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The best protective filter is the 77mm Hoya multicoated HD3 UV which uses hardened glass and repels dirt and fingerprints. It should also have a USA warranty card floating around inside the box, possibly folded into the instruction sheet: Its macro ability is unmatched by any other Nikon f/2.8 tele zoom, with a super-close 1:4.76 maximum reproduction ratio. Bokeh, the feel or quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to how far out of focus they are, is great.
x 450 pixel crop from above image. If this crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on our screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 75 x 50." (6 x 4 feet, or 2 x 1.25 meters)! Desert Fountain, 19 November 2016. Nikon D810, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8E FL at 155mm, f/2.8 hand-held at 1/40 at Auto ISO 800. bigger or full-resolution file to explore on your computer. I don't use converters with zooms; I use the 80-400mm if I need to get to 400mm instead of fiddling with converters. Filters last a lifetime, so you may as well get the best. The Hoya HD3 stays cleaner than the others since it repels oil and dirt. They all do the same thing. There are three so you have one for horizontal shots, and one for each vertical orientation. You're on you're own shooting upside-down.
Manual focus is easy: simply move the focus ring at any time. It just works. Tap the shutter button again for AF. Shooting only wide-open is why we buy this lens in the first place. If you're shooting at f/4, the 70-200mm f/4 is much less to carry.
EXIF and exposure data read correctly with the TC-14E, meaning the camera and EXIF read the effective f/stop, which now starts at f/4, and the effective focal length, which goes from 100~280mm.
The Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR is a spectacular performer, but pricey
The metal 77mm filter thread is a nice change from some of the plastic garbage Nikon sold us in earlier years. Filters spin off and spin on easily with little worry for cross-threading. Pros laughed at that review. Pros wrote me from all over the world telling me how their 70-200mm is the best lens they've ever owned, how they earn their living with it day-in and day-out, in the dark, in the rain, indoors and outdoors, and how other pros call them asking what lens was used for such-and-such shot since it was so sharp. One pro wrote that he's glad he never read that review, since if he did he might never take his 70-200 out of his bag! If you're a tripod-hugger who demands the very highest sharpness in the corners at 200mm, you'll prefer the 200mm f/4 AF Micro-NIKKOR instead at 200mm. Normal people and pros love the 70-200 VR.
Other than the diaphragm staying at f/2.8, exposure, autofocus, metering and VR work fine other digital cameras. On my Nikon F6 it only shoots at f/2.8 and everything else is perfect. AF seems almost as fast and sure. It's not quite as fast as without a TC, but not much slower either. SPORT is for use in a helicopter, sand rail, or motorcycle. SPORT is also OK for hand-holding while still, and intended for use from an unstable platform.
Its optics and mechanics are superlative for everything a full-time career professional news or sports photographer would want to shoot with it, on any Nikon digital or modern film camera. It has no visible distortion from 70~100mm, and has slight to moderate pincushion distortion at longer settings. The pictures below illustrate the focal length range from wide to telephoto, on FX (35mm full-frame) and DX (APS-C) camera bodies: This 70-200 has very little focus breathing. It has none at 70mm, and very little at the longer focal lengths, where the image grow slightly as focussed more closely.
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