Specifications

Optics

Internal construction (ED elements in yellow). 

21 elements in 16 groups.

7 elements are of ED glass.

Diaphragm Blades

9 rounded.

VR System

VR II, claiming four stops of improvement.

The original 70-200mm VR claimed only 3 stops.

VR works on Nikon F6, F5, F100, N80, N75, N65, D3 series, D700 series, D2 series, D1 series, D3000, D300 series, D200, D100, D90, D80, D70 series, D60, D50 and D40 series.

Close Focus

4.6 feet (1.4m), specified.

4 feet, 2 inches (50" or 4.17 feet or 1.27 meters), measured.

Maximum Reproduction Ratio

1:8.3 (0.12x), not very tight, due to the shrinking actual focal length as you get closer.

Hood

HB-48, included.

HB-48 Hood.

Case

CL-M2, included.

CL-M2 case. 

Size (rated)

3.4" (87mm) diameter.

8.2" (205.5mm) extension from flange.

Nikon originally specified 209mm extension from flange, and added an erratum in the instruction book that it's really only 205.5mm. I don't have a test rig to measure this myself.

Weight (measured)

Lens with tripod foot: 54.055 oz. (1,532.4g), measured by me.

Lens without tripod foot: 51.205 oz. (1,451.7g), as measured by me.

Tripod foot alone: 2.845 oz. (80.7g).

54.3 oz. (1,540 g or 3.4 lb), specified by Nikon.

Falloff (darker corners)   

Falloff isn't a problem with the 70-200mm VR II. It is slightly improved over the former 70-200mm VR.

I've greatly exaggerated the falloff below by shooting a blank target and then presenting the images against a gray background.

The only time falloff is visible is at f/2.8 at 200mm, and when you're shooting at those extremes, falloff isn't likely to be a concern.

On DX it's a non-issue, since only the middle of these images is used. (see crop factor).

Nikon 70-200mm VR II falloff on FX at infinity.   f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 70mm 105mm 135mm 200mm © 2009 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.

Flare and Ghosts    

Direct photo of the sun, 70mm, f/16.

Flare and ghosts are not a problem.

This is the worst I could do, with the full daytime sun in the image. The sun is so bright that it has blown-out the entire top left half of the image. It's as if I shot the light of freedom over Hiroshima at 8:16AM on 06 August 1945, and all I got was a dim ghost. You can go blind — or worse — looking at the sun with telephoto lenses like this.

Other settings give much less ghosting. I can't get ghosts with the sun outside of the image.

Focal Lengths, Actual    

At infinity, you get the full 70-200mm focal length range.

Nikon used an optical trick common in wider-range zooms, like the 18-200m VR and Canon's 28-135mm IS, to get extra-close focusing: the actual focal length gets shorter at closer focus distances.

Every full-time pro I interviewed prefers a physically shorter focus distance in exchange for a slightly shortened maximum focal length. Why? A pro usually only carries this lens and a wide zoom. If he's shooting in confined quarters, he may not have five feet between him and his subject.

The few extra inches of close-focus will make the difference between getting the head shot with this tele, or having to use his wide zoom at 35mm instead, which is not a pretty picture.

The pro can always crop to make up the slightly shortened focal length, we have way too many pixels today, but you can't use a shot that's not in focus.

That said, this 70-200mm VR II is the closest focusing f/2.8 tele zoom ever from Nikon, and also the most foreshortened at close focus distances.

At ten feet (three meters) and the 200mm setting, this 70-200mm VR II gives about the same field of view as other 80-200mm zooms set about halfway between their 135mm and 200mm settings.

At 5 feet (1.5 meters), the 200mm setting is similar to only a 135mm lens.

Let's fix a D3 on a tripod, and shoot the same subject at ten feet at maximum aperture and the longest zoom setting for each lens. Let's see which has the best bokeh, the softest background, the smallest field of view and the least falloff.

Feel free to click any image to bring you to that lens' own review.

Sharpness     

Of course it's sharp. It's a $2,400 Nikon lens for goodness' sake. Every other Nikon f/2.8 tele zoom made since 1982 is also almost as sharp.

If you can't get sharp photos with this lens, you are a sad excuse for a photographer.

It's wonderfully sharp, not that pros worry that much. If you worry yourself about this, you're probably new to the hobby.

That said, the sample I borrowed was a little softer on the right side and perfectly sharp on the left. This is normal production variation; if you can't handle it, shoot fixed manual-focus lenses like LEICA or Zeiss ZF. Zooms don't give uniformly perfect corner-to-corner sharpness until they hit at least the $10,000 - $25,000 mark.

This 70-200mm VR II is sharper in the corners at 200mm than the old 70-200mm VR.

This 70-200mm VR II is also slightly sharper than the previous gold standard, the 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-S (1999-2004), which fetched high used prices because it was slightly sharper than the previous 70-200mm f/2.8 VR (2003-2009). It looks like it's time to sell my 80-200mm AFS while I still can.

This new 70-200mm VR II is a super-sharp lens at every aperture and focal length. I just can't make a soft picture with it. It's much better than Nikon's crummier lenses, but honestly, for normal photos in the hands of a skilled photographer, even the awful plastic Chinese 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6D makes extraordinary photos. It's the man; not his tools.

Nikon's claimed MTF at 70mm.

Nikon's claimed MTF at 200mm.

VR Measurements   

Vibration Reduction (VR) is superb.

The Nikon 70-200mm VR II gives me three real stops of improvement over what my already steady hands give me.

I can get perfectly sharp shots at 1/8 of a second or slower at every focal length, and these are shooting free-standing, with no bracing any part of my body on anything.

By "sharp shots" I mean perfect tripod-equivalent sharpness when viewed at 100%, as shot on a D3. For most uses, one can use even slower speeds. 

VR OFF

VR ON

Lowest speeds for perfectly sharp shots 50% of the time

"Real Stops" are how many extra stops I get over shooting without VR.

"Marketing stops" is the improvement over the old-wives' tale of 1/focal length as a lower speed limit.

Hint: VR improves your hit ratio. It doesn't guarantee that every shot will be sharp. I always shoot at least three-shot bursts at slow speeds so I can pick the sharp shot out of several when shooting handheld at really slow speeds.

Zooming   

Nikon 70-200mm VR II zoom ring.

The zoom ring is wonderful. Everything is spaced perfectly to allow fast and precise setting of any focal length.

When a bomb goes off next to you, you can flick it to one end immediately as you instinctively turn and fire to nail the perfect shot.

For landscape shooters, it's precise enough to allow perfect framing at every focal length. Nothing is too spread out or too crowded. It seems like a perfect logarithmic curve.