Nikon AF 80-200mm f/2.8 ED Lens

After deciding to upgrade from my cheapie 70-300mm lens I began to research different lenses that would get me the sharpness and AF speed I was looking for. I narrowed it down to several lenses and although the Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF D Lens is not the newest lens on the market as it was replaced by the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 AF-S VR for the price it was an excellent buy. The fast 2.8 aperture has allowed me to hand hold shots, many of which where taken indoors and still retain excellent sharpness. The auto focus system while not as a fast or quite as its newer replacement is still very responsive and the little noise it does make is not that loud or distracting (and I shoot wildlife). The one disadvantage of this lens is that it is built like a tank and weighs close to 3 lbs. After a day at the zoo with this lens my shoulder was killing me from lugging it around in my camera bag. But for quality like this you really cant complain about its size.

Pros: Very sharp, decent auto-focus speed, excellent build quality, fast aperture for blurring out the background

Cons: Relatively heavy, lack of VR, lack of AF-s focus system

One thing to keep in mind when researching or bidding on this lens: There are several different generations of 80-200. The older push-pull style has a much slower auto focus speed. If you are looking for speed make sure that it has either the turn style zoom, is the AF-s 80-200, or the newer 70-200 VR

This lens offers great color and sharpness with no noticeable distortions. f/2.8 allows for some poorly lit situations to be shot with ease. I use this for photographing womens roller derby. It is the perfect lens for it. I prefer its images to my 28-70 f/2.8 even. The only downsides are its weight and it's slightly clumsy focusing when compared to a new Silent Wave or HSM focusing system. The focusing is appropriate for its generation but when compared to the newer SWM or HSM systems, it's a little loud. I can easily live with both. I would recommend this lens to the most skeptical pro!

I was looking for a long lens at an affordable prince and certainly found it with this lens. I truly appreciate the great condition in which it was received.

Bought my first 80-200mm f/2,8 10 years ago.Optical quality is second to none, but autofocus is slow and the lens is heavy to carry around.I often use the Nikon 70-210mmm D, instead for candids

Purchased this lens on 08/016/06. Taken hundreds of photo's at the track, sports and weddings, has been one great fast lens. I have the ED 1:28D on a Nikon D1H.

This is by far the best lens I have ever purchased.

Likes: Autofocus is fast, shooting speed is greatly improved over the f/4 I owned previously, images are sharp and crisp and background blur behind the subject is perfect with smooth edges.

Dislikes: This thing weighs a ton, it makes my D200 look like a midget and quality filters will run you 50-75 for quality uv and the polarizing filter is over 100.00.

Overall, based on the awesome improvement with my shots, this lens is well worth the minor nuissances described in the "disklikes" above.

Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF Zoom Nikkor Lens is a very good quality lens. It's fast (fixed f/2.8), solid (built like a tank), produce great quality image, and priced very reasonably for a professional grade telephoto lens.

Having said that, there are some additional features that would be nice to have for this lens such as image stabilization, more silent autofocus (AF-S), and shorter minimum focus distance but those features will make this lens a lot more expensive (as those feature is included in the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S VR lens). If budget is not an issue, then I would recommend the 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S VR (the Vibration Reduction technology and faster and more silent focus are very useful) or the 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-S (which has faster and more silent focus). If large aperture (fast lens)is not your main requirement, then you can get the 70-300mm VR (at a lower price)

There are several version of 80-200mm f/2.8 lens, and the latest one (non AF-S model and that Nikon still produce as of 2009) is the two ring model. The one ring push pull model is also good quality lens (solidly built and produce great image quality) but autofocus is much slower. If budget is an issue, the older push pull model would still be a good choice too.

FYI: This lens will not autofocus with Nikon D40, D40x, D60 or D5000.

Pros
1. Great quality lens (very sharp pictures. 3 of the glasses made/coated with ED technology)
2. Very fast (fixed f/2.8 throughout the zoom range)
3. Very reasonably priced (compared to 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S VR and 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-S)
4. Built to last. Very solid
5. Great for sport, action, wedding and low-light photography
6. Uses standard 77mm lens filter
7. Bokeh is very nice at f/2.8
8. Autofocus much faster than the older 80-200mm f/2.8 model (the push pull version)
9. The price is very stable (I bought mine several years ago and I could still sell it at the same price today)
10. With non full frame Nikon DSLR, the focal length becomes 120-300mm equivalent (nice reach). you can get Nikon 80-400mm for more reach but that lens is not fixed f/2.8).

