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Manufacturer Description
Lens-making is an art--Nikon artisans craft Nikkor optics from the finest materials, taking pride in adding their intellect and technique to bring the world's finest lenses to life. They push the leading edge of lens-making in their effort to provide the "glass" that makes the world's greatest pictures.

AF Nikkor lenses work with Nikon SLRs for optimal performance, even the very latest. The Nikon 80-400mm f4.5-5.6D ED AF VR is a compact, lightweight 5x telephoto zoom with Vibration Reduction. VR operation offers the equivalent of using a shutter speed three stops (eight times) faster. VR is automatically detected during panning operation with two modes of VR: Image plane and Viewfinder. VR for the viewfinder is cancelable to conserve battery power. Three ED glass elements ensure superior optical performance and high contrast even at maximum apertures. Filter does not rotate during zooming. The nine-blade rounded diaphragm achieves a natural blur for out-of-focus elements.

ED glass: An essential element of Nikkor telephoto lenses
Nikon developed ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass to enable the production of lenses that offer superior sharpness and color correction by minimizing chromatic aberration. Put simply, chromatic aberration is a type of image and color dispersion that occurs when light rays of varying wavelengths pass through optical glass. In the past, correcting this problem for telephoto lenses required special optical elements that offer anomalous dispersion characteristics--specifically calcium fluoride crystals. However, fluorite easily cracks and is sensitive to temperature changes that can adversely affect focusing by altering the lens' refractive index. So Nikon designers and engineers put their heads together and came up with ED glass, which offers all the benefits and none of the drawbacks of calcium fluorite-based glass. With this innovation, Nikon developed several types of ED glass suitable for various lenses. They deliver stunning sharpness and contrast even at their largest apertures. In this way, Nikkor's ED-series lenses exemplify Nikon's preeminence in lens innovation and performance.

Nikon Super Integrated Coating ensures exceptional performance
To enhance the performance of its optical lens elements, Nikon employs an exclusive multilayer lens coating that helps reduce ghost and flare to a negligible level. Nikon Super Integrated Coating achieves a number of objectives, including minimized reflection in the wider wavelength range and superior color balance and reproduction. Nikon Super Integrated Coating is especially effective for lenses with a large number of elements, like our Zoom-Nikkors. Also, Nikon's multilayer coating process is tailored to the design of each particular lens. The number of coatings applied to each lens element is carefully calculated to match the lens type and glass used, and also to assure the uniform color balance that characterizes Nikkor lenses. This results in lenses that meet much higher standards than the rest of the industry.

Distance information
D-type and G-type Nikkors relay subject-to-camera distance information to AF Nikon camera bodies. This then makes possible advances like 3D Matrix Metering and 3D Multi-Sensor Balanced Fill-Flash. Note: D-type and G-type Nikkors provide distance information to the following cameras: Auto exposure; F6, F5, F100, F90X, F80, F75, F70, F65, F60, F55, F50, Pronea S, Pronea 600i, D2 series, D1 series, D100 and D70s/D70. Flash control; F6, F5, F100, F90X, F80, F75, F70, D2 series, D1 series, D100, and D70s/D70 cameras.

Vibration Reduction (VR)
This innovative VR system minimizes image blur caused by camera shake and offers the equivalent of shooting at a shutter speed three stops (eight times) faster. It allows handheld shooting at dusk, at night, and even in poorly lit interiors. The lens' VR system also detects automatically when the photographer pans--no special mode is required.

VR operation works with the Nikon F6, F5, F100, F80, F75, F65, D2-series, D1-series, D100, D70-series, and D50 cameras.

What's in the Box:
Lens, 77mm snap-on front lens cap, rear lens cap LF-1, bayonet hood HB-26, soft pouch CL-M1.

Customer Reviews

Great Lens and Superior Performance
This lens exceeded my high expectations! I read all of the reviews here and did extensive research before I paid this amount of money for the lens. The first thing I was worried about was the reports of slow focus because of the older auto focus in lens gear system. I use this lens on a D300, and though it is slower than an AI-s, I find it much faster than previous users mentioned. (This could be due to the camera, as I have read that on the newer models it does focus faster than the older models?) The lens focus is perfect in my pictures of lighthouses, sailboats and scenery. Admittedly I have not used it for fast action, and it may not be the best for that, but it is not what I bought the lens for. Most of my pictures are of my travels. It is heavy, without a doubt, but it is such a versatile lens for DX. It is a digital equivalent 120mm to 600mm that I can hand hold for sharp pictures even at 600mm. A trick I use with the D300 is to set my ISO with a low of 200 and a high of 3200 with the lowest shutter speed of 125 so with VR if I can take the picture and do my part, it will be sharp. It is a lot of money, but I think well worth it to be able to reach out that far.

80-400...a lot of lens for the money
I bought this lens locally about five months ago and have used it extensively on both a D80 and a D300. I've been amazed at the overall sharpness, color and contrast delivered by this lens. At $1400-1500 it isn't cheap, but compare it to other options in the Nikon line-up that will get you to 400mm of reach, and you'll soon see that, relatively speaking, it is literally cheap!

Build quality is excellent. It's "older" technology, so it is a bit slower focusing, and a bit noisier than wsm lenses. I find that on the D80 it hunts for focus a bit more; the D300 handles the lens better, getting to focus sooner and more surely. Still, the D80 is perfectly capable of turning out great results with this lens, so you certainly don't "need" a D300 to use the 80-400.

Downside, other than slower focus, would be weight...it's a lot of lens to carry around, though you'll be tempted to do so because of the great shots it takes. I'm more into wildlife and landscapes, but find this lens gives great results when shooting portraits of animals. It might be almost too sharp for great human portraits. Bokeh is very nice at lower f/stops.

If you have the wherewithal to buy the long primes, then you probably aren't interested in this lens, but if you want a Nikon product, and want to get 400 mm of reach on a smaller budget, this is the way to go. You'll be amazed at the shots you get, though you will miss a few because of the slower focus.

One last set of comments. The 80-400 range can be very useful, depending on your type of photography. If you're photographing birds at a feeder from a blind, you know that a blue jay can be unexpectedly large in your viewfinder when you've been shooting chickadees! A quick turn of the collar, and you've backed off of 400 down to 280 very quickly; then when that squirrel comes in, another quick turn and you're at 80 mm.

I've not found a "weak spot" in the range of this lens. Photos are sharp and contrasty if you do your part. The lens isn't "fast"...so if you need f/2.8 a lot, you'll be disappointed. Otherwise, it's an excellent performer.

Buy it and enjoy it
I have had this lens for 1 month now and have probably shot 1500-2000 images. I use it on a D80 and shoot mainly birds, butterflies,and nature (BunnHillPhoto on flickr for recent shots). It is a great walkingaround lens; it is not for sports or rapidly moving objects (though with practice you can get sharp images of birds in flight). The sharpness of this lens is incredible throughout the range. VR really works. I have shot handheld at about 1/100 of a second at 400mm and the image is still quite sharp. I removed the tripod collar, and the resulting weight and balance on the D80 are superb. The AF is slow and tends to hunt sometimes and I wish it would focus a little closer than the specified 7.5 feet, but otherwise this is an excellent product and truly worth the investment.