You don’t always need a top-flight telephoto lens. It all depends on what kind of photographer you are and the subjects you prefer. You may find that the vast majority of the shots you take are with the standard ‘kit’ zoom and that you only rarely need anything longer. If so, then Nikon’s 55-200mm VR is ideal. It doesn’t cost the earth, it’s light, and it’s small enough to slide into a spare compartment in your kit bag.

The plastic construction and modest specifications are less important when you only need a lens like this occasionally.Besides, cheap lenses can produce good results too. The older, non-VR version of this lens turned in a very respectable set of resolution figures during our tests and was consistent enough across its aperture range and zoom range to embarrass lenses costing a lot more.

The problem with photography at longer focal lengths, of course, is camera shake. The ‘safe’ shutter speeds you can use rise in proportion to the lens' equivalent focal length, so that with a lens like this one, with an equivalent focal range of 82.5-300mm, you would need to use a minimum shutter speed of 1/90sec at the ‘wide’ and of the range and 1/300sec at the ‘long’ end to be reasonably sure of sharp shots. And that’s not always possible.

Nikon claims that its VR (Vibration Reduction) system lets you shoot up to three shutter speeds slower and still get sharp shots. So although this new lens appears identical to the existing Nikon 55-20mm in zoom range and aperture, the addition of the VR system makes a big difference.

Unfortunately, it also makes a big difference to its size. The VR lens is significantly longer and also seems slightly ‘fatter’ than the non-VR version. This is a shame, because it loses some of the super-compact appeal of the older lens.

Like the non-VR lens, this one is clearly built for the budget market. The barrel’s made of plastic and so, disappointingly, is the lens mount. With an asking price of £250, surely this len is a little too expensive for this kind of cost-cutting?

Despite this, the zoom action is light and smooth, with just the right amount of ‘friction’ to make it controllable. Where the non-VR lens gets slightly stiff towards maximum zoom, this one has the same feel throughout.

The manual focus ring at the front of the lens barrel is slightly larger too, though the movement is so light and the travel so short, that it’s not easy to focus precisely.

The lens does extend a fair amount at full zoom, but the lightweight construction and the arrangement of the internal elements mean that the weight balance doesn’t change. This eliminates the ‘zoom creep’ that sometimes afflicts much more expensive lenses – this is where the weight of the glassware inside the lens drags it forward when the camera is pointing downwards.

The autofocus is quite fast, and thanks to Nikon’s ‘Silent Wave’ motors it’s very quiet too. This is an enjoyable lens to use, and one of the major benefits of a lens-based vibration reduction system (as opposed to the CCD-shift type) is that the image in the viewfinder is also stabilised – quite often, it’s not camera shake that’s the problem but keeping the subject positioned in the frame.

The results are very good for a lens of this price. The definition in our tests did tail off slightly at maximum zoom, but this is normal for telephoto zooms.

What was surprising was that the ‘old’ non-VR version of this lens proved to be slightly better, notably at wider apertures and full zoom. What you have to consider, though, is that the VR will often gain you more sharpness than you lose in sheer optical definition. Besides, the differences we found are pretty much too small to spot outside a lab.

Nikon is pitching this lens at owners of Nikon D40, D40x and D80 cameras – its ‘amateur’ cameras, in other words. The price and the plastic construction do bear this out, but it’s still a good lens that performs well.

If you’re ready to buy a second lens for any of these Nikon cameras, then this is the ideal choice. Remember, though, that if both cash and room in your camera bag are tight,

the ‘old’ non-VR 55-200mm is worth a look as well.

Final Verdict A good ‘second’ lens for anyone with a Nikon D40, D40x or D80, but the older non-VR 55-200 is smaller, cheaper and optically better 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.