Cons
1. Heavy at 2 lbs 14 oz or 1.3kg. (Good arm exercise :), or using tripod or monopod would be nice)
2. Autofocus not as fast and silence as the AF-S model (70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S and 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-S), but the autofocus limiter switch improves autofocus time
3. Tripod collar is too close to the zoom ring (you can remove or adjust the tripod collar though)
4. Thread for the filter can be better (it's made of plastic)
5. Lens hood is sold separately (highly recommended to reduce flare and internal reflection)
6. More expensive than Non-Nikon (sigma, tamron etc) brand alternative (some comparable price but they have faster and silence focus)
7. Lens could jump around a bit during autofocusing if you are not strong enough (due to the glass moving fast as the lens autofocus)
8. No Manual focus override mode on Autofocus mode
9. No Macro mode (can't be use for macro shot). closest focusing distance is quite far
10. No VR (Vibration Reduction), which will help a lot for this type of lens (heavy and telephoto)

In conculsion, if you are looking for a Nikon professional grade telephoto lens that is reasonably prices, you can't really beat this Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF Zoom Nikkor lens. This lens is really good choice for sport, action, wedding, low-light, indoor photography.

Name: Nikon calls this the Nikon ED AF Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 D

Optics: Sixteen elements in eleven groups. Three of them are of ED glass.

Diaphragm: 9-bladed diaphragm with nine conventional straight blades. They make a nice 9-sided polygon at all apertures, unlike the AF-S that simulates a circle at larger apertures.

Filters: Uses standard 77mm filters.

Close Focus: About 5.5 feet, which is pretty good. That's about a foot less close than the AF-S when I compared the two directly, and about the same as the 180/2.8AF.

Size: 3.4" (87mm) around by 7.4" (187mm) long.

Weight: 2 pounds, 14 oz (46 ounces total or 1,300g)

Case: It comes with a fairly useless case. Just put it away someplace for when you sell the lens.

Nikon Product Number: 1986, in catalog as of spring 2008.



Performance

This is an extremely sharp lens. I have only shot with it a couple of times.

Distortion performance is also good for a zoom:

80-115mm: fairly neutral
200mm: some pincushion distortion

It has the usual light falloff. Here's a page, made at 200mm by someone else illustrating the falloff.

Autofocus is accurate. In real photographs the focus is always dead on at f/2.8. This is important to me, some other lenses' focus errors exclude me from being able to get good results wide open. I like this lens because of this.

Oddly I've heard a couple of others have inaccurate focusing at f/2.8 at 200 mm on a D70. If you want to use this on a D70 I'd check this carefully. The one I used worked great on my F100, and just as many other people see this lens working flawlessly, no, spectacularly, on their D70s.

I'm unsure if it is free from the ghost problem flawing the 80-200 AF-S.

AF speed is almost as fast as the AF-S on an F100. Don't worry about this difference. It does of course make more noise and jump around more than the AF-S does while focusing because the big front lens group is rotating at blindingly fast speeds.

Jump around? Yeah, this is because of the torque reaction you get as the big front element starts and stops rotating almost instantly while driven by the camera's AF motor. In the AF-S lens the elements that move for focusing are the smaller internal elements.

This is a great quality lense. The only thing I dislike is the weight. Would recommend this lense to any semi and pro photographer who like to shoot with a telephoto lense but does not want to spend $1600.

90% of my photography is wildlife, from chasing Mountain Lions on horse back to Bighorns in the cliffs. I need bomb proof equipment. I've used several types lens over the years and they just don't hold up. The Nikon AF 80-200 f/2.8 ED Lens will be the only lens I carry in the feild from now on. It is a heavy lens carrying long distances but the end results are worth it. Low light is no longer an issue with this lens and the picture quality is incredible.

Seller kept me well informed of shipping. Item was well packed came in great shape. Item was stated and in original box.

nikon 80-200mm F2.8 extra ordinary lens in its price. Excellent alternative lens for 70-200mm f2.8 with almost half its price.

The lens worked for about 3 weeks then the auto focus stopped.I have bought several electronic items on ebay and they have failed one by one.You never know what you are getting on ebay.

This is a superb lens. It is sharp wide open (f/2.8) and even better stopped down (i.e. 4-5.6). I'm using this lens on a Nikon D80 and D40 (meters but does not autofocus). If you are serious about using this lens on the D40 you should have a split focusing ring installed.

My kids play sports (soccer and football). This lens works great under stadium lights (usually ISO 800-1600, f/2.8, 1/200th) without a flash. Make sure you use the proper white balance (Auto works most of the time). During concerts this lens works great.

The only drawbacks of this lens are found at the 80mm focal length. On the DX sensor the crop factor means you are using a 120mm lens. You might find this a bit restrictive since the view is very narrow. Again, this is not a problem for outdoor sports, but might pose a problem in a small venue (i.e. sidelines of a basketball court).

I wondered if the zoom would be fast enough for Highschool football. It is just fine. In many instances I will manually focus, but generally autofocus works great. If you are used to AFS lenses, this could take some getting used to. You have to physically overide the autofocus using the selector switch between the zoom and focus rings. I never use the focus limiter.

I bought this lens because of its fast F2.8 aperture. The quality of the images taken by this lens is excellent. I am very happy with this lens even it is a little bit too heavy to carry around.