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

Product Information

A large rubberised zoom ring fills just under half of the outside of the lens, giving plenty of space for a comfortable zoom action. Unfortunately the lens does not focus internally, extending by a couple of centimetres at close distances. The focus ring also rotates during autofocus, and although it is recessed I caught my fingers on it a couple of times during use, so care needs to be taken to ensure fingers aren't snagged during focusing. Now here is where things start getting interesting for the 55-300mm – it performs sharper not only wide open, but also stopped down to f/8.0 in the corners: 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. 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 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

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.Detailed specifications for the lens, along with MTF charts and other useful data can be found in our lens database. NIKON D750 + 300mm f/4 @ 300mm, ISO 2200, 1/1250, f/4.0 Lens Handling and Build 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. 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): The zoom is smooth and image quality is as good as the venerable 70-300 VR lens, perhaps a bit better to my eyes (especially at 300mm).

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

In the end I think Nikon built a nice, light lens here and, despite some minor niggles, I prefer it over the 70-300 for my purposes (general photography - family & scenics/wildlife - no sports). Switching between automatic and manual focusing, and activation of the vibration reduction (VR) system are both carried out using a pair of sliders at the rear of the lens on the left-hand side (seen from behind the camera). Unusually for a Nikon lens, the AF speed proved to be a little sluggish when compared with that of the other lenses in this group test. The AF-S Nikkor 55-300mm lens may have a lot of plastic parts, but the lens mount is, thankfully, made of metal.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 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.

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Review - Photography Life

I’m surprised to see how well the lens does at 105mm – all corners look pretty sharp with no difference between the crops. Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 200mm Center Frame

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. Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, can be detected in shots taken at or near the longer end of the zoom range, but they are not too prominent. At shorter focal lengths, CAs are practically nonexistent.