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

This lens has filled a niche in my photography. As I am in a wheelchair and enjoy taking wildlife photo's, I generally use a 500mm on a monopod. The whole outfit is weighty and is not easy to use from a wheelchair for long periods. Now this Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Lens opens up a new world. The difference in weight is considerable. Although not having the reach of the 500mm, the weight difference extends my time out in the field and i am not forced to use a monopod. Very liberating in my circumstances !Build quality is good, with VR and SWM - excellent. Photo's sharp, clear and AF responsive. First time I have purchased a refurbished Lens and was surprised at how good it is. Lens exactly as described, would recommend to have in your kit. ~ Mike O'Rorke.

The media could not be loaded. A few months ago I decided I was going to try digital photography. Many years ago I had a 35mm SLR camera, but ended up not using it very much because it was so expensive to get the photographs developed. The beauty of a DSLR camera is that you can take as many photographs as you want and it doesn’t cost you any money. I asked a very good friend of mine, who is also a very good photographer, which camera to go for and he suggested the Nikon D3400. I bought the camera and it came with an 18 to 55mm VR lens.I live in the countryside in a house with a very large garden. We get a lot of wildlife in the garden and I immediately began taking photographs with my new camera. It wasn’t long before I realised that the lens fitted to my camera could not get close enough to take a decent of photograph of the majority of subjects I was wanting to capture. So I decided that I would purchase a telephoto lens. This would be the very first accessory that I bought for the camera. I made the decision to go for a Nikon lens instead of a cheaper version and I decided to opt for a 300mm focal length. I had two choices, the 55 - 300mm or the 70 - 300mm and because my first lens was 18 - 55mm, I decided to go for the first one. This meant that my lenses covered 18 to 300mm with no gap.The lens arrived from the States a few days after I bought it and inside the box as well as the lens I found, a lens cap, a bayonet end cap, a lens hood, small protective bag and a set of instructions.The lens had VR, vibration reduction; this is a mechanical feature that reduces the vibration experienced when taking photos whilst holding the camera in low light conditions or with slow shutter speeds. The VR on this lens is 2nd generation even though this is not mentioned anywhere and it works very well. See the video. As well as a switch to turn VR on or off, the lens has a selector switch for auto or manual focus.Fitting the lens to the camera is a doddle and within minutes I was taking photos of deer and squirrels away in the distance. This lens really does open up a whole new world of photo opportunities. See the video for a real demonstration of the telephoto lens in use at several focal lengths. It is possible to take good close up images, not quite macro, but still close up.One thing I found out after a few weeks is that the camera will take much better pictures if the lens cap is fitted as it reduces glare and flaring giving a much better result, less washed out with richer colours.I had issues with the focus, it was a bit hit and miss and about 50% of the pictures I took were not in focus. This was because I was using the camera in full auto with area focus selected. I had to place the camera in position A, manual with aperture priority, and swap the auto focus over to single point auto focus. Then I was able to select the centre point on the camera using the curser on the camera menu and things got considerably better. I am now finding the focusing much easier. Manual focus is a little tricky as a very small movement will take the image through focussed and out the other side so care is needed to focus. It does get better after time as you become more used to it. Also it is very easy to knock the image out of focus in auto focus mode as there is a small amount of movement on the focussing wheel and you can turn it slightly if you are not careful where you place your fingers pushing it out of focus. This is not a big issue as my hands tended to be away from the focussing ring in normaI use.I have hardly used the 18 – 55mm lens since I got this one. I am very pleased with it and so glad that I decided to go for Nikon. It is by no means perfect, but I have taken some cracking (in my opinion) photos with it and having the extra reach is a real joy. I think it was the right choice as my first accessory and would recommend it if you too are struggling to get the photos you want because the subject is too far away. I think it is good value and it is a very welcome addition to my set up.

