Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR [Vibration Reduction] Nikkor Zoom Lens Bulk packaging (White box, New)

Short version of my review: this is a superb Nikkor lens at a ridiculously low price - buy it.Slightly longer version of my review: When I bought my D3100 9 months ago, I tried a 55-200 in the camera store. The demo lens was not impressive as it creaked nonstop on the camera body and I was not thrilled with a plastic lens mount on a relatively large lens, so I decided to get a Tamron 70-300 instead. The Tamron is a fine lens for the money, had a metal mount and is fully capable of hand-held shooting at 70mm, but there is no way I can take a sharp image at 200mm or 300mm without a tripod or monopod. So I decided it would be nice to have another tele lens that I could actually use handheld. When I saw that Amazon was selling the 55-200 VR for $149 with a free UV filter and free shipping, I decided that for such little money, I would take a chance on this lens and buy myself a Xmas present, so I got the Nikkor.To my pleasant surprise, the lens I received does not creak at all. It is sharp, has fast autofocus and I can take sharp, beautiful handheld images with ease at 200mm with this lens. VR is for real! The quality of construction is better than I remembered on the demo lens and the plastic lens mount, while certainly not my first choice, is acceptable for the ridiculously low price I paid. I treat all my camera equipment with great care - but the occasional accident does happen. I recently dropped my Panasonic LX-3 from a height of 4 feet on to a cement floor. Luckily, it was in its case and sustained zero damage. I doubt that dropping a DSLR with this lens from the same distance would result in no damage.I highly recommend this lens at the current price of $149 - it really is an incredible deal at that price point!Update: Now that I have been shooting with this lens for close to 6 months, I am even more impressed with it now than initially. It works very well for portraits and close-up photography, so I keep it on my D3100 most of the time now. I even won a photography contest using this lens to shoot cherry blossoms. This lens is the best bang for the buck of any lens I have ever purchased: I paid less for this lens than my friend paid in sales tax on the last lens he purchased! Highly recommended.

There are faster, longer, and higher-quality lenses on the market. That's a no-brainer. You can find lenses that beat the humble 55-200mm f/4-5.6G in every possible respect. But that doesn't make this lens any less valuable in a startling lineup of lenses. It's an excellent performer all around at rock-bottom prices. It makes an amazing second lens for a beginning DSLR user, with no two doubts about it. Here's the breakdown.PROS+ It's thoroughly manageable to carry. This lens is ridiculously light and reasonably compact for a telephoto zoom. If you get a chance to handle its bulkier cousins, the 55-300mm and the 70-300mm (or third party equivalents), you'll appreciate just how little the plastic 55-200mm weighs. It also takes up next to no space in just about any gear bag, whether you bought it or improvised. You know what they say about the best camera, right? Same goes with lenses-- if you didn't carry it with you, it's not doing you any good! Even with the hood, it's compact.+ Versatile zoom range. The 55-200mm reach gives you the ability to take shots while walking around without trouble. The wide end (55mm) is a medium telephoto in DX terms, but you can still be reasonably close in before having trouble fitting something in the frame. 200mm isn't going to get you near exotic wildlife, but you'd be surprised at how well you can grab birds or other small creatures with "just" 200mm. With the increasingly high-resolution sensors DSLRs are fitted with, you're also likely able to crop inwards a bit further if needbe.+ Quiet. Focusing and vibration reduction are both very discreet, enough so that I'm more than comfortable using this lens during events. Audible? Sure, but not enough to bug anyone more than your standard shutter. Speaking of vibration reduction though...+ Vibration reduction. It works. And it's completely worth it. You must remember that you're still going to get subject blur at lower shutter speeds, but for all intents and purposes I've been able to forget about handheld shake for daily shooting with this lens. It's really quite remarkable. On the other hand, don't think you're going to be doing much shooting during a car chase or anything.+ Image quality is excellent. The lens is sharp with no particularly nasty characteristics, and no distortion that can't be fixed by your average post-processing RAW developer (or indeed, in-camera JPEG correction).+ Beautiful compliment to the 18-55mm kit. Its aperture at the wide end (f/4) handily beats the kit lens' f/5.6, which can give you a little more breathing room if you need it without overlapping enough to make the kit lens superfluous.+ Precise build and functional, tactile controls. The zoom ring is well damped, not prone to creeping, and turns with a great degree of precision for such a cheap lens. Sure, the manual focusing ring is tiny, but if you do need to use it I've found it works just fine (although a bit on the looser side). Infinitely better than the kit 18-55mm's ring, in my opinion.+ Internal focusing. The lens doesn't extend unless you want it to, and the filter ring doesn't mess about if you're into polarizers or graduated ND filters.+ 52mm filter size. This makes it a great companion to the kit lens (you can swap filters), and it's a common size that's easy to provide for.+ Autofocus doesn't mess around. The lens isn't any more prone to hunting than you'd expect, and usually locks on quickly and silently.CONS- Focusing ring is a bit slim. If you do really want to take advantage of manual focus, you'd be better served by a lens that's ergonomically designed for it. In a similar fashion,- Dedicated manual/autofocus modes. Nikon's more expensive lenses (or their newer primes) generally have a M/A mode which allows you to override the autofocus by simply grabbing the focus ring and turning. This lens requires that you switch the lens into manual before you make such adjustments (at the risk of damaging the lens otherwise).- 200mm maximum reach means that more distant subjects may leave you wishing for "just a little more." That said, take this with a grain of salt-- I upgraded to a 300mm lens recently, and while I appreciate the additional range it's hardly a revolutionary change.- Slower speeds. It's an f/4-5.6 lens, so it's not going to be pretty if you're shooting indoors or at night. Your camera will need to have a solid higher ISO performance if you want these kinds of shots; even with vibration reduction, you'll either hit the VR system's limits or run into subject blur unless you can shoot at at least ISO 800/1600.This lens was my second, and while I've moved on since I will miss it dearly. Amazing lens and a wonderful, wonderful place to start with photography.

Okay hold on, there is a story to this purchase.I bought this lens because I volunteer with a group of HS girls basketball players.These girls, while amazing, are still girls and have insecurities. I got to learn what angles they like with this camera and I also had them give it a try. This camera captured the best moments, and it meant the world to the seniors and their parents. While this school does hire professional photographers, all the girls annd parents agreed that my pictures were so much better because of this lense. It was so affordable, amazing quality, the autofocus on it was out of this world. It was fast. Great look and clarity to all the photos. I even trusted them to take their own pictures. This functionality this lense provide gave these girls amazing photos. For weeks after the season was over they posted these photos to all their social medias and the parents did too.This isn’t just a camera lense, it’s a memory frozen in time so that they can look back and enjoy for the rest of their life.This lens brought out the photographer in a lot of these basketball girls and captured the most wonderful senior night photos.If you’re contemplating getting it, just do it. The price is great, but overall the memories are priceless.