Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S

16) Summary

I have been happily shooting with the Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S for the last 6+ years. It has given me lots of opportunities to capture beautiful wildlife shots and it is still a very active lens in my arsenal when I have to travel light or hike long distances. While I also own the Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR lens (which costs 6 times more than the 300mm f/4!), I find the latter to be heavy and bulky for travel, so I end up using the 300mm f/4D more when I travel to other states and countries by air. Thus, the biggest advantage of the Nikon 300mm f/4D for me is its compactness and light weight, which saves my back and lets me hand-hold the lens for extended periods of time. When I know that I will be hiking long distances, I also prefer to carry my 300mm f/4D – it fits nicely in all of my backpacks, even with the TC-14E II attached.

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For local travel, short hikes and birding from my car, the Nikon 200-400mm is still my top preference due to longer reach, stellar optics and superb VR. Unfortunately, lack of VR is the biggest problem with the Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S. While VR is more or less useless for fast action photography where you use extremely fast shutter speeds, it can come quite handy in low-light situations. Unfortunately, a lot of wildlife action happens close to dawn and dusk times, so I do miss VR in those conditions.

I have been anxiously waiting for Nikon to make a VR version of this lens for a long time now, pretty much since the day I bought it. Since Nikon replaced the old 80-400mm lens recently, I really hope that the 300mm f/4D AF-S will be replaced with the 300mm f/4G VR fairly soon. Without a doubt, it would certainly quickly become my favorite wildlife lens for traveling and hiking. I hope Nikon will make the new version sharper and more suitable to be used with the TC-17E II teleconverter. A lightweight prime lens with excellent performance at over 500mm focal length sounds like a dream to me!

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In summary, here are the pros and cons:
Pros: Quick Focus, Durable, Lightweight, Strong Construction, Sharp Focus.
Cons: No back element, No VR, No Weather Sealing, Bad Tripod Collar.

17) Where to buy

I bought my copy of the Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S online from B&H over 6 years ago, but you can also get it from Adorama or other large retailers. If you are in the USA, make sure to get the USA version that comes with the 5 year warranty. As of 07/15/2013, the lens retails for $1,369.

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