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

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.

Obviously, I did not give a rating of 5 because this lens is the best lens ever, but because it's quite a deal for its price. If I could, I'd give it a 4.5. If you bought a Nikon D40/40x/60 with an 18-55mm lens, this should logically be your next choice. First, here are the cons:1. Painfully slow (aperture of 4)2. Slow AF - it takes just a slight but noticeable second longer to auto focus compared to an average lens (55-200 is not exactly ideal for shooting sports, especially if you're using it with D40/D40x/D60).3. Build quality - the first impression of this lens is that it feels and weighs super cheap... probably because it is. Light weight is not necessarily a bad thing, though it does take away the enthusiasm when you wait a week for your lens to come to find out that it feels and looks cheap. But on the bright side, with all else being equal, lighter is (almost always) better and convenient.The only real annoying problem out of the three is the aperture, so my advise: get a flash. This obviously isn't a complete "solution" but hey, if you don't have one, you need one anyways. If you have one, then you shouldn't have problems exposing the pictures correctly despite the low aperture. If you have a problem with slow AF and cheap build quality, just live with it. AF isn't all that slow.Besides from these problems, everything else is great - I really didn't expect such a great quality from a 200 dollar lens. Barrel distortion is negligible, pictures are sharp (especially around the center), bokeh is beautiful, and I haven't noticed much chromatic aberrations or vignetting. It's got Vibration reduction that allows me to shoot about 2 stops lower (may be add another 1/3 more), it's got IF which is somewhat useless but cool to have because the size of the lens doesn't change as you focus. I mean, for 200 dollars, what more do you want?If you want to look for other options, you're probably looking at 18-200mm VR (about $650). Now, in my opinion, 18-200mm isn't all that great because it has a lot of distortion at 18mm, it's not very sharp around the edges and you may become annoyed with the lack of friction as you carry it around. Although there's no way to beat the convenience of 18-200mm, I would argue that the quality of 55-200 is better, at about 1/3 the cost ($210). If you're lazy or if you want to backpack in Europe with minimal equipment, then 18-200 would be your choice. But if you you want better pictures at lower cost, 55-200mm is the way to go. If you have money to burn? then well, you're a lucky bastard.70-200mm is in a league that is completely different than 55-200, so it's not even worth mentioning. The 70-300mm VR ($479) seems like a good choice, especially if you bought the 18-70mm ($310)lens to begin with. But since I have yet to use a 70-300mm, I shall not compare it to the 55-200mm.CONCLUSION: great, great lens for its price. It's even better if you just bought an 18-55mm and you're looking for your first zoom lens.

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.