dEaringfilm reviews the
Nikkor 200mm f/2G ED-IF AF-S VR
AKA: F-stops like a Ferrari
If there is any lens that gets close to the 85mm 1.4 in terms of Bokeh (defocused area) then this is the lens. It delivers surreal defocused characteristics that no lens by any company can compete with. This lens is very intimate, what I mean by this is when and if you use it for models it loves to get tightly cropped face shots, while completely throwing the background into a blur of beautiful shapes and colors. But it is not always perfect, you can't just expect for Milky Way surreal bokeh all the time. In some situations while shooting at F2 if there is a noisy background... like lets say tree leaves and the subject it about 15 feet from you.. in this situation even this lens(nor any lens with this focal length) cannot deliver the buttery cream bokeh.
I use this lens with just about everything I shoot, models, animals, street, events and sports. I might even throw it on a tripod and use it for long exposure night photography if someone dares me :) But really exotic lens designs are supposed to be fun and challenging at the same time to use. There is a reason this lens is 4 times the price of the 135 DC F2.
I don't really like to talk about size and weight because its something that is really easy to find out, go to your local supplier or go to the official Nikon website to find out these kind of things. But having said that this lens is pretty darn heavy for its focal length, compared to the 200 Micro or the 70-200 VR it feels like at least 2 of these lenses are mounted on the camera it terms of weight. Another way to look at is its like having a newborn baby attached to your lens, its that heavy. The way the weight is distributed towards the front end of the lens makes it slightly awkward to hold, the 300 2.8 VR is balanced much nicer for hand holding. None of these things make it a lesser lens they just make it some adjustment for you to find the individual sweet spot, as always your results ma vary due to your height and body strength.
A lot of people may think that in this price/telephoto range the 200-400 F4 VR may be the better choice for them, and it may well be. I love having very special unique optics in my arsenal, and in my opinion 200mm at f4 is not that unique unless it has micro ability. So back to the point the 200-400 may be very useful to nature photographers who shoot during nice light, but as soon as you don't have perfect lighting then you have to be very very good(as you may well be) to get superb results. I choose the 200 VR and a couple of teleconverters as my replacement for the zoom. Changing these out takes about 30 seconds but the quality surpasses the zoom and I am rewarded with the ability to shoot at lower light. For sporting events where you have to sit at a fixed location such as basketball or baseball the 200-400 is a better choice, but I feel sports like boxing or tennis where you only have 2 players on the "field" at a time then the 200 VR can easily be used because you don't have to zoom in and zoom out and grab photos all over the field. At the time of this writing the 200 VR and two TC's of your choice cost about the same as the 200-400 VR.
So why the big fuss when this lens is only a stop faster than the 70-200 VR? Well first of all it delivers better quality images at all the same stops, less distortion, more contrast and richer colors. I also get better results at the same stops and focal length with VR on, call it what you will but I think the 200 VR has a better Vibration Reduction engine under the hood.
Smaller Nikon bodies such as the Nikon D80 or D40 make this lens even harder to hand hold. I think I need to practice more but while shooting around the neighborhood(yes some people think I am holding a small bazooka) this provided to be a difficult combination. I had to establish a balance point with my left hand the was almost the front of the barrel of the lens, where as in a D1 or D2 series body its just a few inches off of center and much much more tolerable.
I think the lens hood is mediocre; I will soon replace it with something like the hk-30 that does not let as much ambient light in. The included hood is nice for portability but it does not cut it for me when I am shooting locally and portability is not a issue. Everything else is great, the case is very useful, the tripod mount is easily replaced with the proper Really Right Stuff replacement foot and the 52mm drop in filter is decent but I am weird and finicky and choose to replace it with a 52mm German B+W filter.
