The Memory Recall position slams the lens to the focus distance memorized when you pressed the Memory Set button. This is reminiscent of the little adjustable detents on AF is fast; faster than you'd expect if you haven't used any serious professional Nikon lenses before.

The Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR is the largest of Nikon's pro AF-S zooms in 2008, which includes the 14-24mm f/2.8, 17-35mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 VR. At long distances, the atmospheric seeing conditions are your limitation. Just ask any astronomer, sniper or anyone with a high-powered scope. On a DX camera, it gives angles of view similar to what a 300-600mm lens gives when used on an FX or 35mm camera.First impressions were ... this lens seems huge, especially when the long lens hood is attached. This impression is fuelled by the very large carry case it comes in. Probably the most impressively constructed lens case I've ever seen with oodles of protective padding ... but why oh why didn't Nikon create enough room to carry the lens with a D2 body attached!? Just a few more inches of latitude and it would have been a perfect fit ... a seriously missed opportunity Nikon, shame on you. If you need to crank form one end of the range to the other, it will be faster to let the AF system do it for you.

Nikon 200-400mm f/4 G VR II ED N AF-S (52mm drop-in filters, 118.5 oz. / 3,360g / 7.4 pounds). enlarge. Incidentally, glare was not a problem, and I think I can agree with some, the nano-coating may be unnecessary. This top end lens from Nikon is another that looks like it requires a pilot’s licence to operate it! Bristling with knobs, buttons and switches, it takes a long study just to see them all. But are they of any use? We take a look. If you can get the original version on close-out, you just got yourself a bargain, because this new lens is the same thing. However, if your main subjects for shooting are small birds then you may find yourself slightly limited unless your prepared to put in more ground work for getting closer to your subjects undetected. Whilst I find the optics with a TC usable, some may not like the results. So if your only going to buy one lens and it’s a choice between this with lots of TC use or a 500 or 600/4 I’d go with the prime lens. And of course it IS heavy and I think that is one of the main things you need to take in to account when your thinking about buying one of these, especially if your not used to bigger glass and are stepping up from 70-200 sized lenses.

By the time 2007 rolled around and the D3 and D300 came out with autofocus fine tuning, I thought that I might find the answer to my issues there. Well, maybe. I certainly was getting better results most of the time, but I still didn't have a complete handle on what was going on. Fast forward through the D700 and to the D3x and still more use of the lens and...well, I'm still going to equivocate a little bit when we get to performance, though I have a much better idea about what's going on. Side note: I’ve used a lot 200-400mm’s now. In my personal case, the newer one was slightly better than my older version. However, I’d say that these were probably near the extremes of sample error. I’ve seen older versions that are slightly better than the newer ones, and vice versa.

You can create one much cheaper then the RRS versions by using pieces from Desmond and Sunwayphoto. My final observed difference isn't really so much a difference between the older and newer models, but between older and newer teleconverters. Simply put, I was very surprised at the results with the TC-20E III on both the old and new version of the 200-400mm. I had originally concluded that teleconverters were not a strong point of this lens: the only usable one at the time I originally wrote the review was the TC-14E and that needed to be stopped down a stop to get what I felt were acceptable results.

Nikon 180-400mm f/4E VR vs Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR II

Once the original version is sold-out, by all means get this new -II version. A lot of people buy the 200-400mm and love it. It's multicoated, which Nikon calls Nikon Integrated Coating, and some unspecified number of surfaces have Nikon's new magic Nano-Crystal Coating, which is not needed on this lens and used for marking purposes. Nano-crystal coating is an even more effective replacement for multicoating. Let’s face it, it’s really all about how great the images are at the maximum aperture on lenses like this. I use a dinky Gitzo with my 14-pound 400mm f/2.8 and it works fine. This 200-400mm weighs only half that. Obviously, these aren’t as flat of MTF curves as we have previously seen on Nikon’s prime super telephotos, but considering that we are looking at a zoom lens, this is pretty darn impressive, to say the least.