Pros

This Micro lens from Nikon, was the first of it's kind to include vibration reduction when it was introduced. It sports a fast f/2.8 maximum aperture, a silent wave focusing motor, which allows full time manual focus override and Nikon's Nano Crystal anti-reflective lens coatings.

This lens is perfect. I have taken the best close-up pics I have ever taken using it. Super quiet auto-focus, great vibration control, and overall the best macro lens I have ever seen. A must buy for anyone into macro photography

Consistent Output; Durable; Easily Interchangeable; Fast / accurate auto-focus; Nice Bokeh; Strong Construction

Heavy

Nikon caters particularly well for macro photographers, with 40mm, 60mm, 85mm and 200mm options in addition to this 105mm lens. An update to the popular Nikkor 105mm f/2.8D AF Micro optic, the Nikon AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED adds a host of improvements, chief of which being Nikon's...

I was using a Nikon D7000 when I first got the lens and could not have been more satisfied with the images it produced. I now own a Nikon D600 and the lens continues to produce simply indescribably beautiful images.

Stunningly sharp; AF and VRII actually works well doing 1:1 macro imaging

A tad heavy

The last macro lens I owned fit my Pentax K1000 manual (film) work horse body and it was not fixed length and had almost no image distortion at edges. It was a great all purpose lens that also happened to be a macro. Compared to today's prices it also cost almost nothing.

Easy To Use

Fixed Focal Length

This is a great lens, but I'm not sure why I own it. I loved the non VR version of this and a voice in my head told me that this would be better. Perhaps it will if I ever shoot this focal length without a tripod, but I don't.

I ordered this expecting the auto VR lens, however after it arrived, it was a MANUAL FOCUS lens. Very disappointed. It is a quality lens, but with modern DSLR's, it doesn't register for any of the information that comes with normal AF lenses.

Nikon packed many new features into the Micro-Nikkor AF-S 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED VR. The most obvious one is probably the new IF design so the physical length of the lens remains constant regardless of the focus setting.

Gary Wolstenholme reviews the close focusing Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF VR Micro Lens.

Excellent sharpness in the centre from maximum aperture; Outstanding sharpness when stopped down; Good build quality; Effective VR system; Low CA and distortion

Effectiveness of the VR system diminishes at close distances