Nikon 55-300mm zoom

goz63

Senior Member
Just called Adorama this morning and they told me the 55-300 will arrive from Nikon on the 10th. Anyone else pre-order this lens? There has been some talk on the net about some of the other new Nikon lenses and wondered when this one would ship. I am upgrading my 55-200 to this one. Who else is looking at this lens?
Mark
 

goz63

Senior Member
Nice you found it on sale. I only have one local camera store here and they are ESPENSIVE so I buy on line. I have pre-ordered it from Adorama. I called them this morning and they said it would be arriving from Nikon on the 10th of Sept. On another site a guy I know is getting the 28-300 and he said they are in stock as well as the 55-300 on B&H. He is right and now the Adorama site says the 55-300 is in stock. Now they are closed so won't know till next week whether my lens is on its way:) OH well, I have to go to DC on Tuesday so maybe it will be a present waiting for me when I get home.

I traded my 55-200 to a guy for a Nikon 28mm 2.8 prime lens. I didn't need the 55-200 and the 55-300. I liked the 200 but it was not long enough. Most of the pics I have posted here are with that 55-200. I hope I don't miss it. The specs on the new lens are really nice, including the tripod detection for VR. Looking forward to playing with it. ATM I am stuck with the 18-105VR as my "long" lens till that one gets here.
Mark
 

goz63

Senior Member
Hah, no more than get off the site and check my mail and I got an e-mail from Adorama that my lens is on its way via UPS!
Mark
 

goz63

Senior Member
Well my wife tells me that my 55-300 has arrived. It actually got to my house yesterday. Now I just need to be at my house, lol. I will get home tomorrow and am looking forward to trying it out. We have an air show this week end and I can't think of a batter place to get some miles on it. I will post some pics and give an appraisal of it after that.
 

goz63

Senior Member
Took the 55-300 to the air show today at Scott AFB. Nice IQ, a little slow to focus at times and the zoom is not as smooth as I would like. Although the latter means there is NO lens creap at all. I really like the reach of the 300!
Phantom.JPGGolden Knights.JPGHeritage Flight.JPG
 
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The last image - at first glance, it looks like a bunch of model planes suspended in mid-air (photoshopped dental floss?) on a sky background. These are all nice shots, however!!
 

goz63

Senior Member
They look better at full resolution and not JPEG. The VRII worked great. There was not a blurry picture in any of the 200+ I took. I used low continuous at times and let the camera fly as I panned the plane. All were shot in aperture mode. I started with ISO of 100 and later adjusted to 200. Contrast was nice. All the pics are just converted to JPEG from RAW in NX view. I will play with some in PSE7 and see how they touch up. I just wanted to see the un-altered picture that the lens captured. So far I like it.
 

goz63

Senior Member
I have used it and love it. I found a hawk just outside our yard and got some great pics of him taking off. The clarity revealed some colors on the bird I didn't know they had, that was cool.
 
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Cagey75

New member
Hmmm, wondering about this lens. Already got the 55-200, and like others have said, the 200mm end isn't long enough, I like to try capture birds in the garden through the back window, and find I have to crop a lot. Other than that, I've read the 55-300mm is very soft at 300mm, though the images shown here don't suggest as much.
 

fotojack

Senior Member
Mark my words......the 55-300 will outsell the 55-200 by a wide margin! And everyone's interpretation of what's soft at 300mm is subject to discussion. Can't beat that kind of zoom for that kind of money.
 
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