I have checked out the incredibly cheap tele-zoom lense Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 55-300mm f4.5-5.6G ED VR. I was looking for a reasonably priced and lightweight zoom glas for taking bird pictures in the park and in the woods. Unfortunately I had to return this product since the quality concerning sharpness on the long end did not quite please me. Although it was really close. I did not expect much and the lense is really light with a good vibration reduction and an ok focusing performance. Finishing and manual handling however were not acceptable for me, though of course the overall price of around 200€ has to come from somewhere.
Nevertheless I was able to take some good pictures, like this nuthatch (Kleiber) at the Rheinpark in Cologne, Germany.
Or this hawk (Habicht) in the Johannes-Giesbert-Park in Cologne. Here the reduced quality at 300mm becomes obvious, because it is zoomed to almost 100%. Wide aperture was not a good idea, thow – not only the lense to be blamed, here.
This robin is probably the best picture I took, because I could stop down on the aperture. Makes a great difference, as I learned after a while.
