Home > Consumer Reviews > Nikon 55-200MM F4.5-5.6 AF-S VR DX Black Lens

A great lens for a tiny price! This is an excellent lens to really take you a step further into the world of digital SLR photography.

I've owned the D40 for about 7-8 months and I finally decided that I'd like to be able to pick out features and have a bit more flexibililty with zoom. So after reading around I decided upon this for it's ability, but mainly becasue of the price tag! A quality lens for this much money is a nobrainer. The VR is essential, especially in low light situations and i've got excellent results with it.

I was immediatly impressed with this lens. It feels well made and sturdy. The image quality seems impressive, and the Vibration Reduction works extremely well, making telephoto shots a pleasure to take. I would recommend getting this over the non-VR version anyday, it really is worth the extra money.

Announced in March 2007, this is one of Nikon's latest DX lenses for digital cameras. I have been using this lens on my D40. Compared with the 18-55mm kit lens, this lens not only extends the zoom range, but it also delivers sharper photos. As far as I can tell, it is the same lens as the previous 55-200mm lens, but with Vibration Reduction (VR) technology which is essential at high zooms. When you press the shutter half-way, the VR is activated and you can actually see a visible difference through the viewfinder! The lens makes a humming sound while the VR system is active. I would recommend that you don't go for the old non-VR lens - pay £100 extra and get one like this with VR. It will make a big difference. The only problem is that now I have experienced the 55-200mm VR, I have started to crave for the 70-300mm VR! The VR system does drain the battery life, so be careful about this when you are out and about - every time you depress the shutter button half way to focus, the VR is activated. Also, I have noticed that when the VR does kick in, it causes a degree of camera shake which may be significant if you have perfectly framed your shot. So for these reasons I have given 4 stars rather than 5.

I've come back to photography after twenty-five years away so I still think in 35mm terms. I have this lens on my D40 and was very surprised at its long range which will be quite enough for me to take cricket photos this summer. I have a bad tremor but seem to have no problem getting good results with this lens so the VR works. The autofocus is something else but manual focusing is easy enough. For the money I don't think you could get any better but keep your 18-55mm to hand because I think you'll need both.

As a D40 owner, i was somewhat disappointed to find that i was limited by which lenses i could buy. Thankfully most of the zoom lenses that Nikon produce are AF-S and thus will autofocus fine.

Now, i was sorely tempted by a 70-300mm VR lens, but the price was simply to high to justify (as a keen amateur!). So, i ended up getting one of these instead - and it's possibly my favourite lens at the moment (i also have a Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8, Nikon 50mm f/1.8 and the Nikon AF-S 18-55mm kit).

I didn't have much chance to mess around with it at home (not much to shoot) so i took it with me to London this week to see how it performed. The first thing i noticed was how sharp my pictures were coming out. I've had a lot of use focussing manually with the 50mm, so nice automatic focussing was a pleasure! It's not the fastest in the world to focus, but it's good enough to get a bird in flight without too much of a problem.

The actual zoom range is great, if you hunger after something a bit longer than your kit lens then you won't be disappointed. With a zoom of around 4 times, if you own the 18-55 kit lens you'll have 10x optical zoom to play with, (200/55 = 3.6). Whilst the actual magnification isn't a large number, the actual focal length trounces most consumer cameras. Put simply, i was getting a bit of flak from my friends about "only having 3x optical zoom and not being able to 'get in further'". This lens shut them up nicely.

Get VR if at all possible, it compensates for your hand shaking slightly when you take your photos and lets you get down to slightly lower shutter speeds/smaller apertures if you need them.

Size wise it's small, a bit longer than the D40 kit lens and it comes with a handy lens hood. You'll need to get a clear filter to protect the front element - it'll take a 52mm diameter filter.

If you can afford it then i'd say get the 70-300, but this is stonking value for money!