Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Lens

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How does the Nikon 55-300mm VR compare to the older Nikon 55-200mm VR? Let’s take a look at direct comparisons between the two. Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 55-200mm @ 55mm Center Frame Handling-wise, the lens is simply amazing. When I first mounted the lens on my Nikon D750, I could not believe how light it was when compared to my 300mm f/4D – it did not feel at all like a 300mm lens, more like a 70-300mm VR zoom in terms of size and weight. The lens was so light and easy to hand-hold, that I never bothered to put it on a tripod. I even let it hang off the mount on my Nikon D750 when hiking, which is something I certainly do not feel comfortable doing with my 300mm f/4D. In this regard, the 300mm f/4E VR is a game-changer, as it handles a world better than any other lens in its class.

The 55-300mm isn't a ''constant'' lens, in that as you increase the focal length, both the maximum and minimum aperture sizes decrease. The following table reflects the change in aperture with focal length: Focal Length When it comes to corner performance @ 200mm, the Nikon 55-300mm takes the lead just like in the 105mm corner test. When using VR, it may take a second for the image to stop wiggling when you first tap the shutter. Be sure to wait that second if you're at the 300mm end to ensure the sharpest images.I really like the versatility of this lens – being able to shoot at 55mm all the way to 300mm is very nice, especially for wildlife photography. Unlike the new Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR or the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II, this lens is not plagued with a “lens breathing” issue and 300mm on the long side is truly like 300mm, not shorter. Another important thing to note, is that the lens does extend pretty far when zoomed all the way in to 300mm. This is quite normal for this type of a lens and most other consumer zoom lenses also extend out when zoomed in. Zooming in/out was a little jerky and not very smooth on my lens sample, but it probably does get better overtime. The lens does not creep at all and I don’t think it will, even with heavy use in the future. The HB-57 lens hood is specifically engineered for this lens and it snaps on easily – I would leave it mounted on the lens to keep the front element protected against damage and flare/ghosting. NIKON D300 + 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 55mm, ISO 400, 1/250, f/8.0 During testing the Nikon 55-300mm lens proved itself capable of producing decent results. It fills a gap in Nikon's lens line up giving DX camera owners the popular 300mm focal without leaving a gap after the 18-55mm kits lenses provided with most of Nikon's entry-level SLRs. For this reason alone it will be popular, but also for its lightweight and decent build quality for the price point. I also tried the lens on my D610 in DX mode. It works perfectly with and without the 1.4x Kenko TC, which also autofocuses perfectly, as it does on the D7100. That surprised me. I knew it would autofocus on the D7100 with the TC, but didn't expect almost identical results with the D610 in DX mode. This suggests, to me, that the lens produces images with excellent contrast across the frame.

The Nikon 55-300mm VR DX is a perfectly competent, light-weight, wide-range telephoto for DX cameras. Weighing in at approximately 580 grams, the AF-S DX Nikkor 55-300mm f4.5-5.6G is fairly lightweight for a 5.5x telezoom lens, and as seen in the photo above, complements the Nikon D7000 well. It may look a little out of proportion on the smaller D5100 or D3100, though. I have now taken many more pictures with this lens on my D7100, specifically looking for difficult subjects and conditions. In most cases, it has been pretty good to about 200 or 210mm, with or without a Kenko 1.4x TC, in or out of crop mode. So up to roughly 400mm DX net it's fine for "normal" subjects.

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Not for: Film or FX digital cameras. Slow autofocus and needing to move a switch to get to and from manual focus makes the 55-300mm poor for moving subjects; use the 70-300mm VR instead for fast action, as well as for film and FX. All were about the same in the center at 300mm at infinity. At 300mm on the left of the image, the 55-300mm DX VR and 75-300mm AF were the softest. On the right side, the 28-300mm VR was the softest. Thus, since the 70-300mm VR never got soft of either side, it wins. The lens shows good resistance to chromatic aberration. Chromatic aberration is present at the wide angle (55mm) when the lens is stopped down considerably, but is very low indeed until around 135mm. At 200-300mm, chromatic aberration begins to become problematic, especially in the corners. There are no distance markings on the lens and the focusing ring is also very narrow and awkward to reach, on account of it being so far forward. There is a positive side to this, however, in that fingers are kept clear of the ring in AF mode. As with all consumer zooms that pump in and out, never bang the front of the lens because it will be easy to break the internal plastic zoom mechanism.

The Nikon 55-300mm VR is a plastic lens with a metal mount, which is easy to carry and handle due to its low weight. Although the lens has a total of 17 optical elements in 11 groups, it weighs only 580 grams. In comparison, the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens weighs 800 grams, while the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR lens weights 745 grams. Nikon was able to do this by using a high refractive index (HR) lens element (which allows using a single lens element instead of multiple elements made of standard glass), without compromising sharpness and image quality. The zoom ring is gigantic, occupying almost half of the lens barrel, which makes it easy to zoom in and out with your left hand, while holding the camera with your right hand. The focus ring feels like a bit of an afterthought, a ribbed rubber ring a quarter-inch wide. The ring offers ninety degrees of focus travel, with hard stops on either end of the spectrum. It's worth noting that there's some slight lens extension during autofocus, with the lens barrel protruding an additional 3/4 inch at 300mm. It's not impossible to achieve accurate manual focus, but it's definitely harder than it needs to be. Clearly, this is a lens that's not intended for anything but autofocusing. That said, autofocus, while dependent on the body, is very accurate. You won't usually care, but the design of the 55-300 VR is such that air, and thus dirt, are pumped in and out all the time into both your lens and your camera. In general, I'm completely happy with this lens. It does what it's supposed to do, and does it well. Color rendition and contrast are excellent, and resolution is also very good up to about 200mm and not bad above that. I'm able to hold it steady even at large focal lengths, but frankly the 70-300 is easier there.Again, the sharpness is pretty good overall, but we are already seeing some loss of sharpness at the largest aperture and f/5.6. Stopping down the lens to f/8.0 and f/11.0 produces the best results. Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 105mm Corner Frame The lens ships with the HB-57 hood, a rounded hood that offers protection from flare. The lens can be reversed and mounted on the lens for storage; when mounted, it adds 1.5 inches to the overall length of the lens. As the lens is zoomed to 135mm, the resolution drops off a little, but is still very good across the frame from wide open, reaching its peak at f/5.6. At smaller apertures, diffraction appears to take a bite out of the sharpness as the lens is stopped down. Finally at 300mm the sharpness at maximum aperture is certainly acceptable, but stopping down the lens to f/8 improves matters noticeably. Here peak performance is found at f/11 where images show good sharpness across the frame. Although not terribly compact, this optic only weighs 530g. It's light weight should make the lens balance well on Nikon's entry level bodies such as the D40, D60, D3000 or D5000 as well as more advanced bodies such as the D90 or D300 used for testing. The AF-S Nikkor 55-300mm lens may have a lot of plastic parts, but the lens mount is, thankfully, made of metal.