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

I have purchased this lens from US on Thanksgiving day. It comes with 1 year world wide warranty 4 years Limited US warranty. This lens is for photographers who can't afford the costly 70-300mm FX lens. I have a combination of 18-55mm VR 55-300mm VRII for my Nikon D5100.

This is the most practical combination one can have for casual clicking.

I have been using the 55-300 along with my standard 18-55mm Nikkor, and must say its a very good combo. I have used it for some wildlife photography and the results are definitely more than satisfactory. Its an awesome lens and there is no 2nd thoughts about it.
The VR too is a must have, as per me. This really reduces the use of a tripod plus other advantages, shell out a bit more for the VR variant, if given a choice.

One combo would be to have one 18-55 and a 55-300/70-300. Another choice would be to go for one single, the awesome, 18-200mm. But it all boils down to your budget and that extra 100mm of range. Its your choice.

I've been using this lense for about an year now. i'm highly satisfied with the performance and the picture quality of this lens. Had purchased it from US. I used this lense for some portrait pics, pics in a marriage.. an they were really good. the lens is stable, picture quality is good and comparatively, pretty fast at auto focus. Photos come really good and distinct colors when shooting both indoor and outdoor..

If you are an amateur and have the money, blindly go for this lens. Yes I know you may be tempted by cheaper offerings from Tamron, Sigma or even the uber cheap Nikon AF 70-300, but if you can afford, this is the best for an amateur. I have personally used both the Tamron and Sigma, 70-300 variants for more than a month (borrowed from friends). What I sorely missed in them is the VR. If you cross 200, its absolutely impossible to take handheld pictures with them. Besides, after crossing 200, pictures become visibly soft, specially at the corners. Colour fringing is pretty evident in both of them. Compared to them, this lens is absolutely a pleasure to use. Even at 300 with lens wide open (at the largest aperture), there is minimal softness. Colour fringing is there but its negligible. And the VR-II system of the lens is absolutely wonderful. I got pretty decent handheld images at 300mm, even at a relatively lower shutter speed (1/30th of a second) at dimming light.

Having said that, there are a couple of weak points in this lens.

1. The minimum focusing distance is 1.4 meters, almost 5 feet. So macro shots are ruled out.
2. Focusing is tad slow. Focus hunts in low light conditions.

Not much of a con out there. The pros far outweigh the cons . So that's my review. Go for it, you won't regret your investment. And if you have even more money to spend, go for the Nikon 70-300mm. Its the best entry- level consumer lens that you can get.

(For you folks out there who can't decide between the Tamron 70-300mm and Sigma 70-300mm, my advice it go for Tamron. Its a tad better. )

I'm using Nikon D5100 with 18-55mm lens, with which I'm limited to short range in terms of Zoom. So I bought 55-300 from Nikon, keeping an idea that I could have range from 18-300(18-55 & 55-300). It's rightly priced for the kind of quality it gives. My expectations were far exceeded with this lens. The sharpness above 250mm is bit disappointing but with regular practice one can overcome that. I faced that problem initially and now I'm feeling far better with the kind of sharpness I'm able to achieve through this lens. One should have good amount of experience in working with zoom lens to extract the best from this 55-300mm lens. Don't expect to get good shots right from the word go, give a bit of practice and I'm sure you will be in love with this product. Good Luck!!!