At 105mm, both lenses are close in aperture, with the Nikon 55-300 @ f/4.8 (Left) and Nikon 55-200 @ f/4.5 (Right): Nikon’s zoom manages to provide a reasonable 5.5x zoom range. It also has the added benefit of coming complete with a protective carrying pouch. In terms of features, the Nikon AF-S Nikkor DX 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR is a bit of a mixed bag. One one hand, it has Vibration Reduction on board – hence the VR abbreviation in the product name –; on the other, it isn't as sophisticated as on some other Nikon lenses. There's an on-off switch on the lens barrel, but there's no choice between active and normal modes. Likewise, the lens has a built-in auto-focus motor that allows AF operation on every Nikon DX camera body, including entry-level offerings like the D3100 or D5100, but – unlike with most other AF-S lenses – focusing is not internal, and manual focusing is not possible when the focus mode selector is set to the 'A' position, as shown above. The lens has no distance scale and no focus limiter, either. Personal tip: Also search for lenses of Sigma or Tamron, they have often good alternatives for the same zoom range at a lower price, while the overall performance is more or less the same. And some of them have also a macro mode.

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

VR II Image Stabilization (up to 4 stops) with Tripod Detection Mode; Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC); Included Accessories: HB-57 Hood, CL-1020 Soft Lens Case. Distortion is controlled well at the short focal lengths, with a very slight amount of barrel distortion at 55mm. As you get to 70mm, distortion completely disappears, reappearing as pincushion distortion at 105mm all the way to 300mm. Pincushion is moderate at the long ranges – here is an extreme example at 105mm with noticeable distortion: Nikon 55-300mm Distortion VR is the second version like my 16-85mm and works very well at 300mm. The only thing I noticed about the VR is that it takes a half-second or so to stabilize, so you have to be a bit patient before you press the shutter. The 70-300 may be sharper because (extending the reasoning often given for why prime lenses are superior) it is easier to construct a quality lens in a narrower zoom range.

In terms of features, the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED VR II is a bit of a mixed bag. One one hand, it has Vibration Reduction on board – hence the VR abbreviation in the product name –; on the other, it isn't as sophisticated as on some other Nikon lenses. There's an on-off switch on the lens barrel, but there's no choice between active and normal modes. Likewise, the lens has a built-in auto-focus motor that allows AF operation on every Nikon DX camera body, including entry-level offerings like the D3300 or D5200, but – unlike with most other AF-S lenses – focusing is not internal, although manual focusing is possible even when the focus mode selector is set to the 'A' position. The lens has no distance scale and no focus limiter, either. Get the latest photography news straight to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter. Newsletter Signup

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Review - Focusing and VR Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Review - Focusing and VR

HI Ming. I haven't tested the 55-200mm or 70-300mm lenses yet, so I wouldn't be able to comment from a performance perspective. This lens is a completely different kettle of fish to the 70-200mm. You're needs should dictate which is more suitable rather than the performance if you're comparing those two lenses. The lens is not claimed to be weatherproof but there is a rubber seal around the lens mount that should provide basic dust protection. Due to differences in field of view between the Nikon 55-300mm and Nikon 28-300mm, I had to adjust the focal length of the Nikon 55-300mm to match around 70mm of 28-300mm. Here are 100% crops from both lenses wide open and f/5.6 (Left: Nikon 55-300mm, Right: Nikon 28-300mm):As you can see, the lens performs very well at all apertures when shooting at 55mm. The image wide open @ f/4.5 is just a tad softer than others, but almost unnoticeable, which is very good. Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 55mm Corner Frame

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED Vibration Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED Vibration

The Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR is physically just like the Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR, earning it “world’s lightest 300mm full-frame lens” title. Nikon was able to achieve this by using a Phase Fresnel (PF) lens element, which can effectively reduce the need to use complex lens elements for correcting chromatic aberrations and ghosting. Basically, the use of a Phase Fresnel lens element is what allowed Nikon to significantly reduce both the size and weight of the lens. My first comparison, of course, was with the 70-300. I took dozens of pairs of shots of a distant mountain on a clear day to see where this lens begins to lose resolution relative to the 70-300. At 200mm it's very difficult to see any difference. At 250 the 70-300 is only slightly sharper. At 300, there is a difference, but not really very much. Distortion results for the Nikon 55-300mm ƒ/4.5-5.6 are typical for this class of lens, showing a complicated mix of both barrel and pincushion distortion in the longer range of its telephoto focal length. Between 55-67mm, distortion is slightly barrelled, at around +0.3% in the corners; the lens reaches a kind of parity around 62mm. After this point, the corners show pincushion distortion while the central region shows some slight barrel distortion. At its worst, we note almost -0.5% pincushion distortion in the corners above 135mm; similarly, almost +0.3% barrel distortion distortion throughout the image above 100mm. Build quality is pretty decent for a consumer zoom. Most of the outer parts are plastic – contributing the light weight of the lens –, but the optical elements are made of high-grade glass. The zoom ring is wide and ridged, and zoom creep is not an issue. On our test sample, the zooming action was a little on the rough side. Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.

Weight-wise, the Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S is pretty light when compared to expensive super-telephoto lenses from Nikon. At 1440 grams, the lens is only 100 grams lighter than the 70-200mm VR II and 130 grams lighter than the 80-400mm VR. Autofocus Speed and Accuracy The second switch is for setting either full focus range (FULL) or limit focusing on subjects at 3 meters and further. The third switch is for operating Vibration Reduction on the lens – you can toggle between OFF, NORMAL or SPORT. All three samples that I tested indicated that it was made in China (my Nikkor 300mm f/4D AF-S was made in Japan). Although I have no problem with the lens being made in China and understand that it is cheaper for Nikon to produce lenses there, I am not particularly psyched with sample variation at this point – see notes further down in this review. NIKON D750 + 300mm f/4 @ 420mm, ISO 400, 1/4000, f/5.6 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 At 200mm, the best performance is between f/8.0 and f/11.0, with the wide open and f/5.6 performance getting a little weaker, but still pretty good.

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR DX AF-S Nikkor Specifications Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR DX AF-S Nikkor Specifications

While the new lens offers the longer 300mm focal length, the older 55-200mm is a third-stop faster, and when compared, seems to offer slightly sharper and smoother results than the new lens. Results for CA and distortion are similar; the new lens shows much less corner shading The Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED VR II lens mounted on a Nikon D3300 body, extended to 55mm Wide open, the Nikon 55-300mm is now at f/5.0, while the Nikon 55-200mm is at f/5.6. Sharpness-wise, both are almost identical, with the 55-300mm slightly outperforming the 55-200mm at f/5.6. The 70-300 is about 22% lighter (415g vs. 530g), has a nearer min front focus (1,1m vs. 1,4m), and often has better test results. Typically with lenses covering this range, the performance is very good at shorter focal lengths tailing off as the lens is zoomed in. In the case of Nikon's 55-300mm, at 55mm the sharpness in the centre is already excellent from maximum aperture, with the resolution towards the edges of the frame catching up by f/8, which is where the lens gives its peak performance for this focal length.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 Weighing in at approximately 300 grams, the AF-S DX Nikkor 55-200mm f4.5-5.6G is very lightweight for a 3.6x telezoom lens, and as seen in the photos below, complements a smaller DSLR like the Nikon D3300 well. Lastly, the Nikon 300mm f/4D AF-S does not have a rubber gasket on its mount. This is unfortunate because this means that dust and other debris could end up in your camera and your lens. For this reason, I would recommend keeping a teleconverter mounted on the lens at all times. 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. When it comes to corner performance @ 200mm, the Nikon 55-300mm takes the lead just like in the 105mm corner test.