Switches and Dials

  • Focus Mode Switch

    The lens contains a physical switch to select A/M (auto-priority manual), M/A (manual-priority auto), or full Manual focus modes.

  • Focus Limiter

    A focus limiter gives you two options: Select FULL to enable the full range of focus and Infinity to 3m to prevent the lens from focusing on anything closer than 3m. This can often speed up autofocus acquision if you are shooting faraway subjects.

  • VR Mode

    The lens contains a physical VR-mode switch. I prefer this over the newer Z-line lenses that relegate the feature to the camera settings menu. I recommend using this in Sport mode unless you have enough experience to know a good reason not to.

  • Focus Ring

    The plastic focus ring is effective and works well to adjust focus with minimal rotation. The rotation is smooth and the grooves make it easy to operate even with gloves.

A/M (auto-priority manual) - Allows you to rotate the focus ring to switch from autofocus to manual with a built-in time lag to prevent unintentional switching.

M/A (manual-priority auto) - Allows you to rotate the focus ring to switch from autofocus to manual with no time lag.

Glass and Coatings

Lens Construction (Source: Nikon)

Coatings

Phase Fresnel

The 300 PF was Nikon's first lens to feature a Phase Fresnel element. Utilizing an amazing technology that has been used widely in different applications ranging from lighthouses to microscopes, these elements can reduce the size and weight of a lens significantly by limiting the number of glass elements required.

Nano Crystal Coat An advanced coating system that uses nano-sized particles inside the lens to minimize reflections, flaring, and ghosting.
Nikon Super Integrated Coating An additional coating that reduces flare and ghosting caused by backlit conditions and internal reflections.
ED Glass According to Nikon, "the longer the focal length, the more difficult it is to correct the chromatic aberration that causes color fringing." This "extra-low dispersion" glass is designed to "effectively compensate" for this type of aberration.
Fluorine coat This coating is applied to lenses to repel dust, water, grease, and dirt. It also adds an additional anti-reflective effect to the lens.

Internal Features

Silent Wave Motor

The 300 PF contains a Silent Wave Motor, designed to speed up the autofocus speed without increasing the amount of noise output by the lens.

Vibration Reduction

Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) system detects camera shake information and works to stabilize your images. The 300 PF can reliable provide 4.5 stops of VR, allowing to to attain sharp images shot as low as 1/200th of a second handheld.