Nikon 70-300 mm f/4-5.6G Zoom Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras

Great telephoto lens.

Quite often people dismiss cheap lenses (under $200). While there are certainly bad lenses in this price range, there are often lenses that are surprisingly good. Many of these are Nikon's cheaper consumer lenses. I bought this lens for use on my Nikon D700 and D40 until I get around to buy a nicer telephoto, which would cost significantly more. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but I have been pleasantly surprised with the quality of the pictures for the price. The sharpness and colors are significantly better than another Cheap lens at 70-210mm (can't remember the brand, it was an off-brand). There are a few drawbacks to this lens, of course. This lens does auto-focus on cameras with AF and G capability, but must be manually focused on cameras that do not. This includes some other 35mm SLRs as well as Nikon's newer consumer SLRs that don't contain a focusing motor. These cameras would include the D40, D40x, D60, D3000, D3100, and D5000. I own a D40 and can use this lens on it, but have to focus manually. You also can't adjust the aperture on old manual-focus cameras. There is also no image stabilization, therefore to take consistent sharp images in low light you need to use a fast shutter speed, which may not always be easy to do. This isn't the fastest lens either, starting at f/4 at 70mm and f/5.6 at 300mm. Because of both of these omissions this lens works best in good light unless you have a camera that performs well at higher-ISO settings or you have a flash that can compensate. I've also noticed that the autofocus is a bit slow, as well as loud. It's not as bad when the focus adjustments are small however, making it usually fine for tracking moving subjects, it just becomes inconvenient if for example you are tracking a soccer player and at some point accidently focus on the background and have to go back. The final drawback I noticed is there seems to be a little bit of distortion and softness as you reach 300, but it's acceptable considering the price of this lens. Overall this is a great deal. There are some conveniences and frills that are left out, as mentioned above, but considering this is only $130 I feel you can't go wrong. If you don't have a telephoto for your Nikon and considering this because you don't want to spend $500+, buy this. It's worlds better than nothing. Just keep in mind that the autofocus will not work if you have a D40/40x/60/3000/3100/5000.

I purchased this lens to attempt to get photos of my kids while participating in sports that I cannot get with my largest zoom lens (18-105mm). The rest of my lenses are portrait and wide angle lenses and don't help in getting up close to subjects at a distance. My expectations on this lens was low after reading all the reviews, but I kept in mind that this lens is only $160.00. I used a Nikon D90 with this lens. So far the results are ok, meaning the sharpness is not there that I would expect in my 50mm lens for example. Many times I found it necessary to switch to manual focus, especially when over 250mm as it keeps "searching" for something to focus on. When I used manual focus, the results seemed better than when on auto focus, as well as being able to take more photos per second as the camera is not trying to focus. All in all I am pleased with the shots I am able to get as I could not get any like this before. Processing the photos in Lightroom on Photoshop helps out tremendously and you get a much better photo than you start out with "out of the camera". And yes the camera loves light and in low light the results are not near as good as when in full sunlight. All in all, I"m happy with the lens, although I would love to get a higher end zoom lens, but cannot justify that cost right now, thus this lens is a good compromise.

Honestly, I dunno what I'm doing, so I also purchased the dummies book. Anyway, where I live, there's a lot of private planes that fly over and when I take a picture with my standard 18-55 lens, I can see the design on the planes pretty good. I started to wonder if I could see the people in it too with a longer lens so I bought this. I tried to snap one of the planes, and the angles sucked, so I couldn't see the people, however I was able to see great detail on the planes.. numbers and letters even! I decided to get serious and tried to take some real photos. This lens is AWESOME! Everything I took a picture of looked like it came from a magazine. I took a picture of a monarch butterfly up close. Did you know some have blue on it?? Until I used this lens, I didn't! The only thing that's difficult about this lens is that it's manual focus. To get a great shot, I can't focus fast enough and I ended up getting a picture of a super clear blade of grass and a blurry bee. :( (I'd be aiming for the bee). Also, when I THINK I have a clear shot, it turns out I don't. I've gotten better at it, so it's definitely an issue on my part, not the lens. I recommend it!

It is a good lens and picture quality is great off a tripod. Not sure if image stabilization is even mentioned in the selling points so I will skip that. I checked before I bought with one of the compatibility sites and it said auto focus would work on my camera. It does not. Heck, I'm not even sure if it has an auto focus available, my other lens has settings for manual and auto, this does not. Is it a good lens,yes and worth the money. But not as presented in sales literature. Not disappointed with the lens, just the way it was sold, misleading.

