Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED Vibration Reduction Zoom Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras

Top positive review

An Incredible Lens at an Incredible Price

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2018

I've been researching telephoto zooms here for a while as I was trying to decide which one to get. I narrowed it down to the Tamron 150-600, Sigma 150-600 and this lens the Nikon 200-500. After reading/watching a bunch of reviews and comparisons of the lenses I decided to go with the Nikon, mainly because of it's sharpness throughout all focal lengths but also because of it's incredible VR (Vibration Reduction).

Apart from being a great quality lens it's also affordable. For what you are getting it's a steal! Compared the it's Big Brother the Nikon 500m f4 Prime it's about 9 grand less and produces just about the same amazing quality. The lens itself is fairly new, it was released in 2015 I believe and because of that there isn't a whole of info out there like there is for other lenses. As of writing this review there is still no DXO Mark score which really bothers me, but hopefully they will get it up at some point.

The real beauty of this lens is it's VR, it's Nikons latest generation of Vibration Reduction and it's incredible! It's really quite amazing how low you can drop the shutter speeds. I posted some pics with my review that hopefully help give some ideas as to what to expect with this lens. One of the pics was taken at 1/8th a second at 500mm handheld, that's just insane! Obviously you wouldn't want to be shooting at that speed if you don't have to, I just wanted to test the capabilities. At 1/8th I couldn't land a super tack sharp pic, but scaled down to any reasonable size it then looks totally sharp. In general I was able to land tack sharp images at 1/25h and lower, and 1/100 to 1/300 gave me super sharp images almost every time, even at 500mm focus. The bokeh on this thing is impeccable, blowing out the backgrounds is a snap with this lens. Colors are also deep and saturated with good contrast. Chromatic Aberration isn't a problem either, however I've noticed a very slight hint of CA on a few images, though I am talking about a very minimal amount, if you weren't pixel peeping you would never see it, and even then you might still might miss it.

Focusing isn't as snappy as the 500mm f4 prime, but at 1/10th the cost the focusing works pretty darn good. Once you get used to it and know how much time you need to adjust you will get the hang of controlling the focus properly. The zoom wheel also requires a bit too much turn to go from 200-500, you won't be able to make a full transition in a single hand turn which is a bit of a bummer especially if your starting at 200 and zooming is as your tracking your subject, but again this will improve over time once you practice with it. My only other criticism thus far is the weight. It's definitely light enough to hand hold, but holding it up to track a bird or take a series of pics can get tiresome pretty quickly. However, this too will get better with practice as you build up some muscles.

All in all I would say this is one of the best telephoto zooms to date, if not the best if you take the price into consideration. This is about as good as it gets at this price range, you really won't find a better lens. It's extremely versatile, you can focus close enough to take some macro shots as well (a few included in my review), you can use this lens for tight portraits, candid shots, birding, macro, and even landscapes to a lesser extent.

32 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

John Bragg

A clunky and blurry lens, but a smooth, slow zoom

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2021

I made side-by-side comparisons of the Nikkor 200-500 mm f/5.6 zoom against my 37 year-old Nikkor 400 mm f/3.5 primary lens. For 1:1 comparisons I set the zoom to 400 mm. I shot test images at minimal focus, mid-range, infinity and while panning. I noted problems in focus, lens quality, and feature design.
1) At infinity I could not get a sharp image from the 200-500 in any circumstance. At near end focus, images from both lenses were of comparable sharpness and quality. At mid-range (300mm) sharpness was hit-and-miss with the 200-500. In all side-by-side tests my 400 was returning pin-sharp images.
2) Chromatic aberration was detectable from the viewfinder.
3) The rotation collar operation is clumsy and clunky and interferes with operating the lens. The collar locking screw is undersized and not easy to manipulate, especially while the lens is in use. It's located on the shutter release side of the camera, meaning you need to stop taking pictures in order to reorient the lens. The collar release lockout slot is located too near to the rotation action range, meaning the lens can easily slip beyond the action range and pop out of the collar. This doesn't necessarily present a dropping problem as long as the lens is attached to the camera but it stops you from taking pictures until you fix it. It could also damage the lens or camera bayonet mount. I frequently change from horizontal to vertical frame and back. The rotation collar action includes two nodes, located about 90 degrees apart around the lens barrel, that seem intended for locating the lens in vertical and horizontal alignments, but they are aligned about 10 or 12 degrees off their marks. Not sure what this is about, but it adds to the complexity of changing the frame from vertical to horizontal or back, especially while shooting. All of these problems with the rotation ring alone were enough to deter me from owning this lens.
4) Zoom action is smooth but slow. Whether that's a problem depends on how quickly you need to change focal length.
5) Panning was problematic due to the focusing problems noted above.

