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While I drove to PhotoKina I picked up my 28-300 AF-S VR at audiophil in Aachen.
The birds of prey show at PhotoKina was a nice occasion to test the 28-300 AF-S' AF speed and sharpness...
At first sight I'm happy with this lens' performance -very good sharpness and quite fast focusing-, but I have to run some real tests at home

Some pictures:

D700 + 28-300 AF-S VR @ 190mm, iso 800, 1/400 sec, F8


D700 + 28-300 AF-S VR @ 190mm, iso 800, 1/640 sec, F8


D700 + 28-300 AF-S VR @ 190mm, iso 800, 1/2500 sec, F7.1


D700 + 28-300 AF-S VR @ 300mm, iso 800, 1/1250 sec, F7.1

I am very pleased with the sharpness of this lens at 300mm.
Underneath a 100%crop of the original file of the first picture:

Hey stany, really nice pictures, as you said lens is pretty sharp. I was just curious to how it compares to 70-200mm f/2.8? I know it wouldn't be really fair to compare a superzoom to a telephoto zoom but if it can give a comparable performance then I guess I would get it along with 16-35 f/4 and save some money in the process. I'd be using it on D7000, do you think its a good choice for a DX body? I already have Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 for ultra-wide and can add these two for $2500, that would make a pretty formidable kit! If I go with 70-200mm f/2.8, I wouldn't be able to squeeze anything else in the budget.

nihilistsage wrote:Hey stany, really nice pictures, as you said lens is pretty sharp. I was just curious to how it compares to 70-200mm f/2.8? I know it wouldn't be really fair to compare a superzoom to a telephoto zoom but if it can give a comparable performance then I guess I would get it along with 16-35 f/4 and save some money in the process. I'd be using it on D7000, do you think its a good choice for a DX body? I already have Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 for ultra-wide and can add these two for $2500, that would make a pretty formidable kit! If I go with 70-200mm f/2.8, I wouldn't be able to squeeze anything else in the budget.

Good morning Danish,
I was making a serie of real life comparison shots with the 70-200 AF-SVRII against the 28-300 some time ago but I didn't have the time yet to publish the pictures.
Concerning your idea to use it on a D7000, why not... I was using an "old" 28-300 tamron on my D100 back in 2002-2004 and I had very much fun with this combo. Sharpness was't upto the standards of high quality glass, low light focusing was slow and nearly impossible in low light but the range was extremely attractive and in good light I got nice pictures. Now that the similar range exists in a fast focusing, stabilised lens with much better optics, it can only be better, much better...
TMHO you can't find anything better for travel on FX, on DX someone might prefer 18-200 on behalf of the "one lens" idea... About sharpness the 28-300 AF-S VR is significantly better than than the 18-200...