Take an already legendary lens, add the latest version of VR and some Nano coating and what do you have…? A great lens made even better! albeit a ‘tiny’ bit bigger and heavier (oh, and of course more expensive). Nikon have released a handful of test images, some of which are below, but I’m not overly impressed…yet…
Pre-order now up at B&H Photo, Adorama in the U.S. and Warehouse Express in the UK.
The new Nikon 200-400 VR II
Sample images:
There are a few sample shots from the Nikon website but I have to admit, based on those I’m not particularly bothered about rushing out to replace my tried and trusted original version of the lens (read my review here) as they don’t do much for me, plus they are low resolution so you can’t really judge image sharpness just yet. Here are 3 of them…more can be found on the official Nikon website via the link at the bottom of the page.
Image from Nikon: 200-400 VRII, 1/2000, f/4, 400mm
Image from Nikon: 200-400 VRII, 1/5000, f/4, 220mm
Image from Nikon: 200-400 VRII, 1/800, f/9, 300mm
Initial thoughts
So, we’ve got one of the best zoom lenses available refreshed with the latest version of Nikon’s Vibration Reduction, which now gives up to 4 stops improvement over having no VR. We also get Nano coating to improve contrast and reduce flare…all in all this new 200-400 VR II should make a good lens even better. However, at the time of writing I’m a little puzzled at to why the sample images made available are so mediocre!?
Once some decent images start to surface I’m hoping they’ll show the new lens to perform even better than the lens that it replaces…actually, no, I don’t hope that because then I’ll want one! 
Links
The original news release on Nikon’s website can be found here.
And you can find more sample images as well as full tech-specs on the official product page on Nikon’s website here.
Thanks for the update. Well pleased with my 200-400mm as it is. Will not be lashing out more cash on this update. Completely agree with your comments regarding images shown
kind regards Roy
Hi Richard,
Am intrigued by this new version – but doubt that it will be serious improvement over the current one – apart form the steep price jump.
Query: did you ever notice a difference in image quality between near vs far objects, akin to what Thom Hogan has published: here
Still remains my “dream lens”…. maybe one day that Xmas bonus will be put to use.
P
I read over Thom Hogans review and I have no doubt as to his findings, as the man knows his stuff! I personally have never noticed it to an extent that I felt I needed to comment but that may be because I have always shot subjects that were close enough so as to be large enough in the frame to warrant a photo – if I subject is too small I usually don’t fire the shutter. I don’t use the lens as often as the 600 but next time I use the lens I’ll do some shots of far off subjects to see if I notice this issue, now that I know to look out for it!