So you are looking for a good lens? You want something that will take great pictures, but you don't want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars? Well this is the lens for you! I have used several 70-200, 70-255 and 70-300 mm lenses in stores which considering them and the answer is simple: You can't beat a Nikkor lens. This lens has excellent clarity and optics. I am the director of the Nicholas Copernicus Observatory at the University of Miami and I have extensive expierence in optics. I can tell you, without a doubt, that you wont find a better lens than this for twice the price. I have only bought Nikon cameras and lenses, but I get plenty of chances to use other ones at the observatory as different people bring their equipment to learn how to use it better. No matter how many cameras I use, I still recommend Nikon above all else. I presently use this lens with a Nikon D70s camera. There is a more expensive version available, the Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6D AF Nikkor SLR Camera Lens, which has superior optics. I highly recomend that lens if you are a professional who needs perfect clarity on sunny days for nature photography at the 300mm length. If you are an amateur or even a semi-professional, if you use this in lower light, or if you are using the shorter length most of the time, save the $200 price difference and save it toward another lens!

Another excellent budget lens!! If you are not sure about this because of its lack of VR (Vibration Reduction) theres only a few things you need to be aware of to make this lens and excellent addition to your kit! First, with a tripod and a remote shutter release (which Ive invested less than the cost of this lens into) you can get wonderful night photos, second, for daylight shooting this lens is absolutely fantastic at higher shutter speeds, and can even dip as low as 1/80 if you have steady hands or are anchoring yourself for a low angle shot, the effective zoom on a crop sensor nikon is roughly 105-400mm , which wjen paired with a crop sensor camera (My D90 for example, or one of the 3000 series cameras or more) will give some really crisp, wonderful zoom for some fantastic daylight shots. The packaging was nice and sturdy and there wasnt a ton of extra packing stuff which was nice. Open box, connect to camera, get to shooting! I will add that I purchased this lens specifically for a music festival I was shooting for a local contemporary art museum and the results were absolutely fantastic! The long zoom on this lens allowed me to capture intimate, happy crowd moments without having to jump up and invade peoples personal space, giving everything a much more natural feel to it. For the most part, this lens hasnt left my camera since It arrived for that festival last month, and not an ounce of me regrets purchasing it!

This lens was the perfect add on for the d70s kit. I got this for my girlfriend for a birthday present, and she has loved her camera even more since receiving it. It has allowed her to take several shots that were impossible without a zoom (animals, etc) and allows her to take people photos without being distracting to the subject. It has a really low weight (slightly less than the dx non-telephoto lens that comes with the D70s) and is well designed for quick focus. One thing to note about this lens - it does not use the same size lens cap that the dx lens does - just thought that was odd. This is definitely not the best telephoto lens on the market, but its got to be the best for price to performance ratio. Do not buy a d70, d70s, or d50 without one! Now if I could just find a good CHEAP wide angle for a nikon d-slr I'd be all set for Christmas.

Me gusto mucho el zoom que puedes hacer con este lente, sin embargo no supe si funciona o no con el autoenfoque, lo tuve que hacer manual con muy buenos resultados, por el precio y las fotografías que toma creo que vale la pena.

しっかり望遠できて、見やすくて、遠いもの撮る時とかに最適！

Als Preiswertvariante wollte ich ein Telezoom haben um die 300 mm abdecken zu können. Ausserdem passte das Objektiv zu einem bereits vorhandenen Filterset. Man muss es zu nehmen wissen: es hat keinen Bildstabilisator, d.h. als Fotografierender sollte man immer auf ausreichende Belichtungszeiten achten bzw. auf genügend Licht, damit die Bilder nicht verwackeln. Im Klartext heißt das bei Tageslicht macht es 1A Fotos. Sobald es dämmert, wird's schwierig. Damit kann ich aber bestens leben bei dem Preis. Gerade wenn man sich Objekte näher ranholt, z.B. Hunde oder Menschen, entsteht ein schönes Bokeh. Mit 62mm Makrolinsenset nutze ich es ausserdem für Makroaufnahmen, die echt schön werden! Fazit: mir und meinem Geldbeutel gefällt's!

Good Quality lens with a great zoom, at this price point it's outstanding. Was used with a intro level DSLR, d3100, so i was unable to test the auto focus feature. The manual focus was smooth and i was able to take great quality photos of moving subjects playing sport. I would highly recommend this lens to entry level photographers.

La qualité est bonne. Le rendu au tirage est top. J'ai fait des tirages poster sans problème de qualité avec un Nikon D600.