Wildlife and Lanscape photorapher x 20 years. Used old 80-400 extensively This is a terrific upgrade Sharp!!! Fast focus, a/m and m/a focus, good IS, zoom lock, takes 1.4x tc very well. Soft with 2x. Front filter element seems very rubbery but takes filter fine and have had no problem. Major upgrade in sharpness and autifocus speed. Excellent backpacking telezoom when you need a 400-560 and cant afford the weight of a 400 or 600.

I own both this lens and the original version. The new version is head and shoulders above the original version. The Autofocus is fast and accurate. Zoom action is smooth. The lens takes great photos hand held and at slow shutter speeds. I even got plenty of very useable photos using a TC 1.4 attached to a D800, hand held at slow shutter speeds. The only drawback is the lens is much bigger than the old version and a little heavier.

IN PAST USED THE NIKON 80-400 AND WAS ABLE TO GET GOOD IMAGES QUALITY. AUTO FOCUS FOR FLYING BIRDS LAGGED. I ALSO USED THE 70-200 (CRYSTAL CLEAR) WITH A 1.7 TELE-CONVERTER...MUCH BETTER THAN THE 80-400..BUT NEEDED MORE MAGNIFICATION. THIS IS A BEAUTY OF A LENS: QUICK SHARP FOCUS EVEN WITH THE 1.4 &1.7 TELE (NIKON). DEFINITELY RECOMMEND TO A FRIEND. ADVANCED AMATEUR.

I've had the lens for a little over a week and love it. I also have the 70-200mm VR II and this lens focuses as fast. I've also tried it with my TC 17E and it will focus but hunts. Didn't expect it to even come close. CA is well controlled, actually, I haven't seen enough to even correct. Took it to the track Saturday for a workout and it performed better than I expected. I can't compare to the old version but it is as sharp and fast as my 70-200mm. It's a keeper!

I use it for bird photography. Early days yet, but I like it. The old 80-400 was too slow. This one focuses faster. 90% of my images are good vs. the old one which averages 10% in focus. The servo in the lens makes the difference. Drawback: Hand holding this much heavier lens is hard and packing it required a bigger bag. I bought a Lowepro bag with a waist strap.

I use this lens for bird shots and wild animal shots at Yellowstone. I owned the older 80-400mm Nikon lens and like it but this new lens is quicker to focus, quieter and sharpe. I'm glad I bought it. I love it.

I pre-ordered the lens from B&H with a next day air stipulation. I was doing a wedding and needed a 400 for some of the indoor shots. This particular church only allowed wedding photographers to shoot from the balcony during the ceremony. The lens showed up Thursday on time thanks to B&H, I left for the wedding Friday on a 6 hour drive. No time to get familiar with the lens. Wow! from the balcony I might just have well been standing next to the bride and groom. The image stabilaztion worked great. The photos came out stunning. The lens allowed me to get photos I could have never gotten on the main floor. Focusing was spot on, fast and quite. The lens was mounted on a Nikon D800E. Nikon's 800 allowed me to ramp up the ISO and get the shot without noise problems. I also took photos of the full moon the following week, hand held using stabilization just to see what it can do - again WOW! I was really surprised.