I think a few quotes from other reviewers to start with will set the scene just beautifully:
- DXO Mark 2013: “[it] has no significant weaknesses and is the best zoom lens you can mount on a Nikon Full Frame body. If your photography demands a medium telephoto zoom with a fast maximum aperture that will deliver across the board, but particularly at 200mm, and your budget holds no bounds, go get yourself a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G ED VR II. It’s one hell of a lens.”
- Ken Rockwell: “I hate this lens because it is so good than now I want to buy one. I borrowed one to test, and it turned out so subtly excellent that it surprised me.”
- DP review 2009, gold award: “Overall, though, it’s impossible to conclude anything other than that the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 G VR II is one of the most accomplished lenses of its type, and a perfect companion to Nikon’s top-end bodies such as the D3S and D3X. It’s an equally accomplished performer on both DX and FX that will satisfy the most demanding of photographers.”
Despite this lens certainly not getting any younger (production started back in 2009) it still today is a great lens, and as far as I know, still in production.
Price
I bought my lens for 900 EUR used (2020), and it came in good condition. Even though prices fluctuate over time, it is a rather expensive lens also used, but certainly much more within reach than the original list price of 2400 USD in 2009.
Build and layout
The full frame 70-200mm lens is packed with features:
- ED: glass to control Chromatic Aberrations
- AF-S: Built in auto focus motor, that also works on ML with FTZ adaptors plus on entry level Nikon cameras (!)
- VR: Vibration Reduction so you can get more keepers with slower shutter speeds
- 1:2.8G: Constant fast aperture at f/2.8 throughout the focal range
- IF: Internal focus, makes focus faster and allows filters to be mounted on the lens
You will have to accept a pretty high weight at 1.5 kilos, it takes Ø77 mm filters and you won’t be able to go closer to your subject than 1.4 meters.
The focal range from 70-200 makes lenses like this one a workhorse for portrait photographers, sports, some wildlife, photo journalists and wedding photographers. It is simply a super important range for many pros, and hence a lens that major lens manufacturers work very hard to get it absolutely right.
The lens features the golden ring that we know from pro grade glass from Nikon, but the jury is still out as to what exactly the gold ring signifies. Some think it is the ED glass, others that it is the weather sealing and yet others that it is pro grade glass. No matter what the right answer is, the lens is built very solid in most metal and some rubber (focus ring and zoom). And a bit seldom in this day and age, it is made in Japan (at least my copy is!).
All in all, you get the impression from handling this lens that it is built for professional use and designed to withstand a lot of beating from daily use in all kinds of weather.
Sharpness / contrast
There are many reservations to make before studying an MTF chart, and one of them is that your lens and your camera team up to produce the images, and hence studying a camera agnostic MTF chart may not reveal how your specific camera performs with this lens. And then Nikon does not provide data other than wide open and at the far extremes of this lens (wide and tele respectively), so we cannot see from the MTF chart how it performs in between.
However, as you can see, the red contrast line sits very high in the diagram and the blue sharpness is also impressive for center sharpness at least. Then it drops towards the edges, as is the case for so many other great lenses, but it remains over 0.7 close to 15mm from the center, and I find that impressive.
Just for the fun of it, and because people often tell me that primes are sharper than zooms, I made a little test where I looked at the center and corner sharpness and contrast, to see which one came out on top:
Although the 180mm AF may not be the sharpest lens Nikon has ever produced, it certainly is a good lens and the 70-200mm won the center sharpness stopped down, whereas the prime won when going wide open. Maybe not a surprise, but to me this clearly shows that the lens in review here has very good contrast and sharpness.
Chromatic aberrations
This lens does suffer from chromatic aberrations, but I seldom come across them. In the image above with a high contrast image, the trees top left have a purple line where dark meets white. It is easily removed with the “remove chromatic aberrations” option in Lightroom. You may in stubborn cases need to also work with the manual sliders in Lightroom, but that is even more seldom. So I would not consider CA an issue for this lens.
Flare and ghosts
I shoot a lot into the sun and hence both flare and ghosts often materialize. I find that both flare and ghosts are well controlled with this lens, and often to such extend that even when it is visible in the picture, either I don’t notice it or it is not a disturbing element. Much is still dependent on the lens hood and the photographer’s skills, but this lens gives you all that modern technology has to offer in terms of minimizing flare. I would even argue that if you are a videographer (they love flare!) you may find that flare is too well controlled for your liking!
Focus breathing
This lens suffers from serious focus breathing! The former version of this lens and the successor has much less breathing, as does the f/4 version, so if you are into focus stacking or a videographer, then this could be an issue for you.
Vignetting & distortion
This version of the lens is known to have both vignetting and distortion under very good control and apparently the engineers at Nikon did a really good job here. However, I do see some big shift when I push the profile compensation button in Lightroom, but it is not an issue as such, just interesting to see how big the change is at several apertures. I doubt you will be shooting architecture or other things with this lens where straight lines are important.
Vibration reduction
I don’t have much to say about the vibration reduction other than it works! I have been shooting at 200mm down to 1/80th of a second with no camera shake and it works in a way so I don’t notice it is on. When shooting ICM it is of course turned off!
Sun stars
I am not a big fan of the sun stars this lens produces and it comes down to the 9 rounded blades. The peaks in the sun star as you can see above are split and look messy to me. I much more prefer the sun stars that straight blades gives, but I also understand why Nikon has made the rounded blades, as most users in their target group prefer bokeh over sunstars.
Bokeh
The lens comes with 9 rounded blades that start to get to work as soon as you stop down the lens. I find the bokeh absolutely beautiful and have no complaints whatsoever.
Color rendition
I often get questions why I don’t comment on color rendition or color science when I review lenses and cameras and the answer is that I have seen the eye opening video by Tony Northrup where he documents that most of us are unable to consistently pick our favorite camera in a blind test and that we are influenced by brand loyalty when assessing color rendition and your WB settings are much more important.
So that is why I am hesitant to cover this subject. For this lens I will say that when I put in front of my D4, the pictures and colors it produces are absolutely stunning. If you want to have a closer look, I have a flicker album with these pictures. Link here. There you’ll also find the EXIF information, but please look at the pictures first and foremost.
Auto focus
It is fast and silent. Period. And it is so fast that I do not use the option to limit the AF range from 5 meters and out. Only if you are an extremely nerdy guy like me that likes to shoot lampposts at night will you sometimes experience the AF gives up in low light and you have to switch to manual, but for most normal uses the AF simply just works fast, silent and reliable. As you would expect from a pro grade lens.
Conclusion
My overall conclusion is that this lens probably is as good as it gets when we are talking lenses where the price point is within reach for normal human beings. Is it a perfect lens? No, you can find things that are not perfect for example the focus breathing. But it is a lens where I find that Nikon has made some very good compromises that add up to a very attractive package.
I can fully understand why working Nikon professionals 10 years ago had this lens sitting on their cameras. It is a pleasure to work with. It gets the job done. The vibration reduction just works silently in the background. The auto focus is fast and reliable. It produces great images.
My advice to you is consider if alternatives with more reach or maybe some lighter primes. There are also alternatives in the same range from Sigma and Tamron – or the not so fast f/4 version from Nikon.
This is exactly where I cannot help you, as only you know your personal preferences. This shoe fits my foot well, but that does not mean it will fit your foot well.
Video link
Related reading
Nikon 50mm 1.8 AF-S lens review (G series lens)
Nikon 28-105 f/3.5-4.5 AF-D lens review
Shopping link
Affiliate link to the the 70-200mm at Amazon.
