By “just another customer” (San Francisco, CA)

If you looking for something relatively inexpensive and fun to carry around, this is the lens for you. Quality is good in good light, most of the time, and can be exceptional sometimes. The plasticy feel doesn’t bother me because I avoid carrying around a hunk of metal.The VR works like a charm in good light.

However, I’ve noticed softness (at all apertures) often enough where I would not use this lens for any professional work. For example, the Nikkor 180 f/2.8 blows this lens away in quality of manufacture and resulting photos.

I’ve also noticed softness and noise in almost all of my night photos using this lens, even with a very heavy tripod and no wind.

If you want to have fun and need a good lens, buy this one. If you are a professional or OBAM (obessessed amateur), save for the higher quality lenses because you’ll be disappointed.

I wish more people would objectively weigh the positives and the negatives in their reviews so that those considering buying this lens can make an informed decision. While this is a very good lens on a tight budget, this is not a great lens directly compared against other similar (and more expensive) lenses.

By J. Pleau “Outdoor Photo Fan” (Seattle, WA USA)

I have had this new VR 55-200 lens for over two weeks and love it. This lens definitely captures pictures in lower light without the blur of a non VR lens. Last week I was up in the mountains above Park City Utah when a Bull Moose came walking by me. It was about 6:00PM so the light was pretty low. I shot the moose with my Nikon D80 at 200MM at a F 5.6, ISO 200 at 1/40th of a second. The picture is amazingly clear. If this was my other non VR zoom Nikon lens, the picture would have been a total loss.

• Read more about Nikon AF-S DX VR 55-200mm

Comments(0) | Add Comments |