Moose’s Visual Guide and Review for the Nikon 55-300mm VR
Intro
The Nikon 55-300mm VR is a fantastic starter telephoto zoom lens for people interested in outdoor sports, wildlife and travel photography.
Things I'm Crazy About
This lens has lots of reach, meaning you can compose (frame) a wide variety of subjects from a distance. The generous zoom range is great for walking around, hiking and traveling.
If you’re into sports, this lens is fantastic for outdoor action in bright light. You’ll be able to get in tight to your subject and capture intense action.
I’ve also found this lens to be great for tightly cropped landscape shots, like focusing in on a distant tree or interesting rock formation.
Things I'm Not Crazy About
If you're planning on shooting sports at night or a recital indoors, you're going to need a lens that can obtain a maximum aperture of f/2.8 or lower. Otherwise, you'll end up with blurry subjects and lots of noise (image grain).
This lens is very capable capturing city skylines at night or landscapes (motionless subjects) at dawn or dusk, but you'll need the assistance of a sturdy tripod.
Final Thoughts
Other than the poor hand-held/fast-action low light performance, this lens is fantastically sharp and can produce stunning sports, wildlife and landscape shots when there's enough light available.