Camera Labs

Hehe, nice find
That would be a shrink-factor of 0.5x at the long end then!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Interestingly the price of this lens is shooting up at Amazon - which normally is a good indicator of how demand and supply is going: It is currently over 100 EUR more expensive than list-price although they had 10 lenses in stock. This could mean that the lens is in high demand.
Cheapest prices on my fav price-search is only 100 EUR below list-price (which was 2699 EUR incl. 19% VAT) but nobody knows whether those shops can deliver.
I'll try though...
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Btw.: There some reports that the VR (only second generation) needs some time to stabilize.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

First testing revealed the maximum aperture:
f4.5 from 80mm - 90mm
f4.8 from 100mm - 130mm
f5.0 from 135mm - 175mm
f5.3 from 180mm - 240mm
f5.6 from 250mm - 400mm
Btw. f4.8 is a half-stop slower than f4.0 and thus a half-stop faster than f5.6.

VR is not too sluggish, but that will take more time testing.
The lenses diameter is huge and the lens-shade is a real monster. I'll show you images vis-a-vis the 70-200/2.8 (with 2x TC) soon. Btw.: The Nikon AF-S TC-20E III 2x tele-converter is currently around 450 EUR and the Nikon AF-S 70-200/2.8 VR II at around 1850 EUR (all prices include 19% VAT). So at 2300 EUR this combo is about 300 EUR cheaper than the new 80-400mm zoom.

Bonus observation: There is a rubber sealing at the front-end to make the fit between lens-cap and front tighter, perhaps sealed!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Here's one of my first shots at 400/5.6 from a distance of approximately 10 meter (i.e. magnification is around 1:25):


Nikon80-400_400f5-6_64511 by Thomas, on Flickr

Done from a tripod but still with VR=ON.
The same settings were used on the following shot with the Nikon AF-S 70-200/2.8G VR II combined with a Nikon AF-S TC-20E III 2x tele-converter:


Nikon70-200f2-8_400f5-6_64576 by Thomas, on Flickr

Pretty close I'd say. Apart from the 70-200+TC combo exhibiting less vignetting.
Click on those images to get to the full-blown 36MP original. Processed as usual.

Another interesting observation is Bokeh. Yes, Bokeh is relevant even with f5.6 lenses because with such a long focal length the resulting magnification is a key to shallow dof. Thus the quality of Bokeh is pretty essential even at f5.6!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

They look identical to me, but does it make the 80-400 worth the premium? Hope you can show us soon!

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- Wout -
Nikon D80 with 18-70 DX, 70-300 VR, 35 1.8 DX
Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with 488RC0 midi ballhead
Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 200 AW

Same here pretty close, I wonder why you had VR on a tripod, from what I've read it can induce blur.


Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

Nikon's VR recognizes sitting on a tripod and can stabilize the specific low-frequency shake.
I have shot a lot with VR and hand-held today and will be on the lookout for any negative effects.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Some information about real weight measured on my electronic scales. Lenses are ready to shoot as you would have mounted them on the camera-body (i.e. without caps/filters, but including lens-shade):
- AF-S 80-400/4.5-5.6G VR: 1652g, if you remove the tripod collar, you get down to 1560g.
- AF-S 70-200/2.8G VR II + 2x TC: 1908g (of that the TC amounts for 326g). You can only remove the little tripod-foot (not the complete collar) which brings you down to 1830g.
So the new 80-400mm zoom has a bulky exterior but really is quite some leightweight. To reach 400mm focal length it is in fact almost 300g lighter than the 70-200+TC combo.
I've been walking around with the 80-400 for more than an hour yesterday and felt no strain on my shoulders.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Another observation from ongoing testing with Siemens-stars: from 80mm to 150mm the lens exhibits almost no field curvature. Great! I have not yet tested the longer focal lengths, but field curvature is less likely to occur there.
Makes testing pretty simple as I can use one shot (per aperture) for center DX-corner and FX-corner results without refocusing.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Wanna see how big this lens really is by comparison? Looky here:


Long Lenses 4672 by Thomas, on Flickr

From left to right: Nikon AF-S 70-200/2.8G VR II + Nikon AF-S TC-20E III 2x tele-converter, Nikon AF-S 80-400/4.5-5.6G VR + D800, Sigma 400/5,6D APO macro, Tamron 500/8 SP macro mirror lens
The 80-400 is at 400mm here.


Long Lenses 4674 by Thomas, on Flickr
Now the 80-400 (the only extending design in this group) is at 80mm.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Ah, I forgot: There's a page with sample images up (plus a link to my flickr set) here:
http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Nikon ... ages.shtml

Enjoy!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

With the roof shot there is only one choice at 400mm.

Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

Got to say, the more I read about it, the more I like it!

I had the previous 80-400 for a time & really liked it, but found the AF a bit slow for birding.

I'm tempted/thinking about selling my 300mm F2.8, which I use with the 1.7tc, in favour of this new one.
Presently I shoot around F5.6 - F6.3, so should be no probs there, but i'll lose 100mm, but gain the wider zoom range........+ it'll be a lot easier to carry around!

I'd be interested to find how quick/slow AF is acquired, Thomas.

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Nikon D700 & D7100 bodies + Nikkor 300mm F2.8 VR11, 1.7TC, 50mm F1.4G, 16-35mm f/4G VR, 105 F2.8 VR macro, 70-300mm lenses. A couple of filters, Giotto tripod & ballhead. Lowepro Slingshot 302 AW

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldcarlos/

AF-speed is on my todo list, Carlos.
Here's a shot to see some of the quite beautiful Bokeh:


Putto_175f5-6_65315 by Thomas, on Flickr

Have added more high-res shots to my flickr set, so have a look at the new material.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Thanks Thomas. (could you try a few bird shots @ 400mm too? )

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Nikon D700 & D7100 bodies + Nikkor 300mm F2.8 VR11, 1.7TC, 50mm F1.4G, 16-35mm f/4G VR, 105 F2.8 VR macro, 70-300mm lenses. A couple of filters, Giotto tripod & ballhead. Lowepro Slingshot 302 AW

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldcarlos/