Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F · 1972 · Telephoto

our own finding

Also known as: Nikkor-H 300mm f/2.8 · Nikkor-H Auto 300mm f/2.8 · Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED · Ai Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED IF · AI-S Nikkor 300mm F2.8 ED-IF · AF Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 IF-ED · AF-I Nikkor 300mm f/2.8D IF-ED · AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8D IF-ED · AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II · San-nippa · Nikon 300/2.8 · ニッコール 300mm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Nikkor-H 300mm f/2.8 · Telephoto type, 6 elements in 5 groups; the front three form an apochromatic objective using Schott extra-low-dispersion glass Nikon F (pre-Ai, preset — no meter prong) 1972 603011 – 603082 (72) 72 (Vink)¹
Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED (K) · The same 6 elements in 5 groups, now with Nikon's own ED glass and multicoating Nikon F (pre-Ai, preset — no meter prong) 1975 604011 – 604088 (78) 78 (Vink)¹
Ai Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED IF · Eight elements in six groups, internal focusing, two ED elements — a new design, not the preset lens re-barrelled Nikon F (Ai) 1977–1982 605101 – 607701 (2,601) 2,601 (Vink)¹
Ai-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED IF Nikon F (Ai-S) 1982–1985 609001 – 614751 (5,751) 5,751 (Vink)¹
Ai-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 IF-ED New Nikon F (Ai-S) 1986–2005 620001 – 627680 (7,680) 7,680 (Vink) — the largest manual block, and the longest run at nineteen years¹
AF Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 IF-ED · Eight elements in six groups — the manual optical system with a screw-drive focus coupling Nikon F (AF, screw drive) 1986–1987 200001 – 201860 (1,860) 1,860 (Vink)¹
AF Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 IF-ED New Nikon F (AF, screw drive) 1988–2005 201861 – 201872 (12) — an early series of twelve lenses
300001 – 312806 (12,806) 		12,818 across two serial series (12 + 12,806 — arithmetic, not a published total)¹
AF-I Nikkor 300mm f/2.8D IF-ED · Eleven elements in nine groups, four ED — Nikon calls the optical design completely renewed Nikon F (AF-I, motor in the lens) 1992–1996 200001 – 206249 (6,249) 6,249 (Vink)¹
AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8D IF-ED · Eleven elements in eight groups, three ED — renewed again for the ultrasonic motor Nikon F (AF-S, silent wave motor) 1996–2001 200001 – 209152 (9,152) 9,152 (Vink)¹
AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8D IF-ED II Nikon F (AF-S) 2001–2004 200001 – 205905 (5,905) 5,905 (Vink)¹
AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G IF-ED VR Nikon F (AF-S, G — no aperture ring) 2004–2009 200001 – 201853 (1,853) — September 2004 to 2005
300001 – 309031 (9,031) — the 2006 six-series, to 2009 		10,884 across two serial series (1,853 + 9,031 — arithmetic)¹
AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II Nikon F (AF-S, G — no aperture ring) 2009 200001 – 217224 and continuing (17,224 recorded) 17,224 and rising (Vink, still open at his August 2026 update) — the largest block in the family¹
  1. Vink's quantity column is derived from serial numbers he has collected, not from Nikon records. Nikon has published a production figure for the preset lens only, and it is a verbal one.
  2. Nikon's tale of the lens says the preset version's production "reached mere one hundred and several tens". Vink's two blocks total 150, which sits inside that phrasing without confirming it: the figures are independent, and neither is a factory count.
  3. Four dates are in dispute between Nikon's own history and Vink's serial evidence. Nikon: Ai IF-ED February 1978, AF October 1986, AF-S November 1996. Vink: November 1977, November 1986, July 1996. Both are recorded here; neither is preferred.
  4. Specification by version, from Vink's table, as barrel diameter × length from the mount: preset, 6 elements in 5 groups, f/32, 4m, 18 blades, 122mm filter, 125mm across with no length recorded (251mm over the rear protector), 2,600g; Ai and Ai-S IF-ED, 8 in 6, f/22, 4m, 9 blades, 122mm and 39mm filters, 138 × 241mm, 2,500g; Ai-S New, 8 in 6, 3m, 39mm only, 132 × 255mm, 2,400g; AF New, the same optics, 133 × 255mm, 2,700g; AF-I D, 11 in 9, 2.5m, 124 × 241mm, 2,950g; AF-S D, 11 in 8, 52mm rear filter, 124 × 269mm, 3,100g; AF-S D II, the same at 2,560g; G VR, 124 × 268mm, 2,850g; G VR II, 267.5mm, 2,900g.
  5. Nikon records something the specification tables do not: the 1972 lens covers 6×6cm, and was designed so it could be switched to a Bronica Nikkor. No such Bronica version is recorded in Vink's database or in any other source consulted.
  6. No list price for any version has been found in the sources consulted, in yen or in dollars.
  7. Four optical systems have worn this name: six elements in five groups on the preset lens of 1972–75, eight in six with internal focusing from 1977 to 2005, eleven in nine for the AF-I of 1992, and eleven in eight for the AF-S of 1996 and every version after it.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Preset aperture and eighteen blades belong to 1972–75 and nothing else. Every version from 1977 has an automatic diaphragm and nine.
  • Filtration walks backwards through the family: a 122mm screw-in at the front to 1985, a 39mm internal slot from 1977 to 1996, a 52mm rear drop-in from 1996 onward. From the Ai-S New the front glass is a fixed protective element and nothing threads onto it.
  • ED element count, from Vink's feature column: two on the preset and IF lenses, four on the AF-I, three on every AF-S.

