What’s New. The two primary upgrades are a redesigned optical formula that enables a lighter overall weight with improved image quality, and an electromagnetic aperture mechanism that offers more accurate and consistent exposures.

Super Telephoto. These lenses are designed and optimized for professional sports and wildlife shooters, providing extremely fast autofocus with stellar image quality. The Nikon 600mm f/4E offers more reach than the 500mm f/4E, but doesn’t have near the size and weight limitations of the 800mm f/5.6E.

Redesigned Build and Optics. In what might be the most notable change from the AF-S VR, Nikon managed to shave 2.8 lbs. off the lens’s weight by switching to a magnesium alloy die-cast lens barrel. Additionally, two fluorite lens elements and four ED lens elements work in tandem to reduce chromatic aberrations and distortion while ensuring overall image sharpness, clarity, and color fidelity. As expected, you’re still getting pro-grade dust-, moisture-, and weather-sealing for peace of mind in less-than-ideal conditions.

Advanced Vibration Reduction. The in-lens vibration reduction provides up to four stops of correction for low-light shooting. Combined with the weight reduction, this allows the 600mm f/4E FL ED AF-S VR to be used handheld in a pinch (although we don’t recommend it). There’s also a dedicated VR Sport Mode that recognizes panning motion to provide accurate compensation for camera shake.

Silent Wave Autofocus Motor. The Silent Wave Motor provides quick, quiet, and precise autofocus performance. The internal focusing design retains the overall lens length during operation while contributing to a lighter overall weight. Full-time manual focus override is as simple as rotating the focus ring at any time.

Electromagnetic Aperture. Provides greater exposure control stability that is especially beneficial when working with fast continuous shooting rates.