Customer Reviews

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S DX Nikkor Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR

5 star:		(102)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First of all I'll say that I ordered my lens as soon as Amazon had them available. I upgraded to next day shipping and got it 18 hours later - quick service. Thanks Amazon!

But now on to the real review...

This lens is fantastic - especially for $399. My first concern was whether it not it had a plastic or metal mount since some DX lenses in this price range have plastic. I even contacted Nikon and they couldn't (or wouldn't) tell me. Well, I was really pleased to see that it does have a metal mount. It has a nice solid feel to it. The zoom movement is smooth and I haven't had any problem with lens creep when I'm aiming it downward. Even when I point the camera downward and shake it, it won't creep.

I'm just beginning to get into testing it but my preliminary pictures are coming out nice - really nice. The sharpness is amazing and the lens produces a very nice bokeh. I posted the image of the dragonfly with the chicken wire background (see the customer uploads) Check out the detail in the wings. That shot says it all. It was HAND HELD and cranked all the way out to 300mm. The original image is great but a lot of the detail was lost with the upload to Amazon. But - none the less - it's still pretty sharp. The auto focus on this lens is fast, smooth, quiet and very accurate. It locked right in on the subject. It was set on aperture priority at f/8 1/500sec for the shot that I posted here (shot with a D-90).

The VR on this lens is great. The detail I get with hand-helds just amazes me. It has Nikon's VRII image stabilization and it even has a tripod detection mode that reduces any vibration from shutter release when it's on a tripod.

Colors are rendered accurately and the contrast is pretty sharp even at the max aperture. The lens is compact for a 300mm and it's lighter than my AF-S DX 18-200mm which I use as my regular walk-around. I'm sure the new 55-300 will be used as my walk around pretty frequently also.

All in all for an APS-C lens, Nikon did a great job with this one - especially for the price. It's a welcome addition to the DX line and I'm really glad I have one in my gear bag.

Pros:
+ Excellent Image Quality
+ Solid build with metal mount
+ Significantly better in all ways than the Nikon 55-200mm VR


Cons:
- Slight long (but that's expected for a telephoto like this)

I've owned (and subsequently got rid of) the Nikon 55-200mm and Sigma 18-250 OS. This lens beats them both significantly. The Sigma 18-250 OS was pretty nice when I needed to take only one lens with me, but that situation is rare.

I hardly shoot telephoto, but when I do, I'm glad I can turn to this new Nikon 55-300mm VRII lens. Low light focus hunts a little bit, but that's expected - and it's significantly better than the Sigma at equivalent low light.

This lens is much better than the older Nikon 55-200mm VR often sold as part of the kit. That lens feels like a toy with a plastic mount and cheap plastic feel. This lens has a much better build quality. Consequently, it's also more expensive.

If you're debating about the Nikon 55-200mm vs. this lens, I highly recommend you get this lens. I've been very happy with it.

I know it's twice as much but it's well worth it. I took about 150 shots with it this weekend and was blown away. Bokeh is beautiful and it is sharp from 55-300mm. I had the 55-200mm VR and this is a significant step up. It's more solidly built and the results are excellent. It's a huge lens, and heavy, but the shots speak for themselves. Great, great lens!

I just received my Nikon 55-300 lens and after taking pictures for an afternoon would like to share my impressions and opinions about the lens. I have had both the 55-200VR and the 70-300VR lens to compare it with.

Things I like:
1. Optically it is sharp with excellent color and contrast. I would rate it on par with the 70-300. Didn't do any extensive testing just compared pictures I have taken with both.
2. Lighter & smaller than the 70-300. Fits in camera bag better. Used to carry the 70-300 in a separate case.
3. Metal mount vs plastic mount on the 55-200 which was my biggest complaint with that lens. (optically I was pleased with the pictures I got from the 55-200) and 100mm more reach than the 55-200.
4. Solid, well built lens on par with other prosumer Nikon lens.
5. Wider than the 70-300. Equivalent of an 82.5-450mm vs 105-450mm.

Things I don't like:
1. Zoom action is a little sticky at the longer end. Not as smooth as either the 70-300 or 55-200 lens.
2. Slow auto focus. About the same as the 55-200 slower than the 70-300.
3. Manuel focus not as smooth as the 70-300 and harder to get precise focus. No instant override of auto focus, have to move a switch.

Overall I am pleased with the lens and will keep it. I added the Canon 500D 2 element closeup lens and get excellent closeup pictures, maybe not macro lens quality but very good. I also used the Nikon 3T & 4T close up lens with the 55-200 with excellent results. I would have been willing to spend a little more for this lens to have the instant manuel focus overide and faster focus of the 70-300 and smoother zoom action which is why I rated it 4 stars instead of 5. Which lens would I recommend? If you do not plan to purchase an FX camera I would get this one over the 70-300 for a DX camera. If you don't use a lot of telephoto and don't want to spend the money the 55-200 is an excellent alternative just be careful with the plastic lens mount. I hope this helps anyone who is debating which lens to buy.

I have been very impressed with this lens over the past 3 months. There was a special on Amazon that gave you some $ off if you purchased a Nikon d5100 and this lens as a pair so I jumped on it. The lens has already been with me to 3 countries and has been great.

Build:
Yes, this lens has a lot of plastic. This saves you a lot of weight and money. If you want it to be made of metal spend 3x as much buying a pro Nikon lens. Don't buy this one and then complain it feels cheap. The mount is metal which I believe is an upgrade over the 55-200mm Nikon.

Optics:
Really can't complain here. Shooting at around f/6-f/8 has produced great images at any zoom. The colors are great, distortion is small and easily correctable, and are sharp.

