A quintessential sports and wildlife lens, this provides a great blend of versatility and images quality for telephoto shooting. As a much-needed refresh to the venerable 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D VR, this updated version sports a number of improvements:

Upgraded vibration reduction (VR) - Nikon's second generation VR technology (also found in the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II) gives up to 4 stops of reduction, creating sharp images at even lower shutter speeds.

Better optical quality - New additional extra-low dispersal lens elements reduce barrel distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting, as well as increase the sharpness edge to edge. Additionally, Nikon's proprietary Nano Crystal Coating reduces flare and ghosting.

Improved autofocus - Silent Wave Motor (SWM) autofocus motor technology tracks faster and much more quietly. Perfect for nature & wildlife photographers who are looking to be as quiet as possible! Also, this lens (unlike its predecessor) maintains autofocus with ALL modern Nikon DSLR bodies, not just the pro-level models.

Overall we're very impressed with this lens' build quality and performance, and we think you will love it for your photography. If this lens is anything like its predecessor, we have a feeling that it'll be going on safari many, many times.