting if the AF system struggles to lock onto distant subjects. Further down is a slider that switches the VR (Vibration Reduction) stabiliser on and off. The final slider lets users choose between the Normal mode, which includes automatic panning detection, and Active stabilisation, which corrects for all movements.
The two modes work as follows: in the Normal mode, two of the detectors are switched off. Which two depends on the orientation of the camera; hence the automatic panning detection. Vertical shake is always removed when the camera is moved in a horizontal direction.
In Active mode, all four detectors are engaged and stabilisation is provided for all directions. This is the mode to choose when you’re shooting from a moving vehicle. But it shouldn’t be used when the camera is being panned.
The tripod collar is positioned just behind the control panel. It’s just under 40 mm wide and steps down a little before ending in the lens mount. While the collar can’t be removed from the camera, it can be rotated and has a large locking screw to hold it in position when the camera is orientated as required.
The tripod mount includes a detachable foot that slides off when you release the locking screw on the side of the mount and press the release button. The foot can be left in place on a tripod or monopod and has two screw sockets for anti-twist plates. The lens is fitted by simply sliding it into the mounting and locking it into position. An additional socket is provided on the lens itself.
Behind the tripod collar is a 25 mm section of the barrel that is narrower than the main barrel and carries a white reference dot for mounting the lens on a camera. The supplied lens hood is petal-shaped and not particularly effective. Although easy to fit and remove (thanks to a press-in catch), it can’t prevent the ingress of off-axis light, which can produce some loss of contrast. A cylindrical hood would have been preferable.
Nikon claims AF is possible with this lens with all current teleconverters. However, we were unable to test this claim.
Performance
The review lens felt reasonably comfortable on the D610 body we used for our tests but would probably be better suited to heavier Nikon bodies. Its weight alone would make it unbalanced on lighter DX cameras.
The focusing and zoom rings on the review lens operated very smoothly and were properly damped. Zooming was consistently smooth across the focal length range. Thanks to the ultrasonic Silent Wave Motor, autofocusing was fast although, unlike the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/4G ED VR lens, not completely silent, making this lens less suitable for use when shooting movies. (The stabiliser can also produce a low-level humming that is recorded on movie soundtracks.)
We found the claimed four-stops of shake correction was somewhat over-generous in practice. In our tests, a more realistic figure would be two to three stops, depending on how many shots in a sequence were required to be pin-sharp. The slowest shutter speed we were able to use with the 200mm focal length was 1/20 second; but roughly 20% of shots taken were acceptably sharp out of a sequence of 20 exposures captured in the single-shot drive mode.
The review lens turned in a sterling performance in our Imatest tests, which showed it to be a good match for the D610’s 24-megapixel sensor, where it exceeded expectations for the sensor’s resolution (no mean feat). The highest resolution was obtained with the 85mm focal length at f/4.
Some softening was evident at wider aperture settings but centre resolution was excellent at all focal lengths until diffraction cut in at around f/11. The graph below shows the results of our Imatest tests, which are based upon JPEG files from the D610.
Lateral chromatic aberration was negligible at all aperture and focal length settings, probably as a result of automatic in-camera corrections, which can’t be switched off. This issue is relatively minor as lateral CA is easily corrected in most editing software if it’s not eliminated in the camera itself.
Distortion was typical of medium-range zoom lenses, with a small amount of barrel distortion at 70mm, which changed abruptly to slight pincushion distortion between 85mm and 105mm. It’s unlikely to be problematic for most subjects and easily corrected at the editing stage.
Vignetting was most noticeable at 200mm, although slight corner darkening could be seen at shorter focal lengths at f/2.8. Stopping down to f/3.2 made it almost undetectable so it shouldn’t be an issue for most potential users.
Backlit subjects were handled very well in the main, in part because of the effectiveness of Nikon’s Active D-Lighting processing, which is provided in all DSLRs. However, it was possible to force the lens to flare by including a bright light source in the shot ““ even at the very edge of the frame when the lens hood was in place. Veiling flare, though present, was modest in most shots.
Bokeh (the quality of out-of-focus blurring) is an important characteristic of fast lenses, due to their greater ability to separate the subject from the background. At the 200mm focal length we found bokeh to be very smooth and the nine-bladed aperture diaphragm produced circular highlights with no obvious outlining or fringing.
