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

Product Information

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. Weighing in at approximately 580 grams, the AF-S DX Nikkor 55-300mm f4.5-5.6G is fairly lightweight for a 5.5x telezoom lens, and as seen in the photo above, complements the Nikon D7000 well. It may look a little out of proportion on the smaller D5100 or D3100, though. The 55-300mm isn't a ''constant'' lens, in that as you increase the focal length, both the maximum and minimum aperture sizes decrease. The following table reflects the change in aperture with focal length: Focal Length 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: Again, the center looks very similar to 200mm, with slightly softer image at f/5.6 that gets sharper at f/8.0 and f/11.0. Sharpness Test – Nikon 55-300mm @ 300mm Corner Frame

When using VR, it may take a second for the image to stop wiggling when you first tap the shutter. Be sure to wait that second if you're at the 300mm end to ensure the sharpest images. Build quality is pretty decent for a consumer zoom. Most of the outer parts are plastic – contributing the light weight of the lens –, but the optical elements are made of high-grade glass. The zoom ring is wide and ridged, and zoom creep is not an issue. On our test sample, the zooming action was very smooth, but I've come across a few copies that had somewhat stiffer zoom rings – this is something to watch out for when shopping for this lens.

Introduction

The Sigma is on par with the Nikon for sharpness, corner shading and distortion; the Nikon handles chromatic aberration much better. The Sigma doesn't offer the extra reach of 300mm, but it is a third-stop faster at the wider 50mm. Also, about half the price of the Nikon. This lens is mainly for outdoor shooting with lots of light. Low light is difficult, but nothing a flash can't solve. However, using a flash will limit your max shutter speed to 1/200's of a second, and if you are zoomed all the way in handheld it is best to try to keep a shutter speed of 1/400 or faster. As a result, you'll have to be extra steady when using the flash if you are zoomed all the way in. If you want to focus by hand, set it to "M" for manual focus and turn the front ring yourself. Look for the big electronic dot at the bottom your viewfinder to tell you when you've got perfect focus. The Nikon 55-300mm VR has a very controlled amount of chromatic aberration (CA), due to the excellent ED glass elements used in this lens. I did not notice much CA at the short focal lengths (just a tad in the corners), but did get some at the long end between 200mm and 300mm across the frame. But this slight amount of CA is very easy to fix in Lightroom and Photoshop, so it is not even worth mentioning it- certainly very good for a consumer lens of this class. Stopping down the lens to f/8.0 almost completely eliminates visible aberration. Distortion As you can see, the vignetting is clearly gone by f/8.0. The same thing happens when shooting at the longest focal length of 300mm. Ghosting and Flare

It does not work well on FX or film cameras. It usually cuts off the far corners of the image. It appears to work at most focal lengths on film and FX, although at 80mm all the corners are dark. At most other focal lengths the darkening isn't that bad, so long as you know you're not really supposed to use the 55-200mm VR on anything other than a DX digital camera. 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. 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 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). It's better than the smaller and lighter 55-200mm VR, with which this 55-300mm VR has much in common. The 70-300mm VR is a much bigger, better and not that much more expensive FX lens.

Ease of Use

When used at its widest apertures, the lens' performance is somewhat uneven; it needs to be stopped down even by one stop to achieve consistently sharp images across the frame. Results when used wide open at 200mm and below are decently sharp if uneven, at around 2 blur units; at 300mm, it's not as uneven, but corner softness moves up to 3 blur units. At 200mm, the best performance is between f/8.0 and f/11.0, with the wide open and f/5.6 performance getting a little weaker, but still pretty good. lens distortion filter. These aren't facts or specifications, they are the results of my research that requires hours of photography and calculations on the resulting data. This Nikon 55-300mm VR lens is a reasonably priced, small, lightweight and very high-powered telephoto zoom for any DX camera. The Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR is physically just like the Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR, earning it “world’s lightest 300mm full-frame lens” title. Nikon was able to achieve this by using a Phase Fresnel (PF) lens element, which can effectively reduce the need to use complex lens elements for correcting chromatic aberrations and ghosting. Basically, the use of a Phase Fresnel lens element is what allowed Nikon to significantly reduce both the size and weight of the lens.

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 Frame The zoom ring is considerable, about one and three-eights inches wide, with well-textured raised rubber ribs. It provides a nicely spaced zoom selection, rotating 90 degrees through its range. The lens will extend about one and five-eights inches during its zoom range. Zooming action is very smooth but nicely dampened; the lens won't creep at all. I never saw any distortion until I went out to measure it. For people and action photos, it's irrelevant. The focus ring feels like a bit of an afterthought, a ribbed rubber ring a quarter-inch wide. The ring offers ninety degrees of focus travel, with hard stops on either end of the spectrum. It's worth noting that there's some slight lens extension during autofocus, with the lens barrel protruding an additional 3/4 inch at 300mm. It's not impossible to achieve accurate manual focus, but it's definitely harder than it needs to be. Clearly, this is a lens that's not intended for anything but autofocusing. That said, autofocus, while dependent on the body, is very accurate. 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 FrameMacro 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).

I'd leave either a 52mm Nikon Clear (NC - UV) filter, or a 52mm Hoya Super HMC UV on the lens at all times. In terms of features, the Nikon AF-S Nikkor DX 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR is a bit of a mixed bag. One one hand, it has Vibration Reduction on board – hence the VR abbreviation in the product name –; on the other, it isn't as sophisticated as on some other Nikon lenses. There's an on-off switch on the lens barrel, but there's no choice between active and normal modes. Likewise, the lens has a built-in auto-focus motor that allows AF operation on every Nikon DX camera body, including entry-level offerings like the D3100 or D5100, but – unlike with most other AF-S lenses – focusing is not internal, and manual focusing is not possible when the focus mode selector is set to the 'A' position, as shown above. The lens has no distance scale and no focus limiter, either.

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Zoom action feels just a little bit plasticy with very little stiction; nothing I'd complain about. If corner shading is an issue at all, it's when the lens is used at its widest apertures, and then, at 100mm or longer; even then, we note corners that are only 1/3 EV darker than the center. Stopped down, corner shading is negligible. 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. I've already covered most of it: this is a sharp, great performing lens worth far more than its bargain price.