Bottom line: I bought this lens hoping to benefit from an autofocus long telephoto. I'll stick to my 400. I can hand-focus far more quickly than this lens can autofocus.

4 people found this helpful

1,267 total ratings, 676 with reviews

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From the United States

Robert Proctor

An Incredible Lens at an Incredible Price

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2018

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

32 people found this helpful

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Robert Schlenker

Image degradation with the TC-14E III teleconverter

Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2016

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

With a Nikon D7100, this lens produces beautiful results at f/5.6 and f/8 and 500mm, the only parameter values at which I have checked it. Color rendition is attractive as is contrast. This lens-camera combination is acceptably quick to reach focus when initially fully defocused but no speed races will be won with it. When the lens begins close to exact focus, focusing is very snappy with the D7100 set as indicated.

When using a 500mm or other long telephoto lens, the photographer often wants to crop the photo to bring out a target of interest that does not fill the frame, a bird for example. A reasonable amount of cropping, say 50% produces attractive results, but as the cropping becomes more extreme, the results become less attractive. This is no surprise. One apparent way around this is to increase the focal length with a Nikon teleconverter such as the TC-14E III. Attached to this lens and mounted on the D7100 the TC-14E III produces an f/8 lens-teleconverter combination which will autofocus with speeds quite like the speeds achieved in the absence of the teleconverter.

The addition of the teleconverter produces some image degradation, which becomes more and more apparent as the crop percentage increases. Again, this is no surprise, but those photographers who wish to crop photos thus produced should keep in mind that the sharpness reduction caused by the teleconverter becomes more and more apparent as the crop percentage increases. Based on photos I have taken of outdoors scenes with and without this teleconverter, I suggest that those who wish to use a high crop percentage, forget the teleconverter and crop images taken with the lens alone rather than cropping images taken with the lens-teleconverter combination.

This seems a bit counterintuitive because the crop percentage needed with the teleconverter in place is significantly less than the crop percentage without it when the target of interest is the same size in both cropped photos. With this lens at 500mm on a D7100 use of a teleconverter degrades photos made from highly cropped images noticeably more than does the more severe cropping used with images made without the teleconverter.
When photographing shy birds in the wild, it is often necessary to shoot from long distances, sometimes hundreds of yards. My own tests were at 400 yards and I conclude that the sharpness of the final photo made from a cropped image will be better without the teleconverter than with it. The majority of wildlife photographers want the greatest possible sharpness in their final cropped images and the way to get it with this lens on a D7100 is to leave the TC-14E III in your camera bag. Inasmuch as the image degradation has nothing to do with the camera, I suspect that similar results would be obtained regardless of the Nikon camera body used with this lens. Not having tested a full frame body I will not speculate unduly on what the degradation would be like with a FX sensor. But I will go so far as to say that the sharpness difference between the lens-teleconverter combination compared with the lens without teleconverter on an FX camera would be less noticeable simply because the DX sensor subtends less of the circle of illumination that the FX sensor does.

42 people found this helpful

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Doug Parrish

Happy so far

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2024

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

So far this has been a great lens. Comparing it to Nikkor 70-300 lens, this lens is heavy. Not sure it’s one I would want to take on a long hike unless carrying it in a backpack. It’s also a huge lens, but for the $$, I’m satisfied so far. I purchased it used and the lens was like new. Using it with a Nikon D3300.

