Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4D IF-ED Lens

Product Information

I was a bit worried that the new lens design could have potential impacts of focus breathing on the actual reach of the lens. I tested the lens along with the 300mm f/4D AF-S side by side and I was relieved to find out that the lens does not suffer from noticeable focus breathing. At a camera to subject distance of approximately 15 feet, both lenses showed a similar field of view, with the 300mm f/4D giving slightly more reach, most likely because it is physically longer. But the differences are so small that they are practically unnoticeable. The same goes for the lens when used with teleconverters – there is no noticeable loss of focal length, even at relatively close distances. Teleconverter Compatibility and Performance Nikon’s standard 70-200mm zoom has a constant f/2.8 aperture and can be converted with Nikon’s 1.4x teleconverter into a AF-S 100-280/4.0G ED VR. To appreciate size differences between the new 300mm f/4E VR and the 300mm f/4D AF-S, take look at the below side by side comparison: With the TC-17E II teleconverter, the new 300mm f/4E VR showed pretty impressive performance, especially when stopped down to f/8. As you can see from the above graphs, the lens does significantly better with this teleconverter combo in the center compared to the 300mm f/4D AF-S. PF: Pressed Fresnel element, which has a funny zig-zag cross section just as lighthouse condenser lenses do to save weight.

It will not work properly with older DSLRs and will not work properly on any 35mm camera. Older cameras cannot control the diaphragm and it will always shoot at f/4. Overall, I found the 300mm PF to be an absolute joy to use. We would expect excellent image quality from a lens in this range, and despite such a radical redesign it is safe to say this has been maintained. Nikon made many different mechanical versions of this lens from 1969 through 1998 and they all share the same very good optics. Falloff of illumination towards the corners is typical for a lens of this type. At f/4 the corners are 1.85 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination is achieved with the aperture stopped down to f/6.3 or beyond. Closest focus distance is 1.4m, and focusing is performed internally. The front element is a filter-friendly 77mm in diameter and as it does not rotate, or extend.Just like on the high-end telephoto and super-telephoto lenses, the color rendition of the lens is superb. Focus Breathing I used the lens exclusively on my D500, which is of course a camera with an APS-C sensor. Most of my photography was with apertures between f/4 and f/8; I found sharpness to be excellent. Softness caused by diffraction begins to creep in after f/11 and is certainly noticeable from f/16. It’s not all 100% good news however. There can be some optical downsides caused by the Phase Fresnel element, which are observable under certain conditions. Very bright light can introduce coloured halo’s or flares around the source which could come in to play if care were not taken, especially when shooting with a lot of artificial lights in the frame. Personally, I didn’t come across a situation where this presented itself. That’s not to say I avoided scenes that might show it up, more so that I simply shot as normal and being that I photograph wildlife, there are rarely bright light sources of the specific type that would cause the issue to appear. I would hazard a guess that this is something that needs to be more carefully considered if you’re a nighttime cityscape or wedding photographer, but in the majority of wildlife situations, it’s certainly not something I would worry about. These samples are wide-open at f/4, which is superb. Many lenses get softer at macro distances wide-open; this lens stays just as sharp. Lastly, the Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S does not have a rubber gasket on its mount. This is unfortunate because this means that dust and other debris could end up in your camera and your lens. For this reason, I would recommend keeping a teleconverter mounted on the lens at all times.