For the money, this is a very good lens. It hasn't yet made me smile as much as some of my other lenses (e.g. the Nikon 10-24 or the 18-140) but it seems generally competent. I bought it to give me a long telephoto with vibration reduction capability (I also have the 70-300G, but this is only usable on the more upmarket Nikon bodies, and has no VR, which means it can only be used in reasonably bright light). I've mainly used this on a D7000 but also tested it on a D40. The 55mm wide end does seem more useful than the 70mm on my other telephoto. I took this plus the 10-24 (which is great for landscapes) on a short country walk last weekend and not missed the mid range. I don't think I could have done that with the 70-300. It takes 58mm filters, which is an odd size. I've bought a cheap step up ring so I don't go mad with too many different filter sizes! I'm standardising on 52mm, 67mm and 77mm, and using a dedicated 58mm UV filter to protect the lens. On filters, the front element rotates when focusing, so you will need to readjust a polarising filter after focusing, but UV and other uniform filters work perfectly well, of course.Some have commented on the lightness of the lens. At 530g, this is actually the heaviest and largest lens I own (it's a bit big for my standard camera case), but compared with professional/most FX telephoto lenses, it is certainly relatively light. You would probably notice this after a day carrying it on the D7000, but for short periods the weight is not a problem. On a D7000, it feels chunky but not unbalanced. It has a metal mount, and is weather sealed. Neither is essential for me, but they're nice to have.The zoom control is a bit stiff, but not at all jerky (unlike e.g. my 18-70 which seems to do some weird gymnastics halfway on the range). In use, it is absolutely fine. It's very big and grippy. Manual focus is a weakness of this lens, but I was expecting that from the reviews. The A-M switch needs to be turned to M and the focus ring is small (but serrated so it is easy to turn by feel). Fine adjustment takes care. On my D7000, which has two arrows as well as a dot, it's not too bad. On a camera with only a dot, I expect it could be extremely frustrating! The lens does also have a tendency to hunt in low light and doesn't always get into focus in the autofocus mode. It's not worse than some of my other lenses (e.g. the 70-300G), but it could leave you lost for a shot in low light. Give it reasonable light and it's fine. The autofocus is reasonably quiet (no whining like the 70-300G) and I didn't notice any strange noises from the VR (the 55-200 chatters away to itself when in use). Pointing it into the sun gives washed out colours all through the image (general flare, apparently), but unlike my wider lenses, I didn't notice any specific flare reflections in the final images.I will need to experiment a bit to get the best from this lens. Playing with it last weekend, I've got some good shots at all focal lengths. However, the vibration reduction isn't completely magic (maybe wishful thinking on my part, but some reviews suggested I might get usable photos at 1/8s or 1/15s). Anything below 1/30-1/60 at 300mm doesn't seem to have worked for me (including some obvious double images at 1/8s). But that's still pretty good compared with the 70-300G, which I would normally shoot on 1/250s or better. This is the cheaper VR, with no Active mode (for shooting from a moving vehicle, for instance), but I haven't needed that yet, and to be honest I'm not sure that not having Active VR is really a major issue for most uses (I don't take safari holidays or go to war zones). What is more significant is the slow autofocus speed. You might miss some action shots with this lens if you're e.g. a sports photographer (but putting the D7000 into continuous mode would perhaps overcome that). The manual focus is tricky enough that it takes some concentration and can't be done very fast. At the long end, the depth of field is very narrow, so focus really matters.The lens hood that comes with the lens isn't the standard Nikon twist-and-click: it pushes on and clicks into place. The mechanism feels less robust but I haven't noticed any big problems yet. It also comes with a soft bag for protection. I've done what others recommended here, and bought some Tommee Tippee bottle covers, which are nice and padded, and also have a velcro strap, and are not expensive. They're black so don't look too silly (and you can always use a felt tip to hide the logo if you're embarrassed). My wife did want to know why I was buying baby items, so you might want to tell your partner if you do this :)Overall, I'm not unhappy with the lens. It does a useful job and it wasn't expensive (buy direct from Amazon or another official UK reseller and get £40 cashback up to Christmas). If you don't mind the size and weight, it gives a much longer zoom than the 55-200 at a slightly higher price. Optically, so far it seems similar to the 70-300G (which is apparently almost identical optically to the much more expensive 70-300VR, but much more primitive mechanically). Other than the convenience of the focus and VR controls on the 70-300VR, I think you probably need to go to the big and very expensive 70-200 to get a much better telephoto in the Nikon range.