CameraHobby - Nikon 55-200mm f4-5.6 Lens Review

B&H Photo - Video - Pro Audio

Search and Shop at the B&H Store

Articles and Reviews

Home >> Photography >> Digital Photography

Nikon 55-200mm f4-5.6G AF-S DX
March 24, 2006

At no point does this lens equal the much more expensive 70-200 f2.8 AF-S VR lens that I used as reference. It gets close at the short end of the telephoto range, but loses out by greater margins as one zooms out to the long end of the range.

While the lens does improve by stopping down and at 200mm and f11, it gets close to the 70-200 also at 200mm and f11, it isn't as rosy as this might read because the big zoom is starting to lose resolution due to diffraction at f11.

Avoid shooting at 200mm wide open given the significant loss of resolution without stopping down, but unfortunately, one-stop down to f8 doesn't improve on f5.6 much at all.

Subject test scene - taken at 200mm
All test shots taken with D50 SLR - RAW files converted with Nikon Capture 4.x with exposure compensated by minus one-stop. In-camera sharpening set to medium, no other sharpening applied afterwards. Images shot with in-camera sharpening turned off with sharpening applied in Nikon Capture did not change the outcome.

55-200 Shots	Comparison Shots
55-200 @ 55mm f4 center crop	Prime 50mm f4 center
55-200 @ 55mm f4 edge	Prime 50mm f4 edge
55-200 @ 55mm f8 center	Prime 50mm f8 center
55-200 @ 55mm f8 edge	Prime 50mm f8 edge

55-200 @ 70mm f5.6 center	70-200 @ 70mm f5.6 center
55-200 @ 70mm f5.6 edge	70-200 @ 70mm f5.6 edge
55-200 @ 70mm f11 center	70-200 @ 70mm f11 center

55-200 @ 105mm f5.6 center	70-200 @ 105mm f5.6 center
55-200 @ 105mm f11 center	70-200 @ 105mm f11 center

55-200 @ 200mm f5.6 center - not a fair comparison as the 70-200 shot is already two-stops down from maximum aperture	70-200 @ 200mm f5.6 - excellent detail resolution, exactly why one would spend extra on a pro-quality lens
55-200 @ 200mm f11 center - much better than f5.6, and aside from the exposure difference, almost the same resolution as the 70-200 lens at f11	70-200 @ 200mm f11 center - resolution has dropped a bit from 5.6 due to diffraction
70-200 @ 200mm f2.8 for comparison

Correspondence & About this website