The Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR is physically just like the Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR, earning it “world’s lightest 300mm full-frame lens” title. Nikon was able to achieve this by using a Phase Fresnel (PF) lens element, which can effectively reduce the need to use complex lens elements for correcting chromatic aberrations and ghosting Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S vs Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Conclusion Although both lenses seem to perform well at 300mm and 420mm focal lengths when stopped down to f/8, as demonstrated in the above charts, I would still recommend the Nikon 300mm f/4D over the 80-400mm lens for two main reasons – autofocus performance/accuracy and better reach. CrTf. The 300mm f/2.8 VR is so much sharper than the newer 300mm f/4 PF version. Not only that, but if you plan to use it a lot with the 2.0 teleconverter, having f/2.8 is critical. Focal length: 300mm. Aperture: f/4 – f/32. Minimum focus distance: 1.4m. Filter size: 77mm. Aperture blades: 9. Construction: 16 Elements in 10 groups. Size (Diameter / Length): 89mm x 147.5mm. Weight: 755g. It’s also a ‘FX’ lens, so it will work with all full frame and cropped sensor Nikon DSLRs. Just as with the 70-200mm Canon lens that I mentioned above, this Nikon F4 constant aperture 70-200mm is a great lens for outdoor (in daylight) sports photography. The biggest advantage that it has over a lens like a 70-200 f/2.8 is the weight and price, the F4 70-200mm’s are significantly cheaper and lighter than their f/2.8 counterparts. The Nikon 300mm f/2.8 ED-IF was the world's first practical super-speed super telephoto. The Nikon 300mm f/2.8 ED-IF was a landmark when it was introduced in November 1977, along with Nikon's first automatic-indexing lenses (AI). These new AI lenses, which today still work perfectly on most film and digital Nikons like the newest D300, D3, F100 In my group, we now own 4 x Tamron 150-600's, despite also owning multiple 200-400's, 300 F2.8's, 500 F4, 600 F4's, etc. Why? Very often, the "technically potentially sharpest" lens does not deliver the "best" result in real world field conditions. The Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR is physically just like the Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR, earning it “world’s lightest 300mm full-frame lens” title. Nikon was able to achieve this by using a Phase Fresnel (PF) lens element, which can effectively reduce the need to use complex lens elements for correcting chromatic aberrations and ghosting

nikon 300mm f4 vs f2 8