AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR

This page discusses the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR, introduced in 2015 and discontinued in early 2026. At the time of writing (April 2026), this lens is still listed on numerous Nikon sites. This appears to be Nikon's last 300 mm f/4 in Nikon F mount. It was also Nikon's first lens to use a phase Fresnel optical element, later introduced in multiple Nikkor F and Z long telephoto lenses.

In the following discussion, this lens is henceforth referred to as "the 300 mm" or "the 300 mm PF". This lens' immediate predecessor is the AF-S Nikkor 300 mm f/4 D, optically excellent but significantly longer and heavier, and sometimes criticized for its insufficiently stiff tripod shoe.

Nikon 300 mm f/4 and 300 mm f/2.8 lenses in F mount have been for decades among the favorite lenses of many sports journalists, wildlife photographers, and even street, event, and personality photographers. However, Nikon so far has introduced exactly zero 300 mm primes for its Z system, and apparently has no plans to do so. Therefore, the lens discussed on this page may remain for the foreseeable future the last 300 mm f/4 developed by Nikon.

Nikon just announced the Nikkor Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S, with a zoom range that ends at 300 mm and a built‑in 1.4x teleconverter. This is a large and expensive top‑of‑the‑line lens, far less easy to carry than a 300 mm f/4 prime. The weight of this 120‑300 seems to be a secret for now, but it is unlikely to be a lightweight lens (for example, the Z 600 mm f/4 TC VR S is 3.2 kg).

At the time of writing (May 2026), some of the lens specifications and details are probably not finalized. For example, some pictures of this lens circulating on the Internet show it equipped with an Fn ring (like the Z 600 mm TC and Z 800 mm TC) but no control ring (unlike these two TC lenses), and the tripod shoe may be equipped with an Arca‑compatible sole. Other pictures available on the Internet, instead, show a ring with the typical sculpturing of a control ring in the same position, and no Fn ring. This lens is expected to be released "before the end of 2026".

The lens denomination of the 300 mm PF requires a little explaining:

• AF‑S is a series of modern lenses in Nikon F mount, equipped with an internal motor for autofocus and a set of electric contacts to communicate with the camera. The earlier AF series of lenses used a set of fewer electric contacts, an autofocus motor in the camera body, a "screwdriver" mechanical coupling to transmit the motor's rotation to the focus mechanism of the lens, and a  mechanical lever to control the lens diaphragm, operated by another motor in the camera. AF‑S lenses did away with the aperture ring and screwdriver coupling of AF lenses, but kept the diaphragm lever. The 300 mm discussed here, instead, does away completely with all mechanical couplings in favor of electronic ones.
• The E after the lens speed means that the lens aperture is electronically controlled, as explained above. Only a limited range of Nikon F DSLRs can use these lenses.
• PF means phase Fresnel. A Fresnel lens is conceptually made by sectioning the curved surface of a spherical refractive lens into multiple concentric rings, and placing this set of rings onto a flat, thin glass plate. This makes Fresnel lenses much thinner than normal optical elements. The Fresnel lens is named after the optics genius Augustin‑Jean Fresnel, who died almost exactly 200 years ago. This lens type, however, appears to have been invented earlier by Georges‑Louis Leclerc, and independently re‑discovered and subsequently modified by A.‑J. Fresnel to include also reflective surfaces (which are not used in Nikon's phase Fresnel). In this context, I believe that Nikon's "phase" refers to a modified Fresnel lens design to limit the magnitude of wavefront phase errors. 
• ED means that at least one optical element of the lens is made from an extra‑low dispersion type of glass, often used to reduce chromatic aberrations.
• VR is Nikon's vibration reduction, more properly a type of image stabilization. In a lens, VR moves an optical subassembly to prevent motion blur in recorded images caused by uncontrolled movements of camera and lens during the exposure.
• Strictly speaking, this lens could be regarded as an AF‑S G lens, because it does not have an aperture ring. However, Nikon does not identify its new "E" lenses as "G".

Nikon manufactures PF elements by gluing a precision‑molded, thin plastic Fresnel lens onto an ordinary refractive lens, using much the same process established for producing its composite aspheric elements.

A Fresnel lens can only be optimized for a narrow range of angles of incident light, relative to the optical axis of the lens. For this reason, phase Fresnel elements so far have only been used in prime lenses of long focal lengths. Zoom lenses and lenses of short focal length are difficult to optimize to a sufficient extent in this respect. I believe this optimization is possible only if the PF element is located closer to the front of the lens than any of the optical subassemblies involved in focusing, zooming and VR. Nonetheless, Nikon did patent a few long zoom Z lenses with PF elements, none of which has entered production. Incidentally, the 300 mm has the shortest focal length among current and recent PF lenses. All others are 500 mm or higher.