Focus:
The focus is pretty much silent and has been fast for me. I don't know if those who complain about slow focus or inability to focus just got a dud or what.

VR:
Has been a lifesaver. Trying to shoot this at 300mm handheld without VR isn't fun. I have been very impressed with how well this works and always have it on.

Zoom:
You can really reach out there with this thing (i guess a 450mm equiv will do that). One thing with my lens, when I first got it the zoom mechanism was a little sticky going from 200 to 300mm. One night I just sat with it on the couch and zoomed it in and out fully and now it's very smooth. If you experience this, just play with it for awhile and it'll loosen up.

One last thing I'll say. I hate when people give bad reviews to things based on unrealistic expectations. When they say that this lens is too slow and they can't shoot fast moving objects at night I just shake my head. This is an entry level lens. If you want a f/2.8 lens, feel free to pay 10x what this lens costs. If you are used to pro level lenses, don't buy this lens and then start critiquing it. Realize what it is intended for.

On that note, I'll repeat that this is a great, fun lens to use. Highly recommended.

Got the lens from Amazon, and was a bit surprised how much bigger it was compared to the 55-200mm. The newer lens is about 3.5" diameter, and 6" in length, zoom retracted.

The box itself was 9.5 x 4.5 x 5", or about the size of the 18-200mm VR's carton.

That said, the 55-300mm has a nice, solid feel to it. Not plasticky at all. It feels 'right' in the hand, and weighs 'just right'(about 1 lb) so that it balances well with a small DX body, like the D40/D60/D3000.

The switches click nicely and the zoom is nice and tight - initially sticky at the 300mm end, but got better with use and some elbow grease.

The auto focus speed is about the same as the 55-200mm, and tends to hunt in low contrast and low light situations, but no biggie. I just switch to 'M' and look at the camera's green dot focus indicator.

The extra 100mm comes in handy for those Graduation Ceremony snaps coming from the bleachers kind of situation. On a DX camera, 300mm translates to a whopping 450mm in FX terms, so that's pretty much out-there.

The big plus, is that you can zoom back to a normal 55mm without needing to change lenses. Cool if you want to swing back and shoot the crowd reaction or something a little over arms length (it won't focus any closer than an arms-length, though).

So in the graduation scenario, you can zoom down to 55mm, and hand the camera over to a hapless bystander to take your mug with the graduate.

Is it sharp? I don't have test targets or scientific proof, but it's certainly sharper than my older AF-D consumer zooms from 15 years ago (24-50mm AF-D)using the eyeball method. It's not as tack sharp as an 80-200mm/70-200mm f/2.8 - but it's nowhere near the weight & price of these two either.

If you're miffed about the f/5.6 widest opening, consider using it with the newer DX cameras (especially the upcoming D7000) where you can crank up the ISO to ridiculous, and still keep the noise at bay. Or a really strong Speedlight.

Overall, a pretty good package for a reasonable price. If you're clear on what you want to do with it and know it's limitations - it won't disappoint.

Built to a price ...but that's not necessarily bad news.

For the price you get a lot of lens. It would be nice if it focused faster, if the max. aperture was a little bigger, if the focus could be more easily be manually adjusted, and if the hood attachment wasn't quite so cheesy. But $350, folks! This is a steal, despite all these drawbacks. For faster auto-focus you can spend over $500 on the larger and heavier 70-300mm. To get more light you can spend over $1000 for a shorter, much larger and heavier f/2.8 tele-zoom.

This $350 job is a real bargain if you can live without the features of the expensive alternatives because the image quality is way better than I'd expect in a lens at this price. On top of that, this is the best VR performance I've yet seen, even compared to a couple of much more expensive lenses. VR seems to get significantly better with each iteration.

I own two Nikon DSLRs (D5000/D3100) I have the 55-200mm and the reach was okay. I read some mixed reviews on this lens and was skeptical. I purchased the lens and that weekend took the lens to the Miami Metro Zoo. I was worried at first 300mm might not be enough, but I was wrong. I was able to get super close to the animals and get some SHARP shots all the way out to the max at 300mm. I shot at 5.6 (max wide open aperture) for this lens and I was told by other photographers for this type of lens it would be sharpest f8/f11. Most were surprised how sharp the photos were.

I am on Flickr and my screen name is NikonCoupleSoFlo. I strongly suggest you see actual pictures and judge for yourself. I think some of the shots are soft wide open and others aren't though I was shooting through glass/fences in a lot of the shots.

I would definitely recommend this lens for the REACH of 300mm ALONE. My next lens will be a 70-200mm 2.8 for low light/sports since the 2.8 are a faster focusing lens as well.

The lens has good built-quality and the shipping was fast (~4 workdays). It focus fast with enough light and has good sharpness even at 300mm. Just a side note for people who use a filter--it uses a 58mm filter (not 52). Comparing it to the kit lens (18-55), it has better build with slightly sharper images. However, it is heavier and longer as expected. There is no reason to compare this against the FX or f/2.8 lens. On the other hand, for the price, this is a great deal for non-pro.

I bought this lens for about $360 just a few weeks ago. I mainly needed a long zoom for my daughter's gymnastics competitions. You just aren't allowed to get very close to the competitors (which is a good thing). With close to 400mm effective zoom range (35mm film equivalent) I can bring all the action to me. It's not the fastest lens around, but with the VR working it's magic, I am able to get some really nice action shots with no flash, indoors. Note these competitions take place in well-lit gyms, but under 100% artificial lighting. Overall a tough test for any lens, but the Nikon 55-300 f4-5.6 VR does the job with ease and consistency. Pictures to follow.