Another good Nikon lens

Author's Rating:

Pros: VR, image quality, cost compared to faster lenses or bigger zooms.

Cons: f/5.6 at 300mm is limiting.

The Bottom Line: 
One of the best options for a first lens, if you need the reach.

Author's Review
I have this lens attached to a Nikon D80. The lens is by far, my most used lens and I have been very happy with it. I'll try to point out the pluses and minuses in some kind of logical order.

Good:

Picture quality with this lens is excellent. The lens is very sharp, even wide open, and even at 300mm, with very little distortion at either end. Keep in mind, I'm not saying it's as sharp as some of the best prime lenses, but overall quality is excellent. Color and contrast are both excellent. Some say the lens is especially bad at f/5.6 or at 300mm, but I don't find this to be the case at all. I think part of the problem is that people are getting not so sharp pictures because of subjection motion/too slow a shutter speed, poor focus (focusing behind or in front of the subject), or small depth of field. I've noticed that in many cases f/8 is seemingly sharper, only because of the increased depth of field. If you try to use ISO 100 with this slow a lens, and shoot 300mm at 1/10s, you are going to have problems. The VR can only do so much, and it can't freeze your subject.

Quality of the glass is very good. Unless you point the lens into the sun, you are unlikely to see any flare, and chromatic aberration is kept well under control.

Depending on how you look at it, cost is probably a plus. The lens is much cheaper than the next step up, which would be the 400mm zoom that runs well over $1000, but quite a bit more than the same lens without VR. The VR is worth every penny...see below.

The VR is amazing. In most cases you can get a full 3-4 stops improvement. This is a new and improved VR compared to what the Nikon 400mm zoom has. I can consistently get good shots with 1/60s shutter speeds at 300mm (450mm effective focal length on the D80). That's just absolutely amazing. In my opinion, no matter what else is said about this lens, the performance of the VR makes it worth the money. A side benefit of the lens based VR is that it will actually freeze the image in your viewfinder. When the VR kicks in, the image freezes in the viewfinder, making manual focus much easier, and all around just giving you a better idea of what you are photographing.

Focusing really is very quiet, compared to lenses without the silent wave motor.

Bad:

If you already have a 200mm zoom, this probably won't seem like a lot of extra reach, and if you have a 400mm zoom, you don't need this.

Many mention the poor construction of this lens. I wouldn't go that far. The lens is a bit "plasticy" but it still feels very solid and performs great. I've banged the lens many times and have not had any problems. The zoom and focus rings are solid and work well, even though they don't have the silky smooth feel of more expensive lenses. The glass quality seems excellent and that's most important. The lens looks great, without being flashy.

The lens is slow at 300mm (f/5.6). VR will help with camera shake, but it doesn't help with freezing subject motion. I often have to use ISO 800, with this lens, or shoot at much slower shutter speeds than I would like. Unless you are going to be shooting in bright sunlight, you aren't going to go much lower than ISO 400 with this lens.

Because of the aperture, the lens can have trouble focusing in low light. This is a weakness of any f/5.6 lens so don't read too much into it. Also, I use this lens a lot for photographic birds, which is probably one of the most difficult tests for a lens. All lenses I have used have trouble with less than ideal light and a common scenes like a bird in brush, where it's difficult to quickly decide between the subject and everything else in front and in back of it.

VR makes some noises, and draws more power from the camera battery. These are minor issues, but worth mentioning. Your battery life is definitely not going to be as good with a VR lens as without. The noise sounds like something being locked into place, and is fine, other than the fact that wildlife can pick it up pretty easily.