70-200 F4 Heavy Breather?

kenwj wrote:

I use a Nikon 80mm-200mm AF-D ED lens with my D800. There is no focus shift with this lens if that is high on your priority list. I get exceptional image quality with this lens stopped down to f4 or f5.6 and I use this lens for a lot of close up focus stacked shots.

This is an older design with no VR and a worm screw driven from the camera. No servo. It isn't the biggest and baddest lens you can buy but it is one of my favorites. It is built like ... they used to build lenses ... and it is a joy to use. It is also priced at around what the 70mm - 200mm f4 is priced at.

Best I can gather from reviews is that the 80mm-200mm is a bit sharper across the FX frame than the old 70mm-200mm VRI (much less vignetting too) and a bit less sharp than the 70mm-200mm VRII. "More/less sharp" I suspect is relative and subjective (unless pixel peeping and making poster size prints) but I am very happy with the image quality I get from it with the D800.

It could be a valid option for you.