2 people found this helpful

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Sean

A good value for a long telephoto... just understand the limitations.

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2022

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

I purchased this lens during the last sale. I previously owned the Tamron 150-600 (g1) for Nikon F, and a Panasonic 100-300 for micro 4/3rds. I have paired this lens with the Nikon Z7 and so far I am happy with the results. I find the best results when keeping the lens under 450mm. I am still getting used to the combo, but I am pretty happy with the results. You won't get images as sharp as with a $5000 prime lens, and the 5.6 aperture is obviously not as flexible as an f/4 or f/2.8 lens. When using the vr along with the Nikon Z7 ibis, the lens provides a very stable image and can capture sharp still subjects at 1/200 sec at full zoom. Tracking with the Z7 has been a mixed bag... I am still getting used to the Z7 and its various tracking modes, but I think the f5.6 aperture can be a limiting factor.

I would recommend this lens to wildlife shooters working with decent lighting conditions. It probably isn't great for indoor low light sports. It is a big and fairly heavy lens, and may be easier to handle with a monopod. All of the photos I have attached were shot handheld. I have been using the tripod mount as a handle to carry the lens with the camera attached, but you can save a little bit of weight if you remove the mount. The lens has compromises, but is a good value when on sale... 5 stars for value, since I knew the limitations before purchasing.

10 people found this helpful

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Tin Fixture

Great value but some issues

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2016

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

I've owned this lens for about six weeks. I use it on my D7100 body and almost exclusively for birds. I have owned and used on this body the newer Nikon 80-400, the older 300 f4, and various third party telephotos.

Build Quality - 4 stars. The hood is terrible. it fell off and cracked within 90 minutes of use and after taping it together it fell off and broke to the point it wouldn't stay on at all. Nikon was kind enough to send a replacement when one became available. In the meanwhile I bought a screw-on hood which I now use exclusively. Otherwise the lens seems very solid. The tripod mount is improved from some other recent Nikon lenses.

Image Quality - 4 stars - not quite up to the standards of a prime but very good. Very minor chromatic aberration occasionally. No significant image quality fall off at 500 that I can detect.

Focus - 3 stars. Much slower than 80-400. I bought this lens to use to identify passing birds in flight from a boat and unfortunately it's not very good for that - essentially no shots of birds in flight are very crisp and most are noticeably out of focus. 9 point focus has worked well for all other lenses on this D7100 body but I have to use 1 point for this lens and unless the point is dead on the bird, tough to do on a moving boat, the lens will just seek and I miss a lot of shots. For birds at a predictable distance - i.e. perched or standing - it's very usable but expect that a lot won't be keepers.

Value - 5. Focus is a concern. For birds in flight I'm disappointed. But overall it's a very solid lens that delivers very good image quality at a very competitive price. The 80-400 has slightly better image quality and much faster and more predictable focus but is 100mm shorter and costs quite a bit more. I was concerned with this lens' size and weight but in the field it doesn't seem significantly more unwieldy than the 80-400.

17 people found this helpful

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Richard

Great lens, kind of heavy

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2024

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

This is a great lens but be aware that it is kind of heavy and hard to hold steady without a support of some kind

One person found this helpful

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DSS

smaller size and good reach. That being said

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2017

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

I never thought I'd say this about a $1,400.00 super-zoom telephoto lens, but,.. it is phenomenal.

This lens is sharp! The VR is very effective as well. It allows me to hand-hold the lens to below 1/100s at any focal length and get sharp results, provided the subject isn't moving much. Being able to focus on subjects close or far away and being able to zoom in or out is also a bonus.

I shoot a lot of wildlife, birds in flight, surfing and so on, and needed a longer lens. I was using my 300mm f/4D AF-S plus Nikon 1.4TCII, which got me to 420mm at f/5.6. This combo works really well due to sharpness, light weight, smaller size and good reach. That being said, I'm shooting with the D750 which is full frame, so I've always wanted just a little more reach than that and something I didn't need a TC for.

