Photos showing relative sizes of, at left, the 400mm f/3.5 ED~IF Nikkor in 1982 version with Ai-S mount. The 400 f/3.5 has a slender barrel and weighs about 7 pounds,and offers truly excellent handling when used on a monopod with a large,weighty camera like a D1 or D2 series. The center lens is the 300mm f/2.8 AFS-Mark II version,with magnesium barrel and close-focusing; this 300/2.8 is the last version made before the AF-S G version with VR and no aperture ring; it has superb optics. The lens on the far right is the 300mm f/4 AF-S, which offers reasonable weight, very good hand-holdability, and the absolute-closest focusing I've ever seen in a 300mm lens; the 300/4 AF-S makes a decent field "macro" for things like butterflies and flowers, where you wish to shoot relatively tight close-ups from longer working distances than with a 100 to 180mm macro lens.