Nikon 105mm VR

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Nikon 105mm VR
© 2006 KenRockwell.com

Not Recommended - see Performance section below. VR is great, but autofocusing was unreliable. I prefer my older, less expensive Nikon 105mm AF.

This was announced on February 21st, 2006. Nikon uses the word "micro" exactly the same as the rest of us use the word "macro."

This new lens does the same thing as the 105mm f/2.8 Macro I already own, and adds a silent wave motor / AF-S focusing and hand shake vibration reduction (VR).

Nikon tells us that its VR works best at distances greater than 10 feet, with diminishing returns closer. Nikon claims 4 stops at 10 feet and beyond. Regardless of how many stops you get, the same VRII system in my 18-200 VR works wonders.

It works with both digital and film cameras. This is Nikon's only Micro lens that will autofocus on a D40. No big deal; when I'm shooting macro I'm shooting with manual focus anyway.

Alphabet-wise this new macro lens adds an ED element for potentially better side sharpness due to a potential reduction in secondary lateral chromatic aberration. This aberration is called color fringing by hobbyists.

Nano Crystal Coat is Nikon's latest magic multicoating to reduce flare and ghosts. It's only applied to one element. That's the "N" designation next to the focus distance window.

Optics: It has 14 elements in 12 groups. That's a lot. My older 105mm AF Micro has 9 elements in 8 eight groups, which is also a lot.

Diaphragm: 9 blades. f/2.8 to f/32 at infinity. My older 105mm AF Micro has only 7 blades.

Additional included accessories: front and rear caps and a flexible CL-1020 lens pouch.

I tried three samples at PMA 2006. All of them didn't autofocus very well on my D200. They would often not get good focus, so the green focus confirmation dot in the lower left of the finder wouldn't light, so the shutter wouldn't release in S mode. This is bad. My old 105 mm AF, not even D, focuses much more reliably.

The new 105 VR would often hang at one end of the focus range. It would rack itself in and out, and hang if it couldn't find anything. My old 105 mm AF never has this problem. My old lens may rack in and out and not find anything, but tapping the D200 shutter again would let it try again instead of hanging.

Speed of focus, presuming it locks on, is about the same on my D200 as my mechanically focused 105 mm AF.

I'm hoping that what were billed as production models actually had some known flaw that will be corrected in production, or that I was consistently doing something stupid. VR shouldn't have caused any issue; VR helps when doing the same thing with my 18 - 200 VR.

It's fine in manual mode. It takes a little more rotation of the focus ring, about 220º vs. 180º of my older lens, to rack it all the way from infinity to 1:1.

The instant manual override is great. My older lens requires a selector to be moved to change modes. On the new VR lens you just grab the focus ring. This is very handy if you use both AF and MF while chasing bugs.

Here's what I got, hand held, at ranges varying between one and ten meters. This was looking at the image from my D200 at 100%:

1/2: Never 100% sharp at 100%, but still plenty of decent shots when printed at normal sizes. Remember that 100% viewing of a D200 image is like looking at a 3 foot wide print from arms' length!

Hint: VR improves your hit ratio. It doesn't guarantee every shot is sharp. I always shoot at least three-shot bursts at slow speeds so I can pick the sharp shot out of several when shooting handheld at sinfully slow speeds.

It's a lot fatter than my older 105 mm f/2.8 AF. This is a result of the addition of the VR system. It feels about as long.

Forget it. Nikon says the AF-S Teleconverters (TC-14E II, TC-17E II and TC-20E II) won't autofocus. That's suspicious, since since the maximum resulting aperture at most focus ranges ought to be OK. I'm unsure if this warning from Nikon not to use TCs is due to a design issue which leads to the iffy autofocusing I noted, or if it's Nikon playing it safe since at the closest focus distance any TC will have too slow an aperture for correct AF. I usually manual focus my macro lens for macro use anyway. You will get VR and metering and exposure with these TCs.

Any old crappy manual focus TC, like my TC-200, ought to do the same although you'll also miss VR and on some cameras AE. On the D200 , D2X and F6 you ought to be able to enter the lens data manually and treat it like a manual focus lens with an old manual TC and get matrix metering.

It's a G lens so it has no aperture ring. It won't work on manual-focus film cameras. It's perfectly compatible with every current AF camera and mostly compatible with 1980's AF cameras. Read your instruction books carefully.

Pass on it and get the older 105 mm f/2.8 AF instead. That older lens sells for $700 and this new one sells for $830. I'm hoping the focus issue I saw will go away. I'll let you know if I try it again.

I love the VR, but for macro I always use flash to stop action and have enough light for small apertures to get depth-of-field. For hand-held low-light fooling around I prefer my 18 - 200 VR instead, which gives consistently excellent results.

If you get one of these new 105 VRs be sure to test that your AF works every time, and try all your AF sensors. Even if the center sensor works, the side sensors may not. Try them all and make sure that your lens gets focus and lets you release the shutter reliably.