my brief review of the nikkor 70-200mm vr2
it arrived last friday. I had been saving about 6 months for this lens. 2/3 of the holy trinity is now complete! Note this is laymens review.
Here it is in all its hugeness.
It's perfectly sharp wide open..and pretty good in the corners as well. I didn't even bother to tripod it. 165mm at 2.8 and 1/250s. sooc.
vignetting:
at 200mm wide open
I measure it at about 1 stop from darkest corner to center. 1 stop is generally considered very good and is vast improvement over the 1st 70-200mm.
at 70mm wide open
I measure it at just over 1/2 stop. This is generally considered excellent. You can see corner vs center sharpness in these as well.
Bokeh:
Very pleasing. I don't like it quite as much as the 85mm 1.4 but no complaints. at 200mm it just creams the background as in the last shot.
Focus breathing:
This lens has a curious effect. Nikon it seems, to achieve the great optical improvements, had to compromise at the minimum focusing distances of the lens. The lens in fact has a max zoom of only 135mm at the min focusing distance of 4.6 feet. Gradually the max zoom increases as the distance to subject increases and by 30 feet or so it is a full 200mm. All zooms do this to some degree but this lens is certainly more pronounced in this effect. I am an event/people photographer. The main question for me was how close of a headshot can I get with this lens on a full frame? Well here it is:
That's plenty for me.
VR2:
I took this at 1/20s hand held wide open at 200mm. focus point over her eye
same but 1/6s. (5 stops better then 1/200mm rule of thumb)
It works.
Autofocus:
series of shots on with d700 at highest fps rate of my kid running straight at me at full speed.
etc etc.
pretty damn good to my eye.
Overall I am very pleased so far.
Here it is in all its hugeness.
It's perfectly sharp wide open..and pretty good in the corners as well. I didn't even bother to tripod it. 165mm at 2.8 and 1/250s. sooc.
vignetting:
at 200mm wide open
I measure it at about 1 stop from darkest corner to center. 1 stop is generally considered very good and is vast improvement over the 1st 70-200mm.
at 70mm wide open
I measure it at just over 1/2 stop. This is generally considered excellent. You can see corner vs center sharpness in these as well.
Bokeh:
Very pleasing. I don't like it quite as much as the 85mm 1.4 but no complaints. at 200mm it just creams the background as in the last shot.
Focus breathing:
This lens has a curious effect. Nikon it seems, to achieve the great optical improvements, had to compromise at the minimum focusing distances of the lens. The lens in fact has a max zoom of only 135mm at the min focusing distance of 4.6 feet. Gradually the max zoom increases as the distance to subject increases and by 30 feet or so it is a full 200mm. All zooms do this to some degree but this lens is certainly more pronounced in this effect. I am an event/people photographer. The main question for me was how close of a headshot can I get with this lens on a full frame? Well here it is:
That's plenty for me.
VR2:
I took this at 1/20s hand held wide open at 200mm. focus point over her eye
same but 1/6s. (5 stops better then 1/200mm rule of thumb)
It works.
Autofocus:
series of shots on with d700 at highest fps rate of my kid running straight at me at full speed.
etc etc.
pretty damn good to my eye.
Overall I am very pleased so far.
D700, D600
14-24 24-70 70-200mm (vr2)
85 and 50 1.4
45 PC and sb910 x2
http://www.danielkimphotography.com
14-24 24-70 70-200mm (vr2)
85 and 50 1.4
45 PC and sb910 x2
http://www.danielkimphotography.com
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Comments
As you know I finally got one about two weeks or so ago...really loving it. Nice to see your review. Nicely done...Cute fam too!
Cheers, tom
Ps: have the TC2EIII on Ship on arrival (Backorder) at Adorama also~ Can't wait!
Thanks for the review.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
I took some photos on a small boat in Zurich at evening with full VRii and was awed at the quality (even with my shaky old hands)
With this and the 14-24 2.8 I also just got, I am ready to go (now if I can get a 24-70VR and the new when it arrives FF D800(900?) I will really be happy
Amazon has it for $2179 Shipped & No Tax.