Fresnel lenses can display chromatic aberration in the opposite direction of a normal refractive element. This can be exploited in lens design to correct chromatic aberrations with a smaller number of optical elements.

Some high-end Canon lenses use diffractive elements, in which one surface carries a large number of microscopic concentric grooves, spaced from each other by a distance equivalent to the wavelength of light. These elements use diffraction to correct some aberrations, while a Fresnel lens uses refraction (and sometimes reflection). The two lens types are therefore very different.

Features

This 300 mm is characterized by a short physical length and light weight. It is only 147.5 mm long (as a comparison, the 300 mm f/4 D is 223 mm long) and weighs 755 g (the 300 mm f/4 D is 1,440 g). Thus, the PF lens is 75.5 mm shorter and only half the weight of its D counterpart. The large difference in weight is partly due to the optics, and part to the use of advanced plastics instead of metal in most of the lens barrel.

This lens was sold with an HB‑73 lens shade but without a tripod collar. Apparently, Nikon believes that this lens should mostly be used hand‑held. I tend to agree, but sometimes I still want/need to mount it on a tripod.

A Nikon RT‑1 tripod collar can be purchased separately for this lens, but it is not equipped with an Arca‑compatible foot. Third‑party replacement lens collars, all made in China, are available, some of them equipped with an Arca foot. Unfortunately, neither the Nikon original collar nor any of the third‑party ones I am aware of is equipped with an eyelet for a neck strap.

Among the third‑party collars, the iShoot RT‑1 is the easiest to purchase from online sellers. It is a little lightly built, but would be usable if it did not lack a quick-release socket, as well as the MA3 safety screws that prevent the shoe from sliding out of a clamp when the latter is unlocked. It also lacks threaded holes for these screws, an unusual omission that makes it significantly less safe to use.

When this lens is mounted on a heavy Z camera like the Z8 via an FTZ or FTZ II adapter, the lens becomes too rear‑heavy for this tripod collar or the Chinese replacement collars, but too front‑heavy to attach the camera bottom to a tripod. The center‑of‑mass of this combination of equipment is approximately located at the Nikon F lens mount. To achieve a better balance, one can use an FTZ lens adapter equipped with a sufficiently long Arca plate, instead of a lens collar. The FTZ has been discontinued, but is still easy to find on the second‑hand market. It was replaced by the FTZ II, which lacks a tripod screw socket at its bottom and is therefore not suitable for this purpose. A drawback of the FTZ adapter is that it does not allow the camera to be rotated to portrait orientation.

If shooting in portrait orientation is necessary, there is no good alternative to a lens collar. Reversing the lens collar so that its tripod shoe points backward makes the camera and lens more balanced. In this case, an FTZ II lens adapter should be used.

Optics

The above figure shows the optical scheme of the 300 mm. This lens uses 16 elements in 10 groups, of which one PF element (green) and one ED element (yellow). There are no aspheric elements. VR requires moving an optical subassembly, typically located near the diaphragm. I found no information of which specific subassembly is used for this purpose.

The filter mount is 77 mm. There is no provision for internal or rear‑mounted filters.

This lens accepts modern teleconverters. It works with TC-14E III, TC-17E II, and TC-20E III. The image quality with teleconverters is discussed below.

Nikon Z teleconverters cannot be used with this lens (not even at the rear of an FTZ/FTZ II adapter).

Focusing

Focusing is internal. The minimum focus distance is 1.4 m, which is close enough to shoot at subjects located at one's feet while standing.

The focus ring is large and rubber‑coated. Manual focus is mechanical, noy by wire. Autofocus can be overridden at all times by turning the focus ring. A friction coupling prevents manual focusing from exerting an excessive force on the focusing mechanisms.

Lens controls

Aside for the focus ring, the only controls are three sliders:

Focus modes

• A/M: Autofocus while the shutter button is kept half‑pressed; manually turn the focus ring to override AF.
• M/A: Like the preceding one, but the focus ring must be turned a little more for engaging manual override. Use this setting to avoid accidentally engaging manual override.
• M: Manual focus

Focus limit

• FULL: The full focus range is available.
• ∞-3m: Only allows focus at 3 m and farther.

VR

• OFF: No VR.
• NORMAL: VR is active.
• SPORTS: VR is active, but it tries to detect intentional camera panning, and to avoid canceling this panning.