Some reviewers have commented on the tendency of this lens to suffer from ‘focus breathing’ when the angle of view covered at the minimum focusing distance is greater than you would expect at the indicated focal length. For close focusing at 200mm the consensus brings the effective focal length closer to about 134mm, which means you lose just under 30% of the focal length a normal 200mm lens should provide. Nothing is lost at the 70mm end of the zoom range.
Whether this will be an issue for you depends on your shooting style and the types of subjects you photograph. If you’re into close-ups and really need a 200mm focal length this lens may not be ideal. For general usage, particularly if you favour other focal lengths, focus breathing shouldn’t present many problems, although you should be aware of it and adapt your technique and expectations accordingly.
Conclusion
The AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II is a good performer that will comfortably meet the needs of photographers who require that constant, fast f/2.8 maximum aperture. Its size, build quality and performance make it a good partner for professional cameras like the D4 and D3s/x.
Although the lower end of the focal length range is suitable for portraiture and the f/2.8 maximum aperture will make selective focusing easy, its size and bulk could make this lens a bit too intimidating to be an ideal portrait lens. At the other end of the scale, the 200mm focal length on an FX body is a bit too short for most wildlife photography or covering outdoor sporting events.
For indoor sports, the zoom range would be eminently suitable and the constant f/2.8 maximum aperture would be a decided advantage. Whichever purpose it’s used for, although it’s possible to hand-hold this lens, after a while it becomes very tiring, so a tripod (or monopod) will probably need to become part of your kit.
The weight of this lens will make it unbalanced on Nikon’s lighter DX bodies, although it could be suitable for larger, more substantial cameras, like the D300s. The 1.5x crop factor can be beneficial here, providing an effective focal length gain that pushes the maximum focal length up to 300mm (35mm equivalent), which is suitable for wildlife and sports photography.
SPECS
Picture angle: 34.2 to 12.2 degrees on FX bodies; 22.5 to 8 degrees on DX bodies
Minimum aperture: f/22
Lens construction: 21 elements/16 groups (including 7 ED glass elements, and 1 Nano Crystal Coat)
Lens mounts: Nikon F
Diaphragm Blades: 9 (circular aperture)
Focus drive: Silent Wave Motor
Stabilisation: VR (Vibration Reduction) with up to 4 EV compensation
Minimum focus: 1.4 metres at all zoom positions
Maximum magnification: Approx. 0.12x (1:8.33)
Filter size: 77 mm
Dimensions (Diameter x L): Approx. 87 x 205.5 mm (distance from camera lens mount flange)
Weight: Approx. 1530 grams
Supplied accessories: Nikon HB-48 (bayonet mount with lock), front and end caps, Flexible Lens Pouch CL-M4
TESTS
Based on JPEG files from the Nikon D610 camera.
SAMPLES
All images shot with the lens on the Nikon D610 body.
Vignetting at f/2.8, 70mm focal length.
Vignetting at f/2.8, 105mm focal length.
Vignetting at f/2.8, 200mm focal length.
Rectilinear distortion at 70mm.
Rectilinear distortion at 105mm.
Rectilinear distortion at 200mm.
70mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/800 second at f/7.1.
200mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/400 second at f/7.1.
Dynamic range with Active D-Lighting on Auto; 200mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/1250 second at f/6.3.
Close-up at 200mm focal length; ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/2.8.
Flare; 70mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/2000 second at f/7.1.
Stabilisation test; 200mm focal length, ISO 6400, 1/20 second at f/2.8.
Close-up at 200mm focal length; ISO 400, 1/320 second at f/3.2.
Bokeh at f2.8; 200mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/500 second.
195mm focal length, ISO Lo 1, 1/500 second at f/8.
70mm focal length, ISO Lo 1, 1/500 second at f/9.
200mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/640 second at f/11.
200mm focal length, ISO 160, 1/1000 second at f/5.6.
200mm focal length with DX crop, ISO 200, 1/200 second at f/10.
200mm focal length with DX crop, ISO 200, 1/1000 second at f/4.
200mm focal length with DX crop, ISO 400, 1/800 second at f/3.5.
200mm focal length with DX crop, ISO 400, 1/500 second at f/9.
200mm focal length with DX crop, ISO 400, 1/1600 second at f/5.
Rating
RRP: n/a ASP: AU$2599; US$2399.95
- Build: 9.0
- Handling: 8.5
- Image quality: 9.0
- Versatility: 8.5