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159 of 160 found the following review helpful:
a must ownNov 14, 2007
By Donna Kasowitz
This lens is THE lens to own if you want to shoot indoor sports. The newspaper I work for has me out on a lot of volleyball, hockey and basketball beats, and this lens does not come off my camera. I have taken this lens out to soccer games and baseball games but use it mainly as back up. If you want to shoot these sports you'll want something up in the 300-400 range. Soccer especially.
The 2.8 aperture is a must for these low (and orange/brown) light situations. I was using a 200mm f4 but fell just short of being able to freeze the action perfectly without any blur. The little bit of extra light makes a world of difference.
I shoot with a D80 and find that I can keep my ISO down around 400 and be very comfortable with the results. In my situation (newsprint) I could go as high as 800 and be alright with it, but the glass in this lens lets me keep it low.
If you are in the fence, pick this lens up. For under 1000 bucks you can't beat it. It's ultra wide, and doesn't lose any sharpness at 2.8.
The only situation where you should not buy this lens is if you own a D40 or D40x. These bodies will not support the AF function of this lens, and seeing as how this is a great medium tele sports lens, not having AF would make this lens a bust.
They make a version with a built in motor that will communicate the D40 and D40x but it'll cost you close to 800 more.
As a side note this lens is heavy (as are most 2.8 tele lenses) There is a lot of big glass in this lens and after an hour or so of shooting hand held you will really want a mono pod. This lens has a great tripod shoe, so don't be afraid to throw it up on mono and go to town, your arms will appreciate the help
One final note. If you are undecided about this lens because it does not have any sort of optical stabilization or vibration reduction consider what you will be using this for. If you are shooting sports or action you wont need and it wont use it. If you are shooting from a tripod or good mono pod, you wont need and wont use it. The VR is only good in handheld situations when the object you are photographing is stationary.
This lens is a 5 star lens
81 of 82 found the following review helpful:
Best value Nikon professional telephoto lens. Great for sport, action, wedding, and low-light photographyApr 18, 2009
By Sidarta Tanu
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.
If you are wondering whether you should get a fast lens or a lens with VR (Vibration Reduction), here's my take: In overall, VR does help a lot (as it will reduce camera shake) and will produce better/sharper picture than equivalent lens without VR (especially if the object is static). If the object is moving (sports/action) then VR feature alone might not help (depending on how fast the object is moving and how much light is available), and a fast lens often end up being a far better solution, even without VR feature as it will allow much faster shutter speed to freeze motion. Using tripod (and a remote) will substitute for the need of VR feature. In general I would recommend getting a fast lens with VR feature (and usually it is expensive) such as the 70-200 f/2.8 VR, but if one can only get for one or the other, then find out what do you want to use the lens for and then use the guideline mentioned here.
FYI: This lens will not autofocus with Nikon D40, D40x, D60, D3000, D3100, D5000 or D5100.
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.
Happy Photographing!
Sidarta Tanu
29 of 29 found the following review helpful:
 A great lens but the m/af ring breaks.Jun 28, 2009
By R. Levine
"PhotoGraphicsPro"
I love this lens and Nikon products in general, so I hate to be negative, but I think people should be aware of a potential problem with this lens. I take very good care of my gear, and although I'm a pro, I used this lens infrequently and very lightly. One day the M/AF ring button stopped working and the plastic ring that it sits in had a crack where there is a screw in it to hold things together. I sent it to Nikon and paid $200 to have it fixed. I would not have given it a second thought but... one day I went to use the lens after hardly using it at all - maybe 200 shots over the course of 2 years, and the new ring was cracked in the same place - leaving the lens again unusable. It's obviously a manufacturing defect in design or materials. This time I sent it to KEH and had it fixed for $125. They told me they had seen the problem many times. Hopefully this new ring is made of better materials that will last longer. Hopefully Nikon will not make expensive products with parts that easily break.
69 of 76 found the following review helpful:
Sharp and fast, heavy and slowJan 01, 2004
By Joseph Lazzaro
This is a top-notch lens, tack sharp and fast (f/2.8) across it's entire zoom range. The built-in tripod collar will save a lot of stress on your camera mount, you'll see why when you lift this sucker - it feels like a brick. On the downside, auto-focusing can be a little slow. If you have an older camera body with an underpowered auto-focus motor it may not be able to keep up with a fast moving target. My N90s can handle it pretty well, but I don't do many action shots. If you shoot sports or other fast action, you should consider the AF-S version. It's internal motor eases the load on the camera and improves focus speed, but make sure you're body can use AF-S lenses.If you're a casual photographer who generally uses fast film, this lens is probably overkill. If you're very serious and shoot slow film, it will help you squeeze out every stop possible. The wide aperture is also great for minimizing depth of field, very useful if you shoot through wire at the zoo and for isolating subjects against a busy background (think great portraits). If you do get it, do yourself a favor and get a good monopod, your arms will thank you! I can't stress enough that this thing is *HEAVY*!
29 of 30 found the following review helpful:
I have feelings for this lens, is that wrong?Feb 16, 2010
By Just Some Dude
When you open your box the lens case is pretty cool, but then I just put it up on a shelf where I keep all my other Nikon boxes in case I need to sell it some day. It's true what everyone says, it feels really good hefting a hunk of metal, I was grinning ear to ear. I guess because the lens is so solid that I immediately noticed the cheap looking plastic ring for switching between manual and auto focus, it's really out of place. How do you say oops in Japanese? Now that lame-beuracratic-cost-cutting-blunder aside, it's pretty dang sexy.
I was really nervous for my first shot since I've seen a few posts about "soft" focus on some rogue lenses out there. Mine was crisp and sharp and beautiful. Yes beautiful. I have since shot graduation, families, fashion, babies and bikinis with this lens and each time I view the RAW files at 100% in post I'm so satisfied with the sharpness and pleasing quality this lens sees with.
Now, as to the weight, don't think for a minute that you can hand hold this in low light and get good results. Yeah yeah, if you crank your ISO into sandstorm mode maybe you can get the shot but it's not going to look pro. Or if you are an arteeest and want a little blur motion, then fine. But listen, I'm a fit dude with some meaty hooks and I was still a bit shaky after an hour of holding it up to my eye. You've got to tripod this baby. It's worth it though.
My conclusion is that if you have a nice tripod and aren't going to be rough with the plastic ring or threads, you should buy it, it has many applications. Heck I'm even using it for landscapes now. I give it 4 stars overall because it does hunt a little more than I like in low light and of course the stupid plastic ring. Optics I give it 5 stars. And my own category, pleasing intangible image quality, 5 stars. So if I could have my money back right now and walk away from it, I would not... I would buy it again and have no desire to drop an additional $700 bucks for the new VR version. It's my new fav. Hope this helps you make your decision!
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