At f/8.0, the performance is almost identical. Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 55-200mm @ 105mm Corner Frame What about the new and versatile Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR? Let’s see how it compares against the Nikon 55-300mm. Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 28-300mm @ 70mm Center The lens shows good resistance to chromatic aberration. Chromatic aberration is present at the wide angle (55mm) when the lens is stopped down considerably, but is very low indeed until around 135mm. At 200-300mm, chromatic aberration begins to become problematic, especially in the corners. The Nikon 55-300mm VR DX feels almost as nice as Nikon's serious amateur lenses like the 28-300mm VR and 16-35mm VR. Except for the dinky manual focus and plasticy extending barrels, it feels pretty nice.

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. Ideal Uses: Perfect for use on every DX digital Nikon. Great sports, nature and portrait lens; there's no need to pay more.I never saw any distortion until I went out to measure it. For people and action photos, it's irrelevant.

I have personally been a huge fan of the 300mm f/4D AF-S lens and have owned it for many years, loving the lens for its superb optical performance, fast autofocus, light weight, and compact size, making it my ultimate travel lens for wildlife photography – a perfect companion for hand-held shooting. Because it was so good with the 1.4x teleconverter, I practically always kept the teleconverter attached to the lens, making it a very nice 420mm f/5.6 combination. When Nikon finally announced the new 300mm f/4E VR lens, I got very excited, because Nikon completely redesigned the lens. In fact, with close to a 50% reduction in weight and a 30% reduction in physical size, we are not dealing with another redesign or update – this is a completely different lens. 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 300mm focal length on a DX camera gives the same angle of view as a 450mm lens on a 35mm camera, producing a pronounced telephoto effect.

VR works great and is very quiet. It doesn't make the nasty noises that off-brand lenses, like Tamron, do. I can only hear the VR working inside my 55-200 if I hold it to my ear. The lens is not claimed to be weatherproof but there is a rubber seal around the lens mount that should provide basic dust protection. Supplied Accessories: HB-57 Snap-on Type Lens Hood, LC-58 Snap-on Front Lens Cap, LF-4 Rear Lens Cap, CL-1020 Soft Lens Case 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. Vignetting is typically not a problem on telephoto lenses, however, the Nikon 55-300mm does have a significant amount of vignetting present past 135mm when shooting at the largest aperture. Stopping down the lens to f/8.0 completely gets rid of vignetting though, which is great. Here is an example of vignetting at f/5.0 @ 200mm (left) and at f/8.0 @ 200mm (right):

The build quality of this optic is typical of Nikon's mid to higher end consumer lenses, with the lens barrel constructed from high quality plastics sporting a textured finish. It is put together to fine tolerances and there are no rattles or wobbles anywhere on the lens and the mount is constructed from metal.I really like the versatility of this lens – being able to shoot at 55mm all the way to 300mm is very nice, especially for wildlife photography. Unlike the new Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR or the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II, this lens is not plagued with a “lens breathing” issue and 300mm on the long side is truly like 300mm, not shorter. Another important thing to note, is that the lens does extend pretty far when zoomed all the way in to 300mm. This is quite normal for this type of a lens and most other consumer zoom lenses also extend out when zoomed in. Zooming in/out was a little jerky and not very smooth on my lens sample, but it probably does get better overtime. The lens does not creep at all and I don’t think it will, even with heavy use in the future. The HB-57 lens hood is specifically engineered for this lens and it snaps on easily – I would leave it mounted on the lens to keep the front element protected against damage and flare/ghosting. NIKON D300 + 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 55mm, ISO 400, 1/250, f/8.0 However, as you can see, the 55-200mm is actually softer at maximum aperture. The sharpness difference is very minimal at f/5.6 and f/8.0 (below): Both perform very similarly when stopped down to f/8.0. Nikon 55-300mm vs Nikon 55-200mm @ 55mm Corner Frame The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. The Nikon 55-300mm VR DX is a perfectly competent, light-weight, wide-range telephoto for DX cameras.