This lens appeared in the market for sale three months after it was announced in February, 2006 – a nice surprise from Nikon.
Nikon set an important milestone here, by being the first company to issue a macro lens (called micro by Nikon), which includes AFS and VR.

This lens includes the new Nikon VR mechanism, which can also be found in the 18-200, which is called VRII – and is supposed to enable photography at four speed stops below the recommended speed. Easy calculations show that if taking the crop factor into consideration, the effective focal length is about 160mm over the DSLR.
The golden rule states that you can shoot, hand-held, under normal conditions, at a speed that will not drop below 1/160 of a second.
Four speed stops below means that you can shoot with it hand-held at a speed of 1/10 seconds.

This is an ideal statement, but the lens can really stabilize the picture very well, and while trying it I got some very sharp pictures (though the yield was fairly low) even with 1/6^th of a second, hand held.

I have to emphasize that this is not a DX lens (which is good for digital cameras only) but it is also suitable for film cameras and for Nikon’s future FF cameras (if they'll have any…).

The first thing that strikes the eye is its high price. I put it to a test to see if it’s really worth it.

This is how the lens looks:

Since I still have this lens’s previous version, the classic D 105/2.8, a spec comparison of both lenses was a must, and you can find it in the following table:

 The table shows that the new lens is optically far more complicated than the old one, and includes 14 elements instead of 9 (and it has its price, as we will see later on).
The new lens includes one new ED element and VR elements, and in addition, one rear element coated with Nikon’s new nano-crystal coating.

The lens has 9 rounded leaves in its aperture, predicting a lovely Bokeh in comparison to the 7 straight leaves in the old one – which did in itself produce an excellent Bokeh.

Other significant differences are – a VR mechanism and a speedy focusing motor on the lens. Other significant differences are the size and weight. Another difference – the lens is an IF – internal focusing, and does not elongate during focusing.
In addition, it has, just like other Nikon AFS lenses, the famous M/A switch, which enables manual adjustment on the fly of the automatic focusing (this does not exist in the old lens).

When comparing the lenses’ MTF, we can expect the lens to give about 5% more contrast and sharpness than the old model. The following is the old lens’s MTF:

And of its new sister:

In both cases, the sharpness/contrast is very high both from the MTF results and the field test.

When holding this lens in your hands, you can notice several things:

The lens is big, heavy and bulky in the hand and its front filter diameter is larger than the old one (62mm as compared to 52mm).

·          Its focusing speed is fast, just like the professional AFS lenses (17-55, 70-200, and so on, and not like various kit lenses such as the 200-18). It has a built in switch, which limits focus distances (from 50cm to infinity), and is very useful when using it as a medium tele-lens for distance shooting, and it reduces the “search” time effectively to zero.

·          The stabilizer works perfectly, with the famous “click” when activated and deactivated.

The shooting tests show the following results:

It produces rich and neutral colors. It produces an excellent Bokeh, which equals Nikon’s first-rate Bokeh producers.

Its sharpness with a wide-open aperture is very good, but it behaves just like most macro lenses - when shooting close-up, the maximal aperture drops from 2.8 to about 4.8 at the 1:1 state because of the lens’s complicated optical structure.
This change is reported in the EXIF but the focal length also changes  (gets shorter) and this is not reported in the EXIF. It was hard to improve its performance over the previous lens, which was a “must” for all macro photographers, but Nikon succeeded in making it better.

When closing aperture to 4 and above, the lens shows its “bladelike” sharpness, and stands in line with Nikon’s best lenses.

The lens works with the Nikon teleconverters – TC-14EII, TC-17EII, and TC-20EII and although Nikon clams that it will not focus with them, the lens does not know this claim and focuses without any problem.
The TC-14 teleconverter turns it into a 150/4 lens, the TC-17 teleconverter turns it into a 180/4.8 lens and the TC-20 teleconverter turns it to a 210/5.6 lens.
Its focusing speed with the teleconverters decreases as the size of the teleconverter increases. With the x1.4, it focuses without any significant problem; with the x1.7, the speed drops slightly (but noticeable) and with the x2 teleconverter, the speed decreases more.

It also works the same with Kenko and Tamron teleconverters, and when comparing results (especially sharpness), there is a slight edge in favor of the original Nikon teleconverters.

The lens does not have any visible vignetting or spherical distortions (barrel and pincushion distortion). On the other hand, it has a certain degree of CA with a character unknown to me, but it descents as the aperture is closed.
In close-up shooting against a light, a thin color halo appears which remind me of the halos in older lenses – with a green/red tendency.
When shooting tree branches against a bright backlight, the expected distortion in yellow/blue appears.  
The characteristics of these distortions are probably derived from the rear element (nano-crystal), which reduces internal reflections, but inflicts its own shades on the halos around the image and on its edges.

With regular use of the lens as a macro lens this is not noticeable – but in my opinion, Nikon could make an effort to get rid of it, especially since the old model did not have these distortions at all.
In the following examples you will see what I mean.

