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

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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.

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

And here they all are again, this time fully extended (From left to right: Nikon 18-200mm, Nikon 18-300mm, Nikon 28-300mm): Macro results are fair for this lens, with a magnfication of 0.28x, and a close-focusing range of 1.4 meters (around 4 and a half feet).

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. 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

Nikon 18-300mm VR Review - Photography Life Nikon 18-300mm VR Review - Photography Life

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.The 300mm focal length on a DX camera gives the same angle of view as a 450mm lens on a 35mm camera, producing a pronounced telephoto effect.

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Review - Optical Features Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Review - Optical Features

The corners at 70mm look very similar to the 55mm crops posted above, with softer corners wide open getting pretty good by f/8.0. Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 105mm Center FrameThe AF-S Nikkor 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6 lens has a very narrow focus ring located in front of the – much wider – zoom ring. There are hard stops at both ends of the range, making it easy to set focus at infinity. Polariser users should take note that the 58mm filter thread rotates on focus. As I have already pointed out in the introduction of this review, the Nikon 18-300mm is bigger and heavier than both the 18-200mm and the 28-300mm lenses. And for this reason alone, it was one of the first things that I really disliked about it. Yes, the 18-300mm does give more range than any other Nikkor lens, but it is a DX lens and it feels completely out of balance on most DX cameras. When fully extended, it gets so long that from the side it almost looks like you are using the 70-200mm f/2.8. The Nikon 18-200mm now looks small in comparison and it is not a small lens to start with. Weighing 830 grams, it is a whopping 270 grams heavier than the 18-200mm – almost as heavy as the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G! I don’t know what Nikon was thinking when they designed the lens – what kind of a DX shooter would want this monstrosity? I can understand if one desires a heavy and expensive lens for performance reasons, but the 18-300mm is not a very sharp lens. So keeping its performance characteristics in mind, it is too bulky and heavy in my opinion. Some people prefer DX cameras for weight reasons, so I guess the 18-300mm would be completely out of question for those folks. 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.