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

We could not find any sign that the lens wasn’t new. Appearance, smoothness, ease of use and picture quality all say “it’s new”. Only the low price gives away the secret. Love it!

This is a “For the price” rating. It’s a relatively inexpensive lens: slowish (f4.5-5.6), variable focal length, and a sturdy but plastic barrel (with a mental mounting ring.) It would be nice to have a faster fixed focal length lens, but they are 2x to 3x the price for my camera. So you just have to pay attention a little more, to exposure settings using this. I just received this and tested it for the kinds of shooting that I’ll do with it on my D5500. Mainly outdoor scenery, wildlife, and events. So far, I couldn’t be happier. Images were more than sharp enough for me at all focal lengths, focusing speed and accuracy are quite good. The VRII function is amazing. I shot hand held, fully zoomed at the full moon and got good detail. Excellent detail and sharpness shooting long off details outside. It really works. Even at slower shutters speeds. (I went down to 1/125 at 300mm) A very import feature on a slow lens. Nikon says it can give you an extra 3-4 stops hand held. I believe it. My only real complaint is that the end of the barrel turns as it focuses. This makes using a CPL a bit of a problem. My camera has a focus lock button so once again I just have to work a little harder with this lens. Still well worth the price and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants great results, but has far more patients than money.

 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.

Great for taking large landscape panoramas. New to DSLR, but get some really great, clean, crisp photos with it.
It does make me want to get a stronger lens thou so I can take better photos of the moon. Can do it with this, but the moon image is fairly small (but it gets plenty of detail).

I was on the fence about buying this lens or saving up a little more for the 70-300 Nikon lens for my D5100. I decided to go with this one as it was about $125 cheaper at the time (comparing refurbished models of both), and read that the main difference between the two was the faster AF mechanism in the 70-300, the fx compatibility, and the Manual/Auto switch of the 70-300 which allows manual focus without having to switch the autofocus off. The image quality of both seemed to be relatively equal according to many reviews, so I took the plunge.

I was mostly concerned about the focus speed, but it was much better than I anticipated. The only time the focus took a long time was if it tried to focus in the ‘wrong’ direction and then had to move all the way back the other direction. This often happened in low light or if the lens was zoomed in all the way while trying to focus. This is easily fixable if you zoom out first, focus quickly, and then zoom in and focus again. Other than that, I didn’t notice much difference in focusing speed than the 18-55 kit lens. I’m sure the 70-300 is faster, but for my needs this was acceptable. Don’t expect fast AF-C focusing on fast moving subjects, though.

The VR on this lens is fantastic. I’m glad I didn’t go for one of the cheaper Tamron or Sigma zoom lenses that did not have any kind of vibration reduction. I never noticed how it worked with the kit lens, but when you are zoomed in at 300, it is clearly evident. If you are fully zoomed in without VR, you can try to keep the camera steady as possible, but it will still be shaky. With VR kicked in, pushing the shutter button halfway will magically steady your image in the viewfinder. It’s similar to those FPS games that let you hold your breath when looking through a sniper rifle. I don’t know how it works, but it’s amazing, and lets you take sharp handheld shots zoomed all the way in.

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.

All in all, I’m extremely satisfied with this lens. Pictures are extremely sharp at all zoom levels, Bokeh is great, and it’s very easy to isolate your subject from the background. If faster AF is important to you and you don’t mind the extra cost, go for the 70-300. If you are on a budget and want a good quality zoom lens, this is the perfect option.