I was looking at the new Tamron 150-600mm G2 and this Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6VR. I decided to go down to Sammy's Camera to give them both a try to see which one I'd like better. Though I'm sure the Tamron is great, I ended up really liking the Nikon. It just seemed to work better with my D750 as far as low light focus and VR were concerned. I liked it so much, that although I planned on buying it online, I couldn't help myself and handed over the cash so I could take it home that minute.

I have read that there could be some copy variation and that some of these perform better than others. The one I picked up is flawless. It is pin-sharp wide open at every focal length with no AF fine tune necessary. Though it is a bit slow to focus on a subject initially, once it locks on, it tracks that subject very well. I haven't missed any shots so far, so long as I was able to keep the lens on the subject. It's larger and heavier than my 300mm f/4D and TC combo, so it did take some getting used to.

I would highly recommend this lens to any Nikon shooter needing more reach. This lens delivers even with a 1.4TC attached! I've only tried it with my 1.4TC II (which holds up really well though it was first announced in 2001!), but plan on buying the 1.4TC III for improved focus, optics and VR with this lens. The TC brings you to 700mm at f/8. I was getting sharp results on subjects that were moving slower, but for flying birds it didn't quite work out. I'm confident that the 1.4TC III will improve that quite a bit, since it's meant to work better with these new "E" lenses.

57 people found this helpful

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Leland C

Best price performance for a long Nikon telephoto

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2018

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

This Nikon 200-500mm lens fits a special niche to complement my assortment of other shorter telephotos. For the price, the lens sharpness is on par with much more expensive prime telephotos. The constant f/5.6 aperture is great when zooming out to 500mm without losing another stop of light and slower shutter speeds, especially for outdoor sports or birding. The autofocus is very fast and VR gives you ~4 extra stops extra performance in lower light situations and hand holding. The lens hood is huge and I was able to narrow down to an Ape Case lens case to fit both the lens and reversed lens hood. Many other cases just fit the lens but not with the hood. I permanently store this lens in the lens case along with the Nikon lens bag. A 95mm protective filter is not the cheapest filter out there, but cheap insurance to have one. Another needed aftermarket purchase is a sturdy ~70mm length arca plate. This will save you from needing to spend another $200+ on a replacement collar/foot combination from RRS or Kirk. The arca plate screws into the original collar and can be used with a monopod or tripod. My greatest long distance photos were from the once in a lifetime super blood blue moon. I shot this mounted on a tripod and using a remote trigger in mirror up position to minimize shutter and mirror vibrations. Recently I purchased a 1.4 teleconverter for my 70-200mm f/2.8g lens. It can also be used on this lens too for an effective 700mm at f/6.3. If you are considering this lens, do consider if you need something wider as <100mm.. If so then a 80-400mm would be my 2nd choice. But if starting at 200mm is a needed minimum, then this 200-500mm is the best price performance without adding another digit to the price tag.

