Great Addition to the DX Line-up

Great Addition to the DX Line-up

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.

Excellent Value (and Images) for the Money !

I first owned a Nikon 55-200 VR lens for about 9 months and then a Nikon 70-300 VR II for about one and a half years. For reasons still not totally clear to me, I decided to sell the 70-300 and grab this 55-300 VR II. I suppose the biggest reason was because the 55 added a little more at the wider range end of the spectrum. What I gave up was the Internal Focus (IF) that made the 70-300 more compact. I can live with that.

The focus on this piece of glass is extremely quick and smooth with outstanding image quality at all focal ranges. Shots come out very crisp and clear. There have been a few times where, at 300mm, it was a bit slow in locating the object of my focus, but that has only occurred with substantially less than optimum lighting. That was also the case with my 70-300.

As with any lens, the VR function is an incredible asset. Unless I am in a very low-light or dark situation I have absolutely no need for a tripod. The percentage of blurry, out-of-focus shots is pretty nil.

The silent wave motor (SWM) operates very quietly and with good speed which allows me to capture images that might otherwise have gotten away, especially with a slower focus lens.

I appreciate the quality of the lens construction. Though it is a bit heavy there will be no complaints from me considering all the benefits this one piece of glass offers in the focal range that is available. If I had the money, I probably would have jumped at either the 18-300 or the 28-300, but, alas, until that day comes, I am totally satisfied with this baby.

I definitely recommend this to anyone, especially those who have either a 55-200 or a 70-300 and who desire a slightly greater focal capacity. As well, if you have a zoom without VR, you should somehow make it go right to get a VR lens. There is quite a difference.

Great 55mm-300mm Nikon lense takes great pictures at the right price!

I had just bought myself the Nikon D5100 with the lens kit;18mm-55mm + 55mm-200mm. I wanted a longer focal length and couldn't get a decent trade in value from a brand new lense so I searched Ebay for this deal and found this lense for the right price with shipping in mind. The lense works great! Just what I expected from Nikon, I was replacing my old SLR camera which had a 300mm zoom lense, this exceeds it in every way! Smooth motion, quick focus, clear pictures, fairly light weight, and still kept my cost under about $100 from buying through a store. It doesn"t handle the real fast shots you may try and get if shooting wildlife or sports but handles just about anything else you throw at it, it has it's limits but performs well where I need it, compared to the old olympus I used for years it's leaps and bounds ahead! Doesn't even compare with my point and shoot digitals, this is a whole other class itself. No complaints here!

Nikon Nikkor AF-S 55-300mm F/4.5-5.6 VR DX ED G Lens. EXCELLENT PRODUCT

Compact 5.5X DX-format telephoto zoom lens element of high refractive index 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 up to 4 shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible, assuring dramatically sharper still images and stable video capture.. GOOD PRODUCT

Not for pros, but great for recreational photgraphers.

This lens is a great starter lens in addition to the 18-55 kit lens however it has its limitations, with a maximum aperture of 4.5 and relatively slow autofocus, its not suited for sports photography and will not perform well in low light. That being said, it is still a Nikon DSLR lens and will take amazing pictures in proper lighting. Bottom line: If you are into sports, spend the extra for the 70-300 lens because it has faster autofocus but if your not photographing sports all the time or are just a recreational photographer, this lens is a great asset.