Today Nikon released an update to their 200-400mm lens: the AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II. This is a professional-grade telephoto zoom that will be of particular interest to nature photographers, if the sample images on Nikon’s site have anything to say about it (all birds, see here, here, here, here and here).

Photo credit: Nikon

Here’s the rundown on this new glass:

Nano Crystal Coat

I have heard many Nikon shooters rave about how the ED coating does a great job of reducing ghosting and flare.

VR

Vibration Reduction helps stabilize the lens, reducing blur from hand shake (but not from moving subjects).

f/4

A constant minimum aperture of f/4 throughout the zoom range. It can also be closed down to f/32.

Focusing

Auto-focuses as close as 2m, manually focuses as close as 1.95m.

Head to Nikon’s page for this lens if you’re interested in the nitty gritty such as MTF charts and construction diagrams.

If you have not used one of these lenses before, it’s pretty big. With the hood and all, probably as long as your arm. A friend of mine owned one for a while, and he had a specific backpack just for this lens.

Differences from the original model

This is an update to the original 200-400mm lens. They’ve added the Nano Crystal Coating and improved the VR from a 3 stop advantage to now 4 stops. An AF/M mode has also been added and is intended to prevent the photographer from accidentally switching from AF to manual focus mode.

This is an FX lens.

Availability

The AF-S 200-400mm f/4 ED VR II is available for pre-order on Amazon for a cool $6,999 USD. It is not appearing in B&H’s catalog yet, but I will update this page when it does. Release is scheduled for late May.