8 people found this helpful

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First Tram

Very Nice

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2021

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

I spent a long time deciding if I should purchase this. To read the specs of this lens, this was exactly what I needed. Some negative aspects that took a long time to get past. I finally decided the lens was what I needed I took it on a 4 day shoot, took thousands of pictures. If you read the rest of the reviews, they are pretty close. The one star are just bad lenses. That happens. Always check to make sure you have a good lens. Clear photos and a quality lens. Nice Job Nikon. With that said, is this the perfect lens. NO. Most of my lenses are faster. I had a learning curve to power through. I knew purchasing this, I would need to get used to using this. Work with it before you go. Autofocus is a little slow. Not bad but since I use faster lenses, I noticed. Take your time and make sure you are focused on exactly what you want. The pictures are top of the line from 200 to 500. I found no weak area. I started on a tripod because it is a bigger lens. Others complained about the mount foot and balance. I would say a little off but easy enough to adjust if your tripod mount has a little adjustment. Not a problem for me. I hand shoot most of the time. That was my biggest concern of buying this. Can I carry it all day and can I hold it steady enough. Again Nikon killed it. I shot for hours hand held and the pictures are perfect. It did wear my arms down. Now if you are thinking the camera is not fast enough for you, I am a wildlife photographer. The conditions are perfect about one percent of the time. This lens did just as well as any of my other lenses could have done. Speed might have cost me a few shots, but not a huge deal. Impressed on how close I could focus at 200mm. But it is 200mm. You need a second camera for closer work. Overall, this is an awesome lens. I watched one review where the presenter said if you do not have perfect shots, it is not the lenses fault. I have to agree with him. This lens is capable if you learn to be proficient with it. I like staying inside the range of my 200mm, but not all the critters agree. I do not give up quality with this at a farther distance. Very happy with my purchase. Not a point and shoot. Takes effort. I left out a lot of the fine details because I thought others were very accurate on the lens reviews. Buy it.

6 people found this helpful

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L. Barstow

Can pick out the gleam in the eye of a flea on the feather of a bird

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2019

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

If you want to do serious wildlife photography, "big glass" is inevitable. But the price of a 500mm or 600mm prime lens can set you back half the price of a new car! The Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 E ED VR is a serious prosumer "budget" solution for those who can't justify such a massive cash setback - and even for many who could.

Once you get used to steadying it and using your camera with it, it really can resolve almost to the pixel level - even wide open at 500mm, even hand-held. I already have several bird pictures where the tiniest feather details are crisp and clean at 100%, and I am by no means an expert at wielding this thing yet! Focus with my D810 was dead-on to where I was aiming; I found the hardest part to be the aiming bit - at 500mm and f/5.6, you don't have a lot of leeway on depth-of-field. The silent wave motor and vibration reduction are truly silent; unless you're looking through the viewfinder, you won't know either is operating. Out-of-focus backgrounds are largely smooth and clean, not harsh; color and contrast expose fine gradations and subtlety.

Of course, this *isn't* a five-figure super-prime lens. It doesn't have the latest nano-coating for flare protection; because it's an externally extending zoom, it doesn't have the environmental protection of Nikon's most rugged lenses; as many reviewers note, the zoom ring has a *lot* of travel between 200mm and 500mm; auto-focus, while sufficient for most wildlife and for focus tracking, does not instantly acquire its target; and it's an f/5.6, not an f/4, so you have to bump up the ISO an extra step in poor lighting. But these are minor compromises for a major cost reduction, without sacrificing a lot of sharpness. It handily beats out my old 80-400mm ED VR in every measure, and in my opinion also bests the newer 80-400mm G VR-II that I rented from BorrowLens last year.

I'll finish off with a few more personal observations. First and most important, it doesn't fit in any camera bag I own, nor many that I could find in my local camera store; I had to buy an Ape Case ACPROLC18 from Amazon just to have something to protect it and carry it around in - the dust cover that comes with it is frighteningly thin. Second, unlike some reviewers, I don't have any problem with the lens hood; it locks on great when following the alignment symbols, though I do not feel a lock when it's reversed for storage. Third, I found my camera with this lens had a tendency to under-expose in difficult lighting (backlight, haze); I've had the camera set to a full +1.0 stop exposure compensation for many of my early experiences, but set to normal in good light. Fourth, 95mm is not a universal filter size; B+H does not list its latest nano-coated filter for this size lens, for example. Lastly, I will re-iterate: this is a big lens, and it takes practice to hold it and use it properly. Until you get the hang of it, there will be a lot of blurry shots; before you give up on it, take some extra time to verify the problem isn't behind the camera rather than in front of it, learn the ins and outs of the lens, and if necessary take the time to micro-adjust the focus.

Nikon really hit it out of the park with the 200-500mm f/5.6 E ED VR. Tack sharp and sufficiently fast in use, it will be on my camera for many future wildlife adventures.

14 people found this helpful

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