The sets of crops below reveal the 70-300mm VR delivering higher contrast and sharpness to the budget DX 55-200mm VR lens, although as discussed in our review of that model, there doesn't appear to be much - if any - difference in the actual amount of detail captured.

As you'll see in our studio resolution tests on the next page, the resolving power of each lens appears to be limited by the D80's 10 Megapixel sensor, although it will be interesting to retest each lens with higher resolution Nikon bodies to see if differences emerge. Before moving onto the next page though, scroll down further to see a new set of comparative results taken with each lens zoomed-into a longer focal length of 200mm.

With both lenses zoomed-into 200mm, the pricier 70-300mm VR takes a noticeable lead in terms of sharpness. Viewed in isolation the crops from the DX 55-200mm VR aren't at all bad, but compare them directly against the 70-300mm VR and it's clear the classier model is capable of delivering much sharper results. This superiority is visible on all three crops.

Neither lens is immune from coloured fringing though: the first row of crops taken from the bottom left corner of the image reveal a little coloured fringing around high contrast areas. Ultimately though this second set of results show the DX 55-200mm VR doesn't perform as well at 200mm compared to the 70-300mm VR - although to be fair the 200mm focal length represents an extreme for one lens, but a mid-way point on the other.