Nikkor-H 300mm f/2.8:

  • No ED on the barrel — the glass is Schott's, and Nikon's ED name did not yet exist
  • Preset aperture, not automatic: the diaphragm is set by hand and stays set
  • Eighteen aperture blades, which no other Nikkor 300mm has, stopping to f/32
  • Zero mount screws in Vink's column; 122mm filter, 125mm barrel, 2,600g, 4m close focus

Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED (K):

  • ED on the barrel at last, and multicoated
  • Still preset, still eighteen blades, still press-only

Ai Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED IF:

  • An automatic diaphragm and an Ai ridge: the first version a normal photographer could buy
  • Nine blades and f/22 where the preset lens had eighteen and f/32
  • A protective glass over the front element, added to shield the ED
  • 122mm front filter and a 39mm internal slot; 138mm barrel, 2,500g, 4m

Ai-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED IF:

  • Ai-S mount scoop; otherwise the 1977 lens, focusing to 4m

Ai-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 IF-ED New:

  • Focuses to 3m, not 4m; 300° focus throw; HE-4 hood
  • No 122mm front filter: filtration is the 39mm rear slot only
  • 132mm barrel, 255mm long, 2,400g — lighter than the lens it replaced

AF Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 IF-ED:

  • A twist focus lock and a short tripod foot, both changed on the next version
  • 2,700g against the manual lens's 2,400g — autofocus cost 300 grams

AF Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 IF-ED New:

  • A sliding aperture lock, and a redesigned M/A and preset ring

AF-I Nikkor 300mm f/2.8D IF-ED:

  • A coreless motor inside the lens: the body drives nothing
  • A-M/A-M switch; 2.5m close focus; 2,950g, the heaviest version

AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8D IF-ED:

  • Silent Wave Motor; 52mm drop-in filter at the rear, replacing the 39mm slot
  • Black or grey barrel; nine rounded blades; 3,100g

AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8D IF-ED II:

  • 2,560g against the first AF-S lens's 3,100g — a carbon-fibre barrel, and 540 grams gone
  • Same eleven elements in eight groups; a greener cast to the front coating

AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G IF-ED VR:

  • Vibration reduction, and a meniscus protective lens at the front
  • Nano Crystal Coat; no aperture ring; 2,850g

AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II:

  • VR printed in gold; a three-position AM/MA-M switch

Serial-range notes

603011 – 604088
The whole preset run, both versions: 150 lenses by Vink's counts. Nikon's own account says the number reached only "one hundred and several tens", which the serials match.
104764
One autofocus prototype, 1986, the only example in Vink's database from that block. Production opens at a separate 200001 series in November of the same year.
200001
Five different versions start at 200001 — the AF of 1986, the AF-I of 1992, both AF-S D lenses, and both G VR lenses. Serial number alone separates almost nothing in the autofocus half of this family.
201861 – 201872
Twelve lenses, November 1988, carrying the New designation but continuing the old AF serial series before the 300001 block opens.