Weather sealing

This lens is not weather sealed. It only has a rubber gasket around the rear mount. Do not expose this lens to rain, drizzle, condensing humidity, salt spray, sand and wind‑blown dust.

Test

I carried out the following test with the same subject I used in several recent tests of Nikon lenses (but the weather and light change all the time, so you cannot compare amoung test pictures taken on different days). I shot all test images hand‑held at ISO 200, with VR enabled, with a Nikon Z8 (45.7 Mpixel). The overcast sky caused a general lack of contrast and a very diffused illumination.

I focused on the hedge at the center of the frame. The street sign visible at the bottom left is blurry because several meter closer to the camera, and therefore out of focus. The objects and furniture visible through the glass panes are also out of focus.

I shot 5 times each of the above test pictures hand‑held, then chose the best (i.e. sharpest) results at each aperture. VR was not always effective in completely eliminating the camera motion blur. Aside for this, the image at f/4 in my test was the sharpest, probably because of its lowest exposure time (1/350 s). On the other hand, the hedge is a three‑dimensional subject, and each time AF picked up and focused onto leaves at slightly different depths within the hedge. Within these limitations, the slight loss of resolution at f/11 is compensated by its higher depth of field, and there is no clearly visible winner among the different apertures. While this subject is not ideal for evaluating image resolution from a theoretical point of view, it is nonetheless representative of a common, natural three‑dimensional subject. In practice, all apertures between f/4 and f/11 produce visually roughly similar results.

I repeated the test with the lens fully open (nominal f/4) and 1.4x, 1.7x and 2x Nikon AF‑S teleconverters of the latest generation (see e.g. here). Results with the TC‑14E III 1.4x teleconverter (effective 420 mm f/5.6) are almost as sharp as without a teleconverter, and clearly better than cropping an image shot without teleconverter. The TC‑17E II 1.7x teleconverter (effective 510 mm f/6.3) caused a stronger loss of resolution, but still better than cropping an image shot without teleconverter. I regard the results with the TC‑20E III 2x teleconverter (effective 600 mm f/8) at or past the limit of acceptability (above figure), but this image would look quite sharper if shot with a 20 or 25 Mpixel camera. Additionally, some of the twigs in the deep background of this picture seem to be better focused than the leaves in the foreground.

For this reason, I decided to repeat the test with a flatter test subject, i.e. a pavement of garden concrete bricks imaged from four floors up. The first test below is without teleconverter.

These images are very sharp, in particular at f/5.6, which turns out to be the optimal aperture for this lens.

The following test is with TC‑14 III teleconverter.

The three above figures are shot with the 300mm and TC‑14 III at f/5.6 (i.e. fully open), f/8 and f/11 effective apertures, respectively. There is some fuzziness at f/5.6, but at f/8 and f/11 the pictures are remarkably sharp, in particular at f/8. I would not hesitate to use this teleconverter with the 300 mm, as long as there is enough light to shoot at f/8.

Results with the TC‑17 II (not shown) are only moderately fuzzier. The amount of real detail with this teleconverter is higher than with the TC‑14 III and cropping the picture.

The TC‑20 III, on the other hand, gives significantly fuzzier results. The two‑stop "loss" also means shooting at effective f/8 or f/11. I would not use this teleconverter with the 300 mm, unless there is no other way to bring a picture home.

Conclusions

Based on my second-hand specimen mounted on the Z8, the AF‑S Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR is very sharp in optimal conditions, and performs well on the Nikon Z8. It reaches its highest image quality at f/5.6. It is physically short and very lightweight for a lens of this focal length, but on a Z camera the FTZ or FTZ II lens adapter increases the lens length by 30 mm. It is one of the few AF‑S lenses that completely replaced their mechanical couplings to the camera body (including the aperture actuator) with electronic ones.

This lens is much shorter than its predecessor AF‑S 300 mm f/4 D, and weighs only half as much.

This lens is reasonably common on the second‑hand market but still expensive, as a consequence of having been discontinued very recently (early 2026). On the second‑hand market, it costs 3‑4 times more than the older 300 mm f/4 D.

This lens' autofocus is very fast on the Z8, possibly a little faster than on top‑of‑the‑line DSLRs. Manual focus is mechanical, not by‑wire.

This lens can use AF‑S teleconverters. I would recommend the TC‑14E III for good results (i.e. effective 420 mm f/5.6), and the TC‑17E II (effective 510 mm f/6.3) if you absolutely need a longer focal length and can tolerate some loss of image quality and AF reliability, but not the TC‑20E III (effective 600 mm f/8).

This lens is not weather sealed.