Holy crap! Check out the pics with this lens at night! I had a version of this lens, several generations back, and it was a great lens. And that was without VRII (2nd gen Vibration Reduction, IS in Canon lingo) or the Nano-Crystal coating that’s all the rage on Nikon’s new lenses. I have the Nano-Crystal coating on two of my lenses (the sublime 24-70 f/2.8 and the 60mm Micro-Nikkor) and despite the hideous marketing name, it’s a nice addition. Four stops of VR is just to die for, especially on top of the already fast f/2.8 spec.
And can you imagine this lens, with all its VR and wide aperture on the new D3S, topping out at those crazy ISOs? The mind boggles.
The lens I had was big and heavy, and this version is no exception. Of course, with a street prices well north of $2k, your lighter wallet will somewhat make up for that. But look at those pics! Beautiful piece of kit.