Nikon NIKKOR 300mm 1:4.5 ED IF Ai-S Lens (f/4.5)

Overall Rating:

This is the internal focus (IF) with ED glass version of the 300mm/4.5 lens. It has a 280° focus throw and weighs just under 1 kilogram at 990 grams. It comes with a tripod mount that is often missing and is rather useful to have if using long teleconverters like the 2× magnifying TC-300.

The first Nikkor f=300mm/4.5 lens was introduced in 1964 as the Nikkor-P 300mm f/4.5 Auto, a five element lens. It was updated in 1969 to have one more element and therefore better optics. It became the Nikkor-H 300mm f/4.5 Auto. Then in 1975, the same lens was updated to have the new "K" cosmetics and again updated to the Ai version in 1977. Pre-Ai "K" lenses didn't last for long because Nikon replaced them with Ai lenses only two years after their introduction. The IF version was introduced as an Ai lens in 1978, which was replaced by this Ai-S version in 1981 (production ended in 1999). About 29,000 Ai-S units were produced while only about 8,000 Ai units were produced making the Ai version rather rare. This lens has seven elements in six groups which is adequate since a lens only really needs more elements when it has a faster, larger aperture than this. Great numbers of elements are used to sharpen the periphery of images from faster lenses.

The 300mm focal length must be popular. Here is a list of these 300mm f/4.5 lenses over the 35 years of existence:

Its all-metal design is a joy to use. It takes 72mm filters which do not rotate as the lens is focused, features a built-in hood and is multicoated, just like all Ai-S lenses are. This lens even has NIC (Nikon Integrated Coating) to further improve contrast. While it is no where near as compact as the Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR lens, the compactness cannot be ignored with dimensions of only 80×192mm (3.1×7.6in.). The focus does not stop at infinity like many Nikkor lenses of this age do, possibly because of the long, all-metal design and the fact that it has ED glass. It also lacks the settable focus detent that its bigger cousin, the Nikkor 400mm/5.6 ED IF Ai-S lens, has.

The performance of the this Nikkor 300mm f/4.5 ED IF Ai-S lens is compared to the Nikkor 400mm/5.6 ED IF Ai-S lens in its review.

This lens is fully compatible with many Nikon DSLR cameras, such as the FX ones and some DX ones, such as the D2Xs, D7200, D500, etc. Check the camera's manual or specifications for compatibility with Ai/Ai-S lenses.

From the image above, it is obvious how compact this lens is. It's less than double the length of a 105mm macro or 135mm telephoto lens.

The bokeh from this lens is nice but it does seem to exhibit very slight longitudinal chromatic aberration (a.k.a. LoCA).

This lens is good for infrared photography.

Distortion is well controlled.

Flaring is well controlled, not so for ghosting.

Diffraction has begun by f/11. This lens is sharpest and has the most contrast at around f/8.

Sharpness is good, but this lens does exhibit a little color fringing which is not totally surprising because many lenses with ED glass exhibit color fringing, some much newer. This lens has slighlty less of this aberration than the Nikkor 300mm f/4.5 Ai lens. Color fringing is easily corrected in post. See the image (detail) for the evidence of color fringing.

The above image is focused to 30 meters / 100 feet. The berries and yellow bells images on this page are focused to 2.5 meters, the minimum of the lens. This is equivalent to being focused to about 16.5 inches with a f=50mm lens.

When mounted on extension tubes such as a PN-11 and a couple of PK-13 extension tubes, this lens excels as is obvious from the image of a sunflower above.

Using Teleconverters

The following images are focused to approximately 30 meters or 100 feet.

First, the TC-201 teleconverter:

Here are 600×400 pixel images cropped from the above images:

Next, the TC-300 teleconverter:

Here are 600×400 pixel images cropped from the above images:

Next, the TC-14A teleconverter:

Here are 600×400 pixel images cropped from the above images:

Next, the TC-14 teleconverter:

Here are 600×400 pixel images cropped from the above images:

Finally, the TC-300 and TC-14 teleconverters together for f=840mm:

Here are 600×400 pixel images cropped from the above images:

These teleconverters together introduce a lot of color fringing.

Conclusion from above images: the TC-300 and TC-14 teleconverters perform the best. This should come as no surprise because they are designed for 300mm and longer lenses. The only surprise is how subtle the differences are. Here are the best results from each teleconverter compared:

Here are some moon shots at infinity (∞) and all in DX mode:

This modest little lens performs rather well with teleconverters. Not perfectly sharp, but acceptable. It was not a perfectly clear night. These images could have been slightly sharper if not for a very thin overcast which created a slight halo around the moon and probably degraded the sharpness just a tad. What is most surprising is that there is not more color fringing. In fact, there is almost none. Based on the color fringing found in the above images of the transformer, one would expect there to be more where the darkness meets the moon and its craters.

• Focal length: 300mm
• Maximum aperture: f/4.5
• Minimum aperture: f/32
• ø72mm filter ring
• Lens construction: 7 lens elements in 6 groups (one ED glass element)
• Picture angle: 8°10' (Full Frame), 5°20' (DX)
• Distance scale: 2.5m/8.2ft. to infinity with infrared focus index
• 1:7.1 (0.14×) maximum reproduction ratio
• Price: $865 (USD) (1985), $1338 (USD) (1988)

Related links:

• Nikon Nikkor Lens Reviews
• All Lens Reviews