When shooting against a backlight, it performs well, meaning that the coating between elements does its job. One must remember that the optical formula of this lens is extremely complicated for a prime lens, but, once again, I think Nikon could do better.

This lens has slight flare, not unexpected, when catching the sun in the frame, but it is insignificant.

And now, for the examples:

Color reproduction is very impressive:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/50sec F Number: 3 Max Aperture Value: 3.2 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:24 18:26:27 Color Space: 65535

It produces a superb Bokeh:
 

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/320sec F Number: 3 Max Aperture Value: 3.2 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:40:01 Color Space: 65535

The Bokeh is excellent even against a complicated background:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/350sec F Number: 3 Max Aperture Value: 3.2 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:45:22 Color Space: 65535

Its macro quality is superb (this is what it should do best):

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/250sec F Number: 3 Max Aperture Value: 3.2 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:46:28 Color Space: 65535

And the crop 1:1 shows the sharpness in a macro shot:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/250sec F Number: 3 Max Aperture Value: 3.2 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:46:33 Color Space: 65535

With macro shots you can see the “horns” and face of the Praying Mantis:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/125sec F Number: 6.3 Max Aperture Value: 3.7 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:36:21 Color Space: 65535

This lens has superb microcontrast, and one can notice the different shades and small details of the object:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/180sec F Number: 3 Max Aperture Value: 3.1 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:42:10 Color Space: 65535

Its sharpness and detailing in close-up shooting is impressive:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/320sec F Number: 3 Max Aperture Value: 3.2 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:24 18:20:56 Color Space: 65535

Another sample using my classic “model”:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/125sec F Number: 3 Max Aperture Value: 3.1 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:38:15 Color Space: 65535

In distance shooting, with an almost wide-open aperture – the result is impressive:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/1600sec F Number: 2.8 Max Aperture Value: 3 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:24 18:27:15 Color Space: 65535

And when closing to aperture 4 (one stop closed), it stands in line with the best Nikon tele-lenses:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/1500sec F Number: 4 Max Aperture Value: 3 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:38:52 Color Space: 65535

The lens is vignetting free:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/2500sec F Number: 4 Max Aperture Value: 3 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:38:56 Color Space: 65535

When shooting against a backlight it handles the sun at the frame edge very well and produces a picture with very good detail, although the general contrast slightly drops:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/320sec F Number: 2.8 Max Aperture Value: 3 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:24 18:19:50 Color Space: 65535

When brutally including the sun in the frame, you can catch some flare, but the amount is reasonable:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/3200sec F Number: 4 Max Aperture Value: 3 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:39:26 Color Space: 65535

Its soft spot is the CA, which can be easily seen when shooting dark elements against a bright light (I chose to show it with an element that is out of focus to emphasis this):

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/6000sec F Number: 4 Max Aperture Value: 3 Focal Length: 105mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 157 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 08:39:10 Color Space: 65535

With the Kenko Pro 300x1.4 teleconverter the Bokeh is maintained and the focal length changes to 150mm:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/125sec F Number: 4.2 Max Aperture Value: 4.1 Focal Length: 150mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 225 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 10:29:03 Color Space: 65535

With the Nikon TC-14E teleconverter, the picture is slightly sharper, and the detailing is kept although shooting against a backlight. (By the way, the picture was taken in 1/20 of a second, very close to the low speed limit of the VR II):

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/20sec F Number: 4 Max Aperture Value: 4 Focal Length: 150mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 225 Date Taken: 2006:05:24 18:57:33 Color Space: 65535

With the Tamron x2 teleconverter, when shooting against a bright light, the microcontrast is maintained (the focal length is 210mm):

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/200sec F Number: 6 Max Aperture Value: 5.1 Focal Length: 210mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 315 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 10:35:03 Color Space: 65535

With the same teleconverter, at close-up the sharpness is very good:

Model: NIKON D200 Exposure Time: 1/100sec F Number: 6 Max Aperture Value: 5.1 Focal Length: 210mm Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias Value: 0 ISO Speed Ratings: 125 Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average White Balance: Manual white balance Flash: Flash did not fire Focal Length In 35mm Film: 315 Date Taken: 2006:05:26 12:00:23 Color Space: 65535

The following is a summary of the grades this lens achieved:

 The bottom line is:

Nikon created an important precedent in the optical world by releasing a macro lens with a stabilizer and high focusing speed to the market. The focusing speed is important for using it as a general short tele-lens, since in macro, focusing should be done manual anyway. The lens is very good as a prime lens for general and portrait photography, especially considering its ability to work with all types of teleconverters.

The stabilizer allows the addition of four shutter speed stops in hand held macro photography without needing a high iso setting. This makes no difference when shooting on a tripod and from my experience with other Nikon lenses, I recommend against using the VR on a tripod.

Its optical excellence and sharpness are the additional bonus. As I am a perfectionist, I regret that this lens is not perfect because of the slight CA I found.
Maybe Nikon will fix this in the future, maybe not. For daily use it is neither evident nor important, but for the sake of perfectionism – Nikon should improve this issue. In all other aspects – this is the ideal macro lens, it is highly recommended – if you can afford it…