Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 AF-S VR DX Nikkor

Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 AF-S VR DX Nikkor Performance

For a budget telephoto, this lens performs very well. Shooting wide open at 55mm, the sharpness in the centre is already good, and the clarity towards the edges isn't far behind. Peak performance across the frame is achieved at f/8 for this focal length, where sharpness across the frame is excellent.

Zooming the lens to 105mm results in very good sharpness in the centre and fair performance towards the edges of the frame at the maximum aperture. Peak quality across the frame is achieved at f/8, just like at 55mm, where sharpness approaches excellent levels across the frame.

Finally, at 200mm, sharpness in the centre of the frame remains good at maximum aperture and the quality towards the edges is fair. As with other focal lengths, stopping the lens down improves sharpness, but peak quality across the frame is achieved at f/11, and sharpness is very good across the frame.

55mm	105mm
200mm	How to read our graphs
	The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon D300 using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are kept to very low levels across the frame and at each zoom setting. At their worst, the just exceed 0.8 pixel widths at 200mm and f/5.6, which should pose few issues, even at large print sizes.

55mm	105mm
200mm	How to read our graphs
	Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon D300 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is well controlled. At 55mm and f/4 the corners are only 0.754 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination is achieved at f/5.6. At 200mm and f/5.6 the corners are only 0.807 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination is achieved at f/8.

Rather strangely for a zoom lens 1.07% pincushion distortion is present at the short end of the zoom range. Luckily this level doesn't increase too much as the lens is zoomed in with pincushion distortion levels only increasing to 1.17% at 200mm. The distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, so this should be relatively easy to correct in image editing software afterwards.

A deep circular hood comes supplied with the lens, which does an excellent job of shielding the lens from extraneous light that may cause flare or loss of contrast. When shooting into strong light sources, a noticeable loss of contrast is often apparent, especially at 200mm, so care may need to be taken when shooting under these circumstances.

Wide angle - ISO200, 1/800, f/8, 55mm	Telephoto - ISO200, 1/500, f/8, 200mm
Occasionally there is a noticeable loss of contrast when shooting into bright light sources - ISO320, 1/100, f/4, 55mm	The minimum focus distance of 1.1 meteres is a little closer than most lenses of this type. ISO200, 1/400, f/11, 200mm
Sharpness in the centre is very good at maximum aperture - ISO900, 1/200, f/4.2, 66mm	Out of focus areas are rendered relatively smothly - ISO640, 1/200, f/8, 200mm
ISO200, 1/250, f/8, 55mm	ISO200, 1/2000, f/1.8, 35mm

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