Nikon 55200mm f456G ED AFS DX Nikkor Zoom Lens

Product Description

From the Manufacturer The Nikon 55-200mm f4-5.6G ED AF-S DX Nikkor Zoom Lens is an ultra compact, lightweight telephoto zoom lens with a 3.6x and 55- to 200-millimeter focal range that offers a remarkable cost-to-performance ratio. Optimized for use with Nikon digital SLRs, this lens is ideally suited for the Nikon D50 digital SLR camera.

This affordable and powerful zoom offers the performance equivalent to an 82.5- to 300-millimeter lens in 35mm format and is suitable for everything from candid portraits to sports, nature, and wildlife photography. Featuring a Silent Wave Motor (SWM) that offers smooth and quite auto focus performance, this lens comes in black and measures a compact 2.7 inches in diameter by 3.1 inches in length and weighs approximately nine ounces.

For optics, the lens employs two ED glass elements that achieve a high resolution and contrast while minimizing chromatic aberration and other forms of distortion. By using this lens along with the Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f3.5-5.6G ED lens (sold separately), photographers can achieve a focal length range from 18-millimeter wide-angle to 200-millimeter telephoto, providing a picture angle equivalent to a 27- to 300-millimeter lens in 35mm format. This range allows you to cover an extremely wide variety of subjects and shooting situations.

Note: This lens is not compatible with 35mm or IX240 format film cameras.

What's in the Box Lens, snap-on front lens cap (LC-52), rear cap (LF-1), hood (HB-34), and semi-soft case (CL-0815).
This review is from: Nikon 55-200mm f4-5.6G ED AF-S DX Nikkor Zoom Lens (Camera)
Amateurs bought Nikon's VR marketing (3 stop advantage!) hype hook, line, and sinker and jumped on the VR bandwangon, abandoning this non-VR version of the lens, flooding the used market with their old non-VR lenses leaving an astonishing value on the table. Couple reasons why this lens, the non-VR version, might be a better choice for you. 1. Pros don't use VR all that much! No. They shoot at higher shutter speeds and turn VR on only when absolutely needed. (Amateurs leave it on when it's not needed/does nothing but suck the battery all the time.) 2. To that point, shooting at 1/250 - 1/500 is as good/better than VR as VR /can/ negatively impact your image in a subtle way... Pros shoot teles on a tripod (low-tech, tiz true, but nothing beats it...)or at a min of 1/250 shutter speed or higher 3. Below 200mm? Truthfully, you really don't need VR at all - almost ever. Many/most of the pics you take with this mid-range tele will be below 200mm. 4. VR drains batteries - badly. Expect the life of your battery to be cut by 1/3 if you leave VR on... 5. It's a tele... most amateurs shoot these outdoors when there's plenty of light, which is how I plan to use it. Shooting with a tele in a church or other indoor events? By all means, get the VR version. But then again if you're an event photographer who shoots with mid-telephoto lenses indoors, you probably ain't using this slow consumer lens in the first place. So, here's the VR "work around" shoot shutter priority at the highest shutter speed you can get away with above 1/250 minimally or 1/500th (you don't really need to go much higher). And just shoot. In bad (low) light, shoot in RAW. Let the picture underexpose up to two stops. It will look dim and like crap in your LCD. Who cares? Import it into your RAW editor, and bump up the exposure. There's your free "two stop advantage" that doesn't drain batteries.

Finally, why is this a better value? Nikon had to cut some important corners to bring the VR version of this lens in at a $250 price point. The non-VR version has two ED elements. The VR version had only one. The non-VR version has a nice 9(!) blade aperture, the VR version 7. The non-VR version appears to be even more compact (judging from pictures/correct me if I'm wrong...)than the VR version - barely bigger than the kit lens at 55mm. It's a slightly better lens technically, and a near-astonishing value especially used. Get More Full Detail>>