Now the norm, this Nikon lens will take all 77mm filters and polarizers and with the internal focus feature, will allow you to get close enough (4½ feet) to be an ad-hoc macro lens on some subjects without your filter attachment turning in the process. As expected from a quality telephoto lens, distortion on the Nikon 300mm f/4E VR is practically non-existent (Imatest measured barrel distortion at just -0.6). Adding teleconverters does not change this behavior, so you should be safe from having to correct anything in post-production. Although Lightroom currently does not have a built-in lens profile, you can experiment with photographing straight lines and making corrections – you will see that the changes will be very minimal when fixing distortion. Crescent Moon and Venus Sealing: yes! A rubber grommet at the lens-mount and a rubberized front-end that acts as a seal when the lens-cap is attached. The 300/4.0D does not offer that kind of protection. [+] Minimum focus distance/max. magnification: 1.4 m (4.4 ft.) / 1:4.2. I my tests I got down to 1.31 m and 1:3.8 magnification with manual focus. The 300/4.0D reaches 1.45 m / 1:3.7 on paper and 1.39 m / 1:3.4 in my test. That’s a nice magnification that you can reach at a convenient distance, and at the top of the range for 300mm fixed-focals. The lens also offers a limiter switch that reduces the MFD to 3m to speed focusing up a bit. [+]

Designing telephoto lenses is a battle with chromatic aberration. We were at the greatest disadvantage in this battle with this 300mm lens. Chromatic aberration increases along with the focal length of the lens. This is easiest to understand if we imagine that it is proportional to the length of the lens. If the length of the lens is doubled—the focal length is doubled—the amount of chromatic aberration is doubled at the same time. Further, the amount of chromatic aberration also increases with the adoption of the common telephoto structure used for the Nikkor-P Auto 300mm f/4.5 to achieve a shorter total length. The concave lens in the rear group reduces the total length of the lens and achieves a consistently flat image plane, but it also works to increase all types of aberrations, including chromatic aberration, generated by the first group of elements. There’s no 300mm f4.0 lens from third party manufacturers like Sigma, Tamron, or Tokina currently on offer although Sigma once had the AF 300/4.0 DG APO macro. Adding a teleconverter to the mix makes things a little more interesting. I paired this up with both the Nikon TC-14EIII and TC-20EIII, which are the latest versions of both the 1.4 and 2x teleconverters respectively.

Unlike the slower variable aperture telephoto lenses like Nikon 80-400mm VR and 70-300mm VR, the Nikon 300mm f/4D does not have the same autofocus “chatter” issue, where AF will hesitate, constantly making AF adjustments during continuous autofocus operation (AF-C mode). NIKON D3S + 300mm f/4 @ 420mm, ISO 450, 1/1000, f/10.0 Color rendition is superb – although there is no Nano coating on this lens, I love the way the 300mm f/4 reproduces colors. NIKON D3S + 300mm f/2.8 @ 300mm, ISO 720, 1/1000, f/5.0 It is easy to get carried away with the handling advantages of such an innovative lens design and forget that image quality must also live up to expectations. I’m happy to report that, on the whole, it does. The focus ring moves smoothly with comfortable friction, but it does feel a little narrow. If you’re a fan of manual focus this may be troublesome, but as I use autofocus exclusively for wildlife photography, it wasn’t a problem.Image sample with the TC-17E II: NIKON D750 + 300mm f/4 + TC-17E II @ 510mm, ISO 400, 1/1250, f/8.0 Detailed graphs highlighting lens performance with all three of the current Nikon teleconverters will be provided soon. Image Stabilization Autofocus: AF-S with SWM (silent wave motor), so it does work on D60/3×00/5×00-bodies. Manual-focus override is by simply turning the focus ring. [+] In this case, the focus distance was around 20-25 feet and the lights were miles away. You will notice strange shapes within the highlights that resemble the “Death Star”, which can be even more pronounced when stopped down. This strange bokeh shape seems to be initiated by the rings of the Fresnel lens element. Vignetting The lens casing is made of plastic and does not feel as tough as lenses such as the 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8. Let’s be realistic though, we aren’t going to get such a lightweight lens with the equivalent build quality of such lenses. That said, it certainly feels a lot more durable than other plastic lenses. As we would expect, there is a metal lens mount with a rubber gasket to help with environmental sealing. Users of the previous version of the lens will be pleased to see the addition of a rear lens element which prevents contaminants from getting inside the lens and its mechanics. Image Quality