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. 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. Thanks to the use of ED low dispersion glass in the the design, the 55-300mm doesn't suffer much with the dreaded effects of chromatic aberrations. But if you don't want to spend that much, I would consider other options like tamron 70-300 VC or even nikkor 70-300 DX version. This is certainly a drawback, especially if you need to quickly switch from Autofocus to Manual focus (most current Nikon lenses have an “A/M” mode on the lens, which allows to override autofocus by simply rotating the focus ring).

Nikon 300mm f/4E PF ED VR Review - Photography Life Nikon 300mm f/4E PF ED VR Review - Photography Life

If you do need to use the lens on a tripod, just use the camera tripod mount instead, as your camera mount will easily be able to handle the lens even with teleconverters attached. If you are shooting in dusty/windy areas, my recommendation is to keep the teleconverter always on the lens if you absolutely need to change lenses. Detailed specifications for the lens, along with MTF charts and other useful data can be found in our lens database. But, again as the reviewers point out, this is an autofocus lens, with manual only really useful to use initially to help find autofocus at long distances. The lens has a unique design, because it comes with a non-removable built-in lens hood that is made of plastic.

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.

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

to f/22-29 is enabled by a nine-blade diaphragm that has two more blades than the cheaper and smaller Nikon 55-200mm VR lens. Manual focus is selected with a dedicated AF/MF switch: despite being listed as an AF-S lens, you can't override autofocus by just turning the focus ring, you have to switch to manual focus mode. Wide open, both lenses have an almost identical corner performance – I cannot see any difference between the two. With the ability to be coupled with all three Nikon teleconverters, the 300mm f/4E VR is quite a versatile choice capable of extending its reach all the way to 600mm.

There are only two switches on the side of the lens – one for switching from autofocus with manual focus override (M/A) to manual focus (M), and one for limiting focus from full to infinity – 3 meters. The lens is most vulnerable when zoomed in – the barrel extends out quite a bit and any dust that settles on the lens barrel can be quickly sucked into the lens, resulting in dust inside the lens and potentially on the camera sensor. The optical formula comprises 13 lens elements arranged in 9 groups, including an ED glass element, with a a Super Integrated Coating. While autofocus performance may not be as good as on the current super-telephoto lenses, it is still extremely good for any sort of action photography.

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

The sharpness and CA profiles are quite similar to the Nikon; good in the mid-range, but poorer when zoomed in to its full extension. To avoid space limitations with the layout of our review pages, indexes to the test shots launch in separate windows.Having a similar optical design as the 28-300mm and the 18-200mm lenses, the Nikon 18-300mm has retained a similar physical appearance as well. Until the introduction of this lens, Nikon camera users requiring a lens that covers focal lengths up to 300mm to complement their existing kit lens had a compromise on their hands. Most of the recently-announced lenses by Nikon have a plastic exterior, which does not necessarily mean that the lenses are not solid. To prevent issues with lens creep, Nikon provided a zoom lock on the lens exterior, similar to the ones on both 18-200mm and 28-300mm lenses. I can understand if one desires a heavy and expensive lens for performance reasons, but the 18-300mm is not a very sharp lens.