The ‘VR’ in this lens stands for Vibration Reduction. The name is different, but the basic mechanism is the same as Canon’s IS (Image Stabiliser) technology. Gyroscopic sensors within the lens detect the slightest movement and a ‘floating’ element within the lens is instantly adjusted to keep the image steady.

Slow shutter speeds always bring the risk of camera shake, but image stabilisation systems enable you to shoot two, three or even four shutter speeds slower than usual.

Anti-shake systems are becoming commonplace on compact digital cameras, and some makers (Olympus, Pentax and Samsung) are building them directly into the camera body with some of their models.

Canon and Nikon, though, prefer to build image stabilisation systems into their lenses instead. The disadvantage is that the effect is confined to these lenses, but one major advantage is that the image stabiliser will steady the viewfinder image as you’re composing the shot – and with longer telephotos that’s a serious benefit.

Image-stabilised lenses have always been a good deal more expensive than the standard sort, but Nikon has now taken the step of introducing ‘stabilised’ versions of its two popular budget lenses. First came the 55-200mm VR, which we reviewed in issue 65, and now we’ve got our hands on the brand new 18-55mm VR.

This is designed as an ideal ‘kit lens’ for Nikon digital SLRs, though at the moment it’s being sold as a standalone item. Hopefully, it will soon start appearing in SLR kits, and this is when it’s going to make the most sense. After all, anyone who already has a Nikon SLR almost certainly has a kit lens anyway, and appealing though the 18-55mm VR might be, it’s technically identical to the existing 18-55mm Nikkor. £180 is a lot to pay just to get VR, and what are you going to do with your old lens?

The VR version does look very similar to the non-VR lens. It has that same slightly-tapering front end, and both lenses are actually a little on the long side. In fact, this one is slightly bigger than the non-VR lens and heavier too, though the differences are small.

The lens mount is plastic, which is a bit of a disappointment, but it’s pretty unlikely to wear out during the life of the camera. Pros might change lenses a dozen times during an assignment, but amateurs may leave the same lens on the camera for weeks or months. This lens is aimed at the amateur market.

More serious is the rotation of the front element during focusing. This is common on low-cost lenses, but it makes using filters so fiddly as to be largely impractical because grads and polarisers (the two most useful filters for digital photography) both require precise manual rotation.

Otherwise, the handling’s not bad at all. The zoom action is quite smooth and progressive and, for a lens of this type, the manual focus action is pretty fair. Be warned, though – it will rotate past infinity, so if you like taking pictures at night when the image in the viewfinder is hard to make out, don’t just rotate it to the end stop and assume everything will come out sharp.

The test results are actually rather good. The resolution is consistently high at both ends of the zoom range and across the aperture range too, though it drops markedly if you open up wider than f5.6 at the wide-angle end of the range.

The distortion and chromatic aberration levels are about average for an inexpensive zoom lens. There’s characteristically pronounced barrel distortion in wide-angle shots, and this swaps over to mild pincushion distortion at the maximum focal length. The chromatic aberration is fairly noticeable in wide-angle shots, but largely disappears by the time you reach the middle of the zoom range.

The outright definition is slightly lower than Nikon’s slightly more upmarket 18-70mm zoom at wider apertures and short-medium focal lengths, but the differences aren’t large and they’re unlikely to be apparent in everyday photography.

Admittedly this is a plastic-bodied lens with a modest 3x zoom range, but Nikon’s VR system is very effective and definitely worth having. If your old lens is broken or if you bought your Nikon DSLR as a body only and you’re still looking for a standard zoom, this one is definitely worth considering.

Final Verdict This lens actually comes out at an unexceptional 76%, but we’re going to add a little extra for the excellent VR system, which genuinely does extend the range of shot conditions OVERALL

Our lens reviewer, and technical expert, Rod is a veritable photographic encyclopaedia. His illustrious CV has seen him write for many mags, websites and journals.