Nikon yesterday announced the long-awaited 70-200mm f/4G AF-S VR lens. It's what Nikon users wanted but not at the price they'll like.
In the "wanted" category we have size, weight, and features. The new lens gets Nikon's latest VR system, which is said to provide a five stop gain in some hand holding situations (up a stop from VR II). It's a fairly compact lens at 7" long (about an inch shorter than the 70-200mm f/2.8). It's definitely much lighter (30 ounces instead of 54). Close focus is now 3.28' instead of 4.6', so the maximum reproduction ratio increases (not to 1.36 as in the Nikon specifications--apparently someone made a typo that has now been replicated around the Internet like wildfire; I'll bet it's 0.36x or 1:3.6). All these things are good.
The bad is this: the tripod collar is optional, and expensive optional, as in US$230 or so. All I can say is that for that kind of money, Nikon had better hope that this a better tripod collar than they've been making on their lenses lately. Coupled with the US$1400 price of the lens itself, this really pushes the overall price up high. At least we still get caps, hood, and a soft case at the regular price.
My guess is that we'll see the Really Right Stuff's and Kirk's of the world get into the tripod collar business, which will make Nikon's bean counters wonder why they aren't selling any and then eventually tell product management to stop selling them.
Nikon (and Canon) should have learned their lesson here from the vertical grip business, but apparently hasn't. Because the vertical grips are now such expensive accessories for the bodies that use them, a whole cottage industry of clone (and better) vertical grips have appeared at far lower prices. Buying a D600, D800, of D7000 with a Nikon-supplied grip is no longer a given. Most users are better served by looking at the third-party market now. That's likely to happen for tripod collars, as well.
Overall, this is a highly desired lens, but it's also a "see we can do what Canon does" type of product for Nikon. Even the act of charging for a tripod collar is a direct copy of Canon. There's no product creativity in this: Nikon is just attempting to do what Canon did so successfully (create a lower cost, smaller, lighter, less expensive telephoto zoom option). Yet apparently Nikon thinks that they're the premium brand and can charge more. (The Canon lens is selling for about US$1100 at the moment, with the tripod collar being US$150 extra. Even without the current US$150 discount on the Canon, the total package from Canon is US$1400 versus US$1630 from Nikon.)
That said, I look forward to this option, as I don't always need f/2.8, and a lighter option is highly welcome.