Specifications

Formula
Telephoto
Construction
8 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
9
Min. focus
4 m
Dimensions
138 × 241 mm
Weight
2500 g
Filter
122 mm
Years manufactured
1972
Country
Japan
Coating
Single-layer on the 1972 lens; multicoated from the K of 1975; Nano Crystal Coat on the G VR and G VR II, per Vink's feature column.

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
fringing on digital
Vignetting
moderate wide open
Flare & ghosting
flares easily
Optical formula — Telephoto

No diagram is drawn here, and the reason is worth stating. Nikon's own history carries exactly one cross-section of a 300mm f/2.8, captioned 'NIKKOR-H 300mm f/2.8' — the 1972 preset, six elements in five groups. The formula at the head of this page is the 1978 Ai/Ai-S ED IF, eight elements in six groups, which Nikon's own text describes as a different computation rather than the preset re-barrelled. Drawing the one under the caption of the other would put the wrong lens on the page.

History

The lens was built for a fortnight in February 1972. Sapporo was hosting the Winter Olympics, the light on a ski course is what it is, and the press wanted the fastest shutter speed a 300mm could give them. Yoshiyuki Shimizu — the designer who had recomputed the 105mm f/2.5 six years earlier — laid out six elements in five groups, the front three working as an apochromatic objective, and the extra-low-dispersion glass those three needed came from Schott in Germany, because Nikon’s own version of the material was not ready. So the lens that put the idea in front of photographers has no ED on its barrel. The K version of October 1975 corrected that, with Nikon glass and multicoating, and by then the whole production run was nearly over.

It was never a catalogue item. Nikon sold it to news agencies and to nobody else, and puts the total at a hundred and several tens of lenses; Vink’s serial database records 72 of the first version and 78 of the second, which is 150. The aperture was preset rather than automatic, and Nikon’s own account defends the choice on the photographers’ behalf — a professional shooting at full aperture does not need an automatic diaphragm, and a preset stop can be placed where the optics want it rather than where the linkage allows, which is how the lens came to have eighteen blades and a genuinely round hole.

Everything after 1977 is a different lens. The Ai Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED IF is eight elements in six groups with internal focusing and an automatic diaphragm, and it is the version that made the name public: 2,601 of the Ai, 5,751 of the Ai-S, 7,680 of the Ai-S New across nineteen years. Autofocus broke the design twice more. The AF of 1986 kept the eight-element system and bolted a screw coupling to it, gaining 300 grams; the AF-I of 1992 threw the optics out for eleven elements in nine groups around a motor; the AF-S of 1996 threw those out too, for eleven in eight, and that computation has survived every version since, including the carbon-fibre Mark II that took 540 grams back off in 2001.

The dates do not agree. Nikon’s history places the Ai IF-ED in February 1978, the autofocus lens in October 1986 and the AF-S in November 1996; Vink’s serial blocks open in November 1977, November 1986 and July 1996. Three disagreements of a few months each, from a manufacturer describing its own products and a collector counting numbers off barrels. Neither is preferred here.

Two things stay open. Nikon states that the 1972 lens covers 6×6cm and was designed so that it could be switched to a Bronica Nikkor — and no such lens appears in Vink’s database or anywhere else consulted, so whether one was ever built is unknown. And no list price has surfaced for any version of the 300mm f/2.8, in any currency, which means the cheapest of the hundred and fifty press lenses and the dearest of the modern ones are equally unpriced on this page.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $730 across 42 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $610–$1,300). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $730.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$730$610–$1,30042
2026-09-06$730$610–$1,30042

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Nikkor 200mm f/2 IF-ED

Sources (3)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.