Reccomendation: Sure its big, and the hood is a bit short in my opinion but If I had to replace my 85 1.4 with any lens this would be the one.
| Performance Wide Open |
|
5 (f2 perfect, razor thin but perfect) | |||||
| Performance Stopped Down |
|
5 (f4 to 8 even more perfect than f2) | |||||
| Build Quality |
|
5 (superb, the best nikkor build quality) | |||||
| Value and Features |
|
5 (AF-S, VR, ED, nothing is missing except a longer hood) |
 Gitzo G1228 MK2 tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ballhead, VR off Nikon D2X Focal Length: 200mm Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB) Long Exposure NR: Off High ISO NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Less Contrast RAW (12-bit) Metering Mode: Spot AF Mode: AF-C Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (4288 x 2848) 1/60 sec - F/4 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: -0.7 EV Sharpening: Normal Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 200 |
 Gitzo G1228 MK2 tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ballhead, VR off Nikon D2X Focal Length: 200mm Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB) Long Exposure NR: Off High ISO NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Less Contrast RAW (12-bit) Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern AF Mode: AF-C Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (4288 x 2848) 1/60 sec - F/2 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: -0.7 EV Sharpening: Normal Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 100 |
 Hand Held VR on Nikon D2X Focal Length: 200mm Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB) Long Exposure NR: Off High ISO NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Less Contrast RAW (12-bit) Metering Mode: Spot AF Mode: AF-C Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (4288 x 2848) 1/60 sec - F/4 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: -0.7 EV Sharpening: Normal Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 200 |
 Hand Held VR on Nikon D2X Focal Length: 200mm Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB) Long Exposure NR: Off High ISO NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Less Contrast RAW (12-bit) Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern AF Mode: AF-C Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (4288 x 2848) 1/400 sec - F/2 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: 0 EV Sharpening: Normal Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 100 |
 Hand Held VR on Nikon D2X Focal Length: 200mm Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB) Long Exposure NR: Off High ISO NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Less Contrast JPEG (8-bit) Fine Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern AF Mode: AF-C Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (2848 x 4288) 1/80 sec - F/5.6 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: 0 EV Sharpening: Normal Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 100 |
 Hand Held VR on Nikon D2X Focal Length: 200mm Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB) Long Exposure NR: Off High ISO NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Less Contrast JPEG (8-bit) Fine Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern AF Mode: AF-C Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (2848 x 4288) 1/60 sec - F/5.6 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: 0 EV Sharpening: Normal Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 100 |
 Hand Held VR on TC-17E II (1.7x) AF-S, AF-I Nikon D2X Focal Length: 340mm Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB) Long Exposure NR: Off High ISO NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Less Contrast RAW (12-bit) Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern AF Mode: AF-C Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (4288 x 2848) 1/640 sec - F/4 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: 0 EV Sharpening: Normal Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 400 |
 Gitzo G1228 MK2 tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ballhead, VR off TC-17E II (1.7x) AF-S, AF-I Nikon D2X Focal Length: 340mm Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB) Long Exposure NR: Off High ISO NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Less Contrast RAW (12-bit) Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern AF Mode: AF-C Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (4288 x 2848) 1/80 sec - F/5 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: -1.0 EV Sharpening: Normal Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 200 |
F/2 Hand Held VR on Nikon D70s Focal Length: 200mm Optimize Image: Vivid Color Mode: Mode IIIa (sRGB) Long Exposure NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Auto Compressed RAW (12-bit) Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern AF Mode: AF-S Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (3008 x 2000) 1/250 sec - F/2 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: 0 EV Sharpening: Auto Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 200 |
F/2.8 Hand Held VR on Nikon D70s Focal Length: 200mm Optimize Image: Vivid Color Mode: Mode IIIa (sRGB) Long Exposure NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Auto Compressed RAW (12-bit) Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern AF Mode: AF-S Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (3008 x 2000) 1/160 sec - F/2.8 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: 0 EV Sharpening: Auto Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 200 |
F/4 Hand Held VR on Nikon D70s Focal Length: 200mm Optimize Image: Vivid Color Mode: Mode IIIa (sRGB) Long Exposure NR: Off Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority White Balance: Auto Tone Comp.: Auto Compressed RAW (12-bit) Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern AF Mode: AF-S Hue Adjustment: 0° Image Size: Large (3008 x 2000) 1/60 sec - F/4 Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached Saturation: Normal Exposure Comp.: 0 EV Sharpening: Auto Lens: VR 200mm F/2 G Sensitivity: ISO 200 |
