NIKON 18-55 mm VR Lens
Popular zoom lens with high quality optics designed for use with Nikon DX Format SLRs. Its 3X zoom provides superb versatility in a wide variety of shooting situations. Equipped with Nikon’s exclusive Silent Wave Motor (SWM) for super-quiet operation.
Popular zoom range coverage from 18 to 55mm (35mm equivalent: 27-82.5mm), perfect for everything from everyday images to breathtaking landscape shots.
Vibration Reduction (VR) stabilization system enables more flexible hand-held shooting and lets you shoot at up to 3 stops faster.
Exceptionally high optical performance: designed specifically for use with Nikon DX format digital SLR sensors.
Aspherical lens elements minimize spherical aberration, astigmatism, and other forms of distortion, while ensuring high resolution and contrast.
Nikon's exclusive SWM (Silent Wave Motor) for fast, precise, and super-quiet operation.
Outstanding cost performance.
At the beginning of this year, together with the Nikon D3300, the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II lens was announced. The Nikon 18-55 mm VR II is a very light (less than 2 ounces), new version of the popular 18-55 mm lens, improved with a retractable lens mechanism, meaning that the camera becomes even smaller during transport. The focal length range of 18-55 mm is suitable for a wide variety of circumstances, and therefore this is a good starter lens. The built-in image stabilization increases the usability of the camera in low-light situations, without you having to resort to a tripod or flash. Would the Nikon 18-55 mm VR II be better than its predecessor?
Nikon1855II review
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 18–55mm VR II and Nikon D7100 and Nikon D3300
This standard zoom is universally applicable, whether you want to capture landscapes, portraits, events, or action. It's all possible. The 3x optic zoom offers a field of view that compares with the field of view of a 28-85 mm zoom lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor. The low weight and the compact dimensions make this lens ideal for a day trip. Below you can see the zoom range illustrated: on the right, the telephoto setting; on the left, wide-angle setting (pictures with a Nikon D3300).
Construction and auto focus
This zoom lens has two switches: for AF/MF and for the image stabilization (on/off). On the zoom ring of the Nikon 15-55 mm VR II there is also a round button, with which you can turn the zoom ring further than the zoom range. The effect of that is that the lens becomes smaller than during use. This makes the Nikon 18-55 mm VR II not only 25% lighter than its predecessor, but also shorter (less than 6 cm long in the transport setting; extended it's 8 cm). For people who photograph with a micro-43 or a Nikon 1, this construction will sound familiar, as it's been applied there successfully for some time already. The disadvantage of this construction is that you must first expand the lends before you can begin photographing. That adds a few seconds to your startup time.
Nikon's compact Silent Wave Motor-technology (SWM) ensures quiet, fast, and accurate auto focus operations, also when shooting video. Precise manual focusing with the small ring on the front of the lens is a bit more challenging because this ring is not as nicely dampened as the zoom ring. Given the target audience of this kit lens, that probably won't be a really big problem. Even so, it's a bother for anyone who wants to focus manually when shooting video.
