Supplemental information: the VR uses quite a bit of battery. Probably as much as the flash at near full power. Also, the VR "sleep" behavior I demonstrate is true of all VR I've tested. I went to the store and tried 5 different VR lenses and they all went to sleep if you held the lens too still. This only happens when you brace yourself or rest your elbows on something. I doubt you could hold it still enough free-standing. "Normal" mode will attempt to actually lock on and hold that position where as "Active" mode simply dampens movements but does not attempt to out-right stop them. NOTE: be sure you turn off vr for any long exposure! The lens will "drift" causing any long tripod exposures to appear motion blurry. Kind of ironic.
Full review at: www.cameralabs.com : A ten minute video tour around the Nikon D700, the second full-frame DSLR from Nikon, by Gordon Laing, Editor of www.cameralabs.com . For our full review, sample images and current pricing, please click the link at the start of this text.
In this video, we take two giant flagships from the planet's fiercest rivals of DSLR camera manufactures and have them battle on a... er, snooker table.