Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-200mm 1:4-5.6 G ED VR IF Lens (f/4-5.6)

Review of the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-200mm 1:4-5.6 G ED VR IF Lens (f/4-5.6).

Overall Rating:

This lens replaced the Non-VR version. It is 18 years old. It cost $250 (USD) at its debut.

Performance

The Vibration Reduction (VR) is nice making this inexpensive, slow lens into a top hand-held performer, allowing one to get sharper shots at lower shutter speeds. The VR does not perform as well as the 55-300mm VR. It has to be refocused after zooming, and focus speed is not bad but not instant and is faster than the 55-300mm VR. There is an A/M switch on it that must be turned to M to enable manual focusing. Attempting to manually focus the lens when this switch is set to A will damage it. The front element does not turn while zooming or focusing and the lens has an internal focus design. Features ED glass.

This 55-200mm lens is soft at f=105mm-200mm otherwise it is a good performer with the exception of pincushion distortion (0.5-0.4%) on the long end, about f=105mm-200mm. At f/8, diffraction begins. Vignetting is well controlled no doubt thanks to its DX format.

This lens is compared in the comparisons section on this site

Construction

This very compact lens has a 35mm equivalent range of 83mm-300mm on the DX/APS-C sized sensor. It is all plastic, but don't believe that these lenses can be taken apart by grabbing the camera by the lens. There's really nothing wrong with it being all plastic. This lens lacks a focus scale and depth of field scale and therefore no infrared focus index. Clearly, these features are not found to save costs.

Bokeh

The bokeh is semi-busy. It could be worse.

Infrared

Like most consumer grade lenses by Nikon, this one is good at infrared.

Comparison

An advantage this lens has over the AF-S 55-300mm VR version is the maximum aperture is wider at 55mm (f/4). It is more compact than the 55-300mm but not as compact as the AF-S 55-200mm ED lens.

Apertures

	aperture
	max	min
55mm	f/4.0	f/22
70mm	f/4.2	f/22
85mm	f/4.5	f/25
105mm	f/4.8	f/25
135mm	f/5.0	f/29
200mm	f/5.6	f/32

Specifications

Focal length: 55-200mm
Maximum aperture: f/4
Minimum aperture: f/32
ø52mm filter ring
Lens construction: 15 lens elements in 11 groups (one ED element)
Picture angle: 29° at f=55mm and 8° at f=200mm
Distance scale: 1.1m/3.6ft. to infinity
1:4.3 (0.23×) maximum reproduction ratio at 3.6 ft. f=200mm
Price: $250 (USD) (2007)

Images

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