20 minutes walk with AF-P DX Nikkor 70-300 1:4.5-6.3G ED VR

[MEPER]

Few days ago I got a refurbished AF-P DX Nikkor 70-300 from the Nikon Store. I read some positive reviews about this cheap plastic lens and thought let me try one. I was also interesting in what you get if you order a refurbished lens. Price was about $275. So what optical quality can you get for $275?     …..lens looked like new and nice to know that lens should perform as a new lens.
I use the lens on a D5200 body. I walked about 20 min close to where I live and took a few images. I will post some of them here. Lens was used handheld at about F/8.
Focus is very fast and VR works very well it seems. I was quite surprised by the optical quality of such a cheap plastic lens. Even bayonet mount is plastic. Nice thing is that it is easy to carry.
For images there is also a 100% crop to verify sharpness.

[MEPER]

Few more images (a couple with 100% crop).

[MEPER]

A few more pictures from a short walk using this lens handhold. Still quite impressed by the sharpness (handhold) that is possible with such a cheap lens. It is very lightweight so very easy to carry.

[CS]

Which body was that lens mounted on? I have that lens too, but I have no way to turn VR off when it's mounted on my D7200.

Nice shots,BTW!

[CS]

Now I see that you were using the D5200.

[MEPER]

Yes, it is a D5200...….old and outdated :-)
I think on some models VR can be turned off in the camera menu but I have not found it on D5200 so don't think this function is available on and then probably not on D7200 either.

For tripod mount it could be an advantage to switch VR off. I have not tried the lens on a tripod to check if VR can interact so images gets blurred.

[CS]

Yes, it is a D5200...….old and outdated :-)
I think on some models VR can be turned off in the camera menu but I have not found it on D5200 so don't think this function is available on and then probably not on D7200 either.

For tripod mount it could be an advantage to switch VR off. I have not tried the lens on a tripod to check if VR can interact so images gets blurred.

Nikon released a FW update that allows bodies to turn VR on and off for these AF-P lenses, but they did not include the D7200 in that release. So, I can live with that, or buy a later model, such as the D7500 that I don't want, or the D500 that I would like, but can't justify.

[CS]

On my D7200 and tripod. #1 at 78mm. and #2 at 130mm.

I like the lens and it's sharpness, but not it's cheap build with plastic mount. OTOH, I  got it new for $150 when I bought the D7200, so it's not without value.

[Bent Hjarbo]

I bought a used one for my wife, as it got nice reviews, we are not disappointed 

[Hermann]

I use one as a lightweight walk-around lens. Works pretty well. D7500, 70-300 AF-P DX, cropped.

[MEPER]

Nice bird!
We don't have many of those anymore…...only a few.
A lens where you get a lot of optical quality for the money.
You just have to take care when handling the lens so plastic bayonet don't break. If it happens I have seen that spare part exist. It is the whole "under cup" that needs to be exchanged as the bayonet is integrated in this part. Must probably be done as "DIY"....as an official repair probably will be too expensive compared to value of lens. Then lens has to be protected against rain and dust as it has no sealings.
I put a high quality Hoya UV filter on my lens. The filter alone is a large part of lens value…….

[Hermann]

Another shot with the 70-300 DX. The quality is quite astounding given the price of this lens. With its light weight it's the ideal walk-around lens for someone like me who prefers telephoto zooms for anything, even landscape photography.

D7500, ISO 900, f 6.3

[MEPER]

Yes, nice bird.
We can also see that even a f6.3 it is possible to isolate the background and I think bokeh looks ok. Both foreground and background.

[MEPER]

Some days ago I tried the 70-300 on my Nikon 1 J5 body (via the Nikon F-mount adapter). J5 has a 20 MP CX sensor. If lens is set at 300 mm it gives a 35mm equivalent = 810mm. So quite a magnification with such a small and light weight package. It was an overcast day and sun was about to go down so not that much light. Image was shout at 300mm at full aperture (6.3) at ISO 1250 and 1/500 sec. handhold and AF and VR worked quite well. I would estimate the distance to the object to be about 100m. From the 100% crop it can be seen that high-iso performance is not that good but for pure documentary it can be used. High-iso noise reduction was on during raw conversion. If off then image appear sharper but with a lot more visible noise. But I still think that lens performance it good?

[SA_Photo_Man]

I've shot mine AF-P FX with the J5 at 1/100 hand held and one out of two is a sharp one.
At full zoom it is a handful of wiggle.