It's not impossible to achieve accurate manual focus, but it's definitely harder than it needs to be. The interior of the Nikon 18-300mm contains plenty of metal to hold optical elements, although judging from the weight, it feels like the lens has nothing but glass. 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. The lens sports the second generation VR II (vibration reduction) technology, offering camera shake compensation equivalent to a shutter speed increase of approximately four stops, allowing to shoot at slower shutter speeds without introducing camera shake. The lens is not claimed to be weatherproof but there is a rubber seal around the lens mount that should provide basic dust protection.

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Review - Focusing and VR Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Review - Focusing and VR

The lens focuses well when there is sufficient light and when shooting at shorter focal lengths below 200mm.But first, back to the field of view difference and focus breathing– at a distance of approximately 2. The zoom ring is gigantic, occupying almost half of the lens barrel, which makes it easy to zoom in and out with your left hand, while holding the camera with your right hand.

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

It's light weight should make the lens balance well on Nikon's entry level bodies such as the D40, D60, D3000 or D5000 as well as more advanced bodies such as the D90 or D300 used for testing. As with most lenses the optimal results are achieved when stopped down - in the case of the 55-300mm VR, to ƒ/8 or ƒ/11. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. In addition to these benefits, Nikon also utilized a number of newest technologies in the lens, including: new Fluorine Coat technology for repelling dust, water and dirt; electromagnetic diaphragm mechanism for precise and consistent control of aperture when shooting fast action in high-speed bursts; Vibration Reduction image stabilization technology that allows up to 4.Nikon’s layout follows the common arrangement, with a narrow focusing ring at the front of the lens and a wide zoom ring behind it. A circular clip on hood is provided with the lens to help shield the front element from any extraneous light. Due to differences in field of view between the Nikon 55-300mm and Nikon 28-300mm, I had to adjust the focal length of the Nikon 55-300mm to match around 70mm of 28-300mm. We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective; so we've included several 100% crops for your perusal. 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.

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Review - Lens Comparisons Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Review - Lens Comparisons

Also updates to the kit lens are often stuff like 17-50mm, so you would only have a small gap after upgrading your short lens. If you can live without the 300mm focal length, but not with the gap, then Nikon's 55-200mm AF-S VR may fit the bill. We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective; so we've included an example and several 100% crops for your perusal. Nikon was able to do this by using a high refractive index (HR) lens element (which allows using a single lens element instead of multiple elements made of standard glass), without compromising sharpness and image quality.The Nikon 55-300mm VR lens is only designed to work on Nikon DX (cropped) sensors and has an equivalent field of view of approximately 82. When it comes to AF, the 55-300mm zoom is surprisingly slow for a modern AF Nikkor, and is probably the slowest focusing lens in the AF-S line-up. VR lens, Nikon employed an iris diaphragm with nine rounded blades, and it has resulted in a splendid bokeh in our view.