300mm f/2.8 AF-S II or VR... optical upgrade or just addition of VR

[Bill De Jager]

At this point it's easy to think that AFS always means G and vice versa, since the vast majority of autofocus F-mount Nikkor versions over the years are either both or neither.  The changeovers from screwdrive to AFS and from just D to G + D (with D not mentioned) happened a long time ago, and for most lens series these changes were made at the same time. Of course there are exceptions such as the DX 10.5mm fisheye (G but not AFS), the 17-35/2.8 (AFS but not G), and the supertelephotos during the transitional period (also AFS but not G).

I like the AFS I and AFS II (non-VR) supertelephotos because they combine AFS with an aperture ring.  They could even be used on a manual-focus film camera, though I haven't tried that yet.

[Bill De Jager]

BTW I joined this group several years ago inquiring on methods of UV photography in the digital age appears none aval with current DSLR sensors unless you have 25K lying around to purchase a hamamatsu uv camera. Yes nothing matches Film for it sensitivity, back in the day it was VERY easy to get response down to 253Nm using Fuji RTP even Much lower with spectroscopic kodak 103a  Alas pretty colorful pictures necesitate many overlays bayer filters, IR cut, Low pass, etc etc these stupid hunks of glass attenuate any sub of 385Nm in reaching sensor surface sadly boo hoo.

Several shops will convert your camera to broadband by replacing the sensor glass.  This conversion costs a few hundred dollars US and will allow light down to around 300nm.  The Bayer filter remains, with the exception of the special conversions done by maxmax.com which are very expensive but allow more sensitivity.  The bigger problem is probably getting a good UV lens, and of course you still need a UV-pass filter. 

Are you aware of ultravioletphotography.com? The site has a wealth of information; check the sticky posts in the "technical zone" at the bottom of the page.

[Frank Fremerey]

So much confusion over a misplaced D  Quite obvious it's an AFS lens 

I know that "D" is for "Distance encoding" and "G" means "D" without and aperture ring, but I was not aware that there are lenses with Silent Wave Motor AND Aperture ring, which means tgey are AF-S and Aperture Ring

[Roland Vink]

AFS lenses with aperture ring include the AFS 300/4, AFS 28-70/2.8, AFS 80-200/2.8 and the early AFS super-telephotos.

[John Geerts]

And the 17-35/2.8    (Oh, mentioned already earlier)

[MILLIREHM]

I know that "D" is for "Distance encoding" and "G" means "D" without and aperture ring, but I was not aware that there are lenses with Silent Wave Motor AND Aperture ring, which means tgey are AF-S and Aperture Ring

Got the 17-35/2,8 the 80-200/2,8; 300/2,8 and 500/4 all AF-S (I) with D characteristics AND aperture ring , so there was no technical reason but pure "political decision" to skip the aperture ring and introduce G-Lenses (namedly the 70-200/2,8 as the first professional lens which filled the gap between 70 and 80 mm which was the reason why i quickly got the 80-200 second hand then). In addition the first 80-400 f/4.5-5.6 had VR (as the first Nikkor) also combined with aperture ring but even was lacking silent wave motor and equipped with screwdriver AF so even VR and aperture ring are not  a contradiction