Hi Guys,

Thanks Ian, I should have been more specific with my inquiries, although VR was not part of the initial inquiry, the thread just seems to have drifted that way, and I don't mind that because we have covered the initial inquiry and are now finding out some useful information that both (Nikon+Canon) groups can learn from. I seriously wish that you would come over to the 'dark' side then things would be far less complicated for us 'poorly' Nikon shooters.
From memory the Nikon system as it stands now is 'Normal' VR mode for general hand held 'wobbles' and the 'Sport' VR mode is for activity shooting when you subject is moving around a lot, and as Ian indicated is not suitable for a smooth panning action. . .
Thanks everyone for your input to this thread.
Bruce

Hi Bruce,
When you first described the problem with your lens, you gave the impression that you were getting a generally soft image. Had it simply been a back focusing problem, I would have expected you to talk of a shifting of the field of focus and not a general softness. General softness seemed to me to suggest a problem with your use of VR, which is why I brought the matter up.
Nikon held the original patterns for VR, but chose not to use it at the time. When they finally did incorporate it into their lenses, the spin up time was over one second which, if you think about it, made the idea rather pointless in many circumstances. The current generation of Nikon lenses spin up in half a second, so even now you shouldn’t expect that you can instantly fire off the shutter and get good use from it. Both Nikon and Canon cameras are designed to isolate their lenses from vibrations from one to twenty HZ, and this impacts VR’s effectiveness at higher shutter speeds, as discussed by Thom Hogan in the article I previously mentioned. Thom is a consultant to Nikon and headed the team that designed the first digital camera many years ago.
There are some reviews specifically about your lens that might interest you. One discusses the use of VR and demonstrates how you need to allow it to spin up fully before it becomes effective, and the other compares its sharpness with the three available Nikon teleconverters. You might also note that there is a penalty for having VR on at all, which isn’t that surprising really, since it introduces a vibration all of its own. But I doubt that you will get too see this, unless printing images in A2 size.
One last thing, the lens is capable of sensing whether it's on a tripod, panning etc. as you would expect from such a costly piece of gear.

Good luck with it!

https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-300mm-f2-8g-vr-ii
https://photographylife.com/proof-that-vibration-reduction-should-first-be-stabilized

Hi Les,
The topic has wandered all over the place Les, and yes, my problem was/is most definitely soft images. I haven't had time to properly read what you have just included, I will do that in the morning, but after a phone call to a Nikon Repair Centre today, the girl who answered interrupted my description of the problems I have and the steps taken to try and resolve them, by saying "Send it in, it needs calibration, you're not the first.", so I make no assumptions other than I'm not the first to have a problem with soft images from my D500? I also typed in "Nikon D500 focussing issues" into my search engine and got quite a few results. I'm not suggesting anything, but I am certainly very happy that the camera is still under warranty and that they are going to calibrate my camera body with the 1.4x T/C and 300mm F2.8 all together as a single unit and hopefully things will improve from there? Just incase any of you are wondering, today I successfully went out and returned with 226 images taken with my D7200 and Nikkor 200-500mm F5.s zoomster, no issues!
I will continue with this thread as long as is necessary, so stay tuned, or even 'calibrated'. . .
Bruce