Nikkor AF-S 200–500mm f/5.6E ED VR Review

Nikkor AF-S 200–500mm f/5.6E ED VR

The Nikkor 200–500mm f/5.6E ED VR is a response to Tamron and Sigma’s popular 150–600mm lenses. Nikon has priced it strategically, a touch above Tamron’s and Sigma’s Contemporary series lens, but lower than Sigma’s Sports series. 

While Sigma and Tamron both offer a wider zoom range, the Nikkor has a constant aperture of f/5.6, as opposed to its two main competitors, that are only f/6.3 at the telephoto end. This makes the Nikkor a little heavier, but also more practical, while shooting in fading light.

Features

Thanks to an internal focusing system, the overall length of the lens remains the same while focusing, and the 95mm fi lter thread does not rotate. This makes the lens ideal for use with polarising and graduated fi lters, if you can afford them in that size, of course. The lens features a 9-bladed aperture diaphragm for beautiful, evenly blurred backgrounds. The minimum focusing distance is 2.2m, which is quite good, considering the focal length. The lens is neither designed nor suitable for macro work as it offers a magnifi cation ratio of 0.22x (1:4.5). But in practice, you can shoot really small subjects like dragonfl ies.

The fast focusing speed helped in capturing the approaching bird in fl ight.
The lens exhibits good overall sharpness even when shot at wide open.
Exposure: 1/2500sec at f/5.6 (ISO 800)

Handling

We wouldn’t recommend using this lens handheld. In fact, when I tried handholding the combination of the D4S and lens, my left arm tennis elbow injury, which had subsided earlier this year, started troubling me again. Also, when the lens is zoomed in, its length increases, which moves some of the weight further out in front, way from the centre of gravity, thus making it unstable. The lens is equipped with a removable tripod mount collar which is not so adequate in size, considering the bulk of the lens.

A larger collar would have provided a fuller, more balanced area to place your hand while shooting. In addition to this, a longer collar with contoured fi nger grips on the underside of the tripod mount, would have also helped when carrying the lens around. The base of the collar is not compatible with Arca-type locking. I would advise you to attach an extra lens plate, but again, there is only one hole to mount the plate and no provision to engage the locking pin.

The locking pin would have avoided the twisting of plate on fi eld, while using the lens on any kind of support. To zoom in or out, the zoom ring needs to be rotated to 180 °, which makes the lens operation a bit slow to capture fast action.

Performance

The focusing speed is a lot faster than its close competitors from Sigma and Tamron, especially in  low light, where it excels. Even while shooting birds in fl ight and tiny dragonfl ies, AF acquisition time and speed were very good. 

The lens exhibits excellent sharpness throughout its focal length. The lens is sharp wide open at every focal length, and optimum sharpness is achieved at f/8 andf/11. While shooting against the light, a slight hint of fl are is noticed at the wide end of the lens. Despite the absence of Nano Crystal Coating, chromatic aberration is nearly absent. The light falloff behaviour is similar to most other telephotos—uniform illumination is achieved by f/8 at wide end and f/11 at telephoto end. Though handheld shooting isn’t ideal with this lens, the VR, in practice, gave me a three-stop advantage, letting me shoot at 500mm, at 1/60sec.

Conclusion

This is not a perfect lens... its ergonomics, especially, could have been a lot better. But getting a super telephoto under a lakh is often about compromises. When compared to the Sigma Contemporary and Tamron lens, the Nikkor may have a slight focal length disadvantage, but excels in every other aspect. The price is slightly more than its close competitors, but the vast gains in quality, along with the constant f/5.6 aperture, make the difference in price worth it. If you are conscious about quality and wish to photograph sports and wildlife, you should not look elsewhere.

FINAL RATINGS

Features
IS mode for sports, weathersealed, f/5.6.  18/20

Performance
Sharpness, Good IS performance.   33/35

Build Quality
High quality metal and plastic construction combined.   23/25

Ergonomics
Large zoom ring rotation angle, small tripod collar.   12/15

Warranty & Support
Large number of service facilities.   4/5

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