• F-Mount Lens/FX Format
• Aperture Range: f/5.6 to f/32
• One Phase Fresnel Element
• Three Extra-Low Dispersion Elements
• Nano Crystal & Super Integrated Coatings
• Fluorine-Coated Front Lens Element
• Silent Wave Motor AF System
• Vibration Reduction, Sport/Tripod Modes
• Electromagnetic Diaphragm Mechanism
• Detachable, Rotatable Tripod Collar

Sports. Wildlife. Nature. This fast-focusing super-telephoto lens perfectly balances size and performance. Feel the freedom of 500 mm of reach, a compact build, and outstanding image quality.

Land. Sea. Air. Lighten your load but not your reach with this compact f/5.6 500 mm super-telephoto prime lens.

Use of a Phase Fresnel (PF) lens element noticeably reduces the weight of this prime lens, without degrading image quality. A minimum focus distance of just 3 m furthers creative potential. Whether you’re capturing macro images of flowers in frost, or portraits of athlete’s faces.

Robust and agile

The Phase Fresnel (PF) lens element helps keep the lens compact, and a fluorine coating repels water, dust, and dirt. Every movable part of the lens barrel is sealed to protect from dust and water droplets. Ball bearings in the tripod collar ring ensure smooth transitions between horizontal and vertical shooting.

Crisp clarity

Three ED glass elements ensure images with vivid colour and deep contrast. Nikon’s antireflective Nano Crystal Coat ensures clear images with minimal flare and ghosting, even in backlit conditions. PF lens flare is effectively minimised, and the superior resolving power of this lens ensures excellent reproduction of point light sources. Even at the periphery of the frame.

High-speed autofocus

Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor enables ultra-fast, ultra-quiet autofocus performance. Advanced AF tracking keeps pace with fast-moving subjects—even when they’re moving erratically, at random speeds, or approaching the camera quickly. The electromagnetic diaphragm ensures fast automatic exposure control, and maximum accuracy. The two-position focus-limit switch (FULL and ∞–5 m) offers additional control over subject-acquisition speed.

Smooth focus control

Focus functions inherited from Nikon’s professional lenses offer superb control. A/M and M/A focus mode switches let you switch from autofocus to manual focus simply by turning the focus ring. The focus ring boasts a knurled covering that enables a firm grip. And the Memory Recall function lets you store a focus distance for repeated use. Perfect when you want to focus on a bird’s favourite hunting perch.

Phase Fresnel

Phase Fresnel (PF) lens elements effectively compensate for chromatic aberration and ghosting when combined with ordinary glass lens elements. The PF lens element is based upon the Phase Fresnel lens, which appears to have a series of concentric circles engraved onto it. Utilizing a Phase Fresnel lens element allows Nikon engineers to use fewer lens elements, resulting in a more compact and lightweight lens. Due to the characteristics of a PF (Phase Fresnel) lens that utilizes the photo diffraction phenomenon, when there is a strong light source within the frame or when light enters the lens from outside of the frame, ring-shaped coloured flare may occur according to shooting conditions. This phenomenon can be minimized with “PF Flare Control” to be included in Capture NX-D (ver.1.1.0 or later). For more information, see software Help/manual. Capture NX-D is available from the Nikon website. Be sure to keep your software up to date.

ED (Extra-Low Dispersion) Glass

An optical glass developed by Nikon that is used with normal optical glass in telephoto lenses to obtain optimum correction of chromatic aberrations.

Nano Crystal Coat

An anti-reflective coating developed by Nikon that virtually eliminates internal lens element reflections across a wide range of wavelengths. Nano Crystal Coat uses ultrafine, nano-sized* crystal particles to eliminate reflections inside the lens throughout the spectrum of visible light waves (380 to 780 nm) in ways that far exceed the limits of conventional antireflection coating systems. Nano Crystal Coat not only solves ghost effects caused by red light, which was incredibly difficult for previous systems. It also effectively reduces ghost and flare effects caused by light entering the lens diagonally. The result: clearer images.

Electromagnetic Diaphragm Mechanism

An electromagnetic diaphragm mechanism in the lens barrel provides highly accurate electronic diaphragm or aperture blade control when using auto exposure during continuous shooting. With conventional D/G type lenses, the diaphragm blades are operated by mechanical linkage levers.

Vibration Reduction

A Nikon in-lens technology that improves image stability by automatically compensating for camera shake. Lenses that offer VR will feature the abbreviation VR on the lens barrel.

Fluorine Coat

Photographers need gear that can withstand the elements. Nikon’s fluorine coat effectively repels dust, water droplets, grease or dirt, ensuring easy removal even when they adhere to the lens surface. Nikon’s fluorine coat endures a high frequency of lens surface wiping and its anti-reflective effect also contributes to the capture of clear images.

IF Lens

A NIKKOR lens in which only the internal lens group shifts during focusing. Thus, IF NIKKORS do not change in size during AF operation, allowing for compact, lightweight lenses capable of closer focusing distances. These lenses will be designated with the abbreviation IF on the lens barrel.

Silent Wave Motor

AF-S NIKKOR lenses feature Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor (SWM). This technology converts “traveling waves” into rotational energy to focus the optics. This enables high-speed autofocusing that's extremely accurate and super quiet.

M/A

Select NIKKOR lenses have a focusing mode which allows switching from automatic to manual focusing with virtually no lag time by simply turning the focusing ring on the lens. This makes it possible to seamlessly switch to fine manual focusing while looking through the viewfinder.

A/M

A/M stands for Auto-Priority Manual Mode. This mode also enables an easy transition from autofocus to manual during AF operation. However, mode switch sensitivity has been altered to reduce the possibility of sudden unintentional switching to manual focus while shooting.