Decent cheap telephoto lens for D5100?

Soldato
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Sup y'all, I currently just have a 18-105mm kit lens for my D5100, was going to get a 35mm lens but I think I fancy a lens that I can zoom further with and take more distant shots etc. I'm new to photography and am never going to be a hardcore photographer so don't need anything fancy. So can someone recommend a decent lens for around the £200 mark if possible? Lens will of course need AF and VR.

The Nikon 55-200MM F/4-5.6 AF-S VR DX Black Lens seems to be going for £140. Any good?

whereas the

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR Lens is £230. Which would be the better investment?

Cheers y'all
 
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I'd probably go with the later just for the extra reach. Can be had on digitalrev for £209.99 including delivery also, so its closer to your budget.
 
I've got the 55-200 and I find that I often wish it had further zoom, so given the choice of the two I'd go for the 55-300mm. Also bear in mind that the the minimal focus distance is about 1.1m on the 55-200mm, which has caught me out a few times. The 55-300mm is 1.4m. So don't expect to be doing any macro with it :p
 
I think you mean the 55-200mm goes for £240, if you've seen it for £140 I imagine it would be the none VR version.

I picked up the 55-200mm used off ebay a few months ago. Seems OK for the price, can't say I've used it a lot though, as my 35 1.8 seems to live on the camera most of the time.
 
I think you mean the 55-200mm goes for £240, if you've seen it for £140 I imagine it would be the none VR version.

I picked up the 55-200mm used off ebay a few months ago. Seems OK for the price, can't say I've used it a lot though, as my 35 1.8 seems to live on the camera most of the time.

ive seen the 55-200mm for £145 off a jungle related site.

the 55-300mm is usually around £60-£80 more
 
I'd just buy the 55-300 VR.

The 55-200mm while optically very good just doesn't have the reach and you will in the end wish had bought the 300mm anyway.
 
Try the 200mm and see if it is enough but a general rule of thumb is you can never have too much reach and you can also ways use the lens at 200mm anyway. At other thing is these cheap lenses rarely perform well at their telephoto end so you will find optically the 55-300 Michel better at 200mm than the 55-200mm at 200mm
 
Cheers for the advice guys.

The 55-200mm for £140 does indeed come with VR and AF-S.

I think I will go for the 55-300mm then, shame the focus distance is rather large but thats expected, I will probably use it mostly for zooming into far away landscape, (and peoples bathrooms :cool:), so macro shots shouldn't be an issue hopefully. I just hope the quality of images is good and there isn't much distortion or loss of sharpness at the higher end of zoom.
 
None of these lenses are macro lenses so I wouldn't worry about the MFD too much. Some of the sigma tele-zooms have a pseudo macro mode but the IQ is pretty poor TBH and at best you get a 1:2 macro, not 1:1, and even then you find the MFD is 1m or so.
 
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