Customer Reviews:
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  For the price this is an excellent lens June 5, 2006
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Picked mine up used on eBay for $180. With the growth of the VR market everyone is dumping there old lenses. You can get a used one for a great price. This lens is great for the serious amatuer.
I have taken some incredible pictures with this lens. The autofocus is a little slow and I have heard people complain about softness on the high end but I have a photo blown up to 20 x 17 taken from my D70 at 300mm. Of course I shoot the photo on a tripod.... I have not experienced the softness
 Not bad September 7, 2005
54 out of 54 found this review helpful
I used this lens for about a year with both film and digital. In general, it's a decent lens for the price. Even though it's ED (extralow dispersion), I do get purple fringing on high-contrast subjects at long (telephoto) zoom. Since I do wild bird photography, this would show up as purplish bird beaks and twigs against a bright sky. Annoying. On the other hand, it has produced some excellent portraits and even wildlife photos where contrast wasn't excessive.
Doing a side-by-side test w/ the help of a camera store and a D70, I compared this lens to both 80-400/5.6 VR (nikon) and Tamron 200-500/6.3. All three were "good", but the Nikon VR was sharpest (Tamron roughly similar to ED), and also lost the least contrast (Tamron somewhere in the middle, ED worst), and the ED and Tamron lenses both appeared to kill color very slightly (not a big deal). Only the ED showed purple fringe w/ high contrast.
But although the 70-300 ED wasn't stellar in these tests, I still prefer it for backpacking due to the low weight and size (and robustness), and I rely on the 80-400 VR for serious wildlife photography where I can tolerate the weight/size in exchange for image stabilization and sharp optics.
Consider the 'G' version of this lens before buying August 5, 2005
33 out of 45 found this review helpful
Go to Nikon's own website NikonUSA.com and compare the technical specifications of this version and the 'G' version of this lens. There are only three differences. One is that the 'G' version has its aperture set only by the camera body, while the 'D' version can have its aperture set either by the body or by a ring on the lens. All recent Nikon bodies set the aperture. The ring on the lens is invariably locked on all recent camera bodies. The second difference is that one (1) of the 13 lens elements in the D version of the lens is made of Extra Low Dispersion (ED) glass. If the dispersion difference is so important what is the deal with the other 12 elements? Sounds like marketing to me. The third difference is that the 'D' version costs three times as much as the 'G' version.
Does this have a USA warranty or is it grey market? July 21, 2005
8 out of 20 found this review helpful
I'm interested in the lens, heard it's great, the price is good. However I can't find in the description whether it's a grey market lens, which may or may not be covered by Nikon's warranty and I believe has a one year warranty, or a USA warranty, which I believe has a three year warranty. Either way, the description needs to clarify this. Other large internet vendors (reputable) offer either types of lens and charge about 10 or 15 percent more for the USA warranty.
An excellent next purchase for the D70 owner December 31, 2004
82 out of 90 found this review helpful
One thing about the otherwise excellent stock lens that comes with the D70 package is that the telephoto is not really very telephoto. At 70 mm you are just about at life size so you don't get much pull for distance, and if you're taking people pictures, you want something that will enhance faces more, and give you more flexibility when shooting things farther away. This is your lens. The picture quality is excellent and it picks up where the stock lens leaves off, so in combination with the two lenses, you're going from an 18mm to 300mm. Picture quality is excellent, what you'd expect in a Nikon lens in this price range. Cons: it's a large heavier lens, not even including the lens hood, and at f/4-5.6, you really need a good quantity of light for it. But if you're looking for a lens that will give you the magnification you find missing in the stock lens, then this is it. The price is very good for the quality you're getting.
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