Nikon AF-S VR Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED (VR I)

For five years this was the only fast tele zoom most Nikon shooters would carry, and it earned that loyalty everywhere except one place: the corners of a full-frame frame. On a D2 or any DX body it was untouchable. The day the D3 arrived in 2007 and people put it on 24x36, the wide-open corners at the long end fell apart and the vignetting got ugly, and the complaints started immediately. Nikon eventually answered with the VR II in 2009. But on the film bodies it shares the F mount with, an F5 or an F100, none of that ever mattered.

On 35mm film it is excellent. Center sharpness is there from f/2.8, and by f/4 the whole frame on a 24x36 negative is biting. The IF design means it does not change length when you zoom or focus, which matters when you are hand-holding a long lens and tracking. Contrast runs high, color leans slightly warm and saturated, and the ED glass keeps chromatic aberration off bright edges. The bokeh is the reason portrait and event shooters bought it: nine blades, smooth falloff, backgrounds that go soft cleanly with no nervous edges on out-of-focus highlights. At 200mm and f/2.8 a head-and-shoulders portrait pulls the subject off the background hard, with the working distance a zoom gives you.

This is a documentary and event lens first. Wedding shooters lived on it. Sports and press photographers used it as the short companion to a 300 or 400 prime, and the AF-S silent-wave motor was genuinely fast for its day, fast enough to keep up with field action under stadium light. Wide open in a dim reception hall it gathers enough light that you can meter for the highlights and let the shadows go where they fall.

The honest weakness, besides the full-frame corners, is the VR itself. First-generation VR is only good for two to three stops, modest by later standards. Focus breathing, on the other hand, is mild here. Rack the VR I to its minimum focus distance and the effective focal length drops only slightly, a small shift you will not notice in a portrait. The severe breathing down toward 135mm at close focus belongs to the VR II, which is one reason the older lens still renders better on film.

On film, the long end plus the f/2.8 aperture is also where you decide how to read a scene. With a fast telephoto zoom you are usually metering off a small, bright subject against a darker background, or the reverse, and an averaged reading will lie to you. Drop a spot reading on the face in Zone Light Meter, place it where you want it, and let the long lens compress the rest. The 77mm front thread is the standard Nikon pro size, so a polarizer or ND from your other f/2.8 glass screws right on.

Today the VR I sells cheap because everyone wants the II or the FL version for digital corners. For a film shooter that gap is worth chasing. You get the rendering, the build, and the bokeh that made it famous, and the one flaw that hurt its resale never shows up on a negative.