Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)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.
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Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S DX Nikkor Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLRCompact 5.5X DX-format telephoto zoom lens with High Refractive Index lens element and ED glass is Ideal for capturing distant subjects at athletic events, family pictures, dramatic sunsets, travel and more. VR II image stabilization for handheld shooting at up to 4 shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible, assuring dramatically sharper still images and stable video capture.FEATURES:
Compact DX-format zoom lens with High Refractive Index lens element, ED glass and VR II image stabilization - Expanded photo and video opportunities that's designed to bring the action closer to the photographer.
Nikon VR II Image Stabilization - Vibration Reduction, engineered specifically for each VR NIKKOR lens, enables handheld shooting at up to 4 shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible, assuring dramatically sharper still imagesand video capture.
HRI (High Refractive Index) Lens Element - HRI lens element is essential to keeping the lens compact while offering high contrast even at maximum aperture.
Exclusive Nikon Silent Wave Motor (SWM) - Enables fast, accurate and quiet autofocus.
5.5X Telephoto Zoom lens - Ideal for capturing distant subjects at athletic events, family pictures, dramatic sunsets, travel and more. Angle of view equivalent to a focal length of 82.5 to 450mm in FX/35mm format D-SLR.
Tripod Detection Mode - Reduces vibration that may occur due to shutter release when mounted on a tripod.
2 Extra-low Dispersion (ED) Elements - Effectively minimizes chromatic aberration, even at the widest aperture settings.
Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC) - Enhances light transmission efficiency and offers superior color consistency and reduces flare.
Click here for more information about Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S DX Nikkor Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR
