Canon EF-S 55 mm - 250 mm F/4.0-5.6 II IS Lens

I think this is an amazing lens and a must have, please read the review bellow which convinced me to purchase it.

The Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS puts in a very good performance for a very attractive price.


The Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS is a long lens which is perhaps unsurprising considering the additional focal range it offers. The build is solid with a large rubberised zoom ring that provides a smooth action. The focus ring is a decent size as well, and is nicely weighted for precise control. The finish is good, using a mottled plastic on the barrel, although the lens mount is plastic so it won’t have the durability of pricier zooms. It features an Ultra-low Dispersion element and Super Spectra Coating to minimise flare, an MF/AF switch, and Canon’s lens based four-stop Image Stabilizer. This is essential for Canon users after some form of stabilization, as there’s no camera-based alternative. While not silent, the AF is quiet and it was quick to track subjects without hunting. It’s priced at £220 and considering the great features, nice build and good performance it’s a very attractive price.

SPECIFICATION
Street price: £220
Lens mount: Canon EF-S
Max aperture: f/4-5.6
Min aperture: f/22-32
Minimum focus: 1.1m
Filter size: 58mm
Image stabiliser: Yes, 4 stops
AF/Manual Focus switch: Yes
Autofocus motor: Yes
Lens mount construction: Plastic
Distance window: No
Construction: 12 elements in 10 groups
Aperture blades: 7
Dimensions (DxL): 70x108mm
Weight: 390g
Visit: www.canon.co.uk

Review is from www.photoanswers.co.uk

http://www.photoanswers.c​o.uk/Gear/Search-Results/Lense​s/CANON-EF-S-55-250mm-F4-56-IS​/

I wanted a lens that would serve as a fair to good quality zoom, so I could begin taking more distance shots in nature, and portraiture at a distance. Whilst the photo quality is not the best you can get from a canon lens, and the build is lower end, it's not the worst I've ever used. It has pleasing blur and depth of field, delivers good hand held zoom quality (and even better from the tripod). The image stabiliser gives great flexibility. Easy to swap lenses and to handle in general, and light in weight. I just couldn't afford the higher end canon zooms, and this is a more than adequate, lower end alternative. Very reasonable price, making photography affordable for the amateur and professional alike. Great product.

The Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-f/5.6 IS lens is a real giant killer in the lens world, punching way above it's weight in this class.

Between us, my partner and myself own Canon digital EOS cameras in all three sizes of Canon's imaging sensors, including APS-C, APS-H and full-frame models. While my partner has the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-f/5.6L IS USM lens (which I am also free to use on my own 5D), this lens tends to feel somewhat large, heavy and unbalanced on my much smaller APS-C camera body. Consequently, I recently purchased a EF-S 55-250mm IS lens for use on this body specifically.

I am just so pleased I did. It's a fantastic little lens. Very sharp, even at the maximum focal length of 250mm which in all likelihood, 'is' where it will most frequently be used as this represents the equivalent of 400mm focal length on full-frame or 35mm, ideal for sports and wildlife photography.

Quite unexpected however, is the wonderful bokeh (out-of-focus highlights) and general out-of-focus areas created when shooting at longer focal lengths and wider lens apertures. To my partners chagrin, these qualities are far superior to that of his own 100-400mm L Series lens which he has always considered to be very disappointing. Blurred, out-of-focus areas through differential focusing can be extremely distracting with the far more expensive L Series 100-400 with out-of-focus areas rendering as seriously irritating 'agitated', 'edgy', 'jittery' areas of confusion which are a million miles away from the beautifully rendered, 'smooth', 'softness' created by the little EF-S 55-250mm lens on APS-C.

Certainly, the 'L' lens is 'just' a little sharper throughout than the much less expensive EF-S lens but I 'do' mean, 'just'. There's not a huge margin between them in my experience. Furthermore, the little EF-S lens is much smaller and lighter than the big 'L' Series lens and consequently, so much easier to hold steady, even without the superbly effective IS (Image Stabilization).

I have only two very minor criticisms of the little EF-S 55-250mm IS lens. Firstly, it has only an industrial strength 'plastic' bayonet mount whereas, a stainless steel one would have been preferable and secondly, like most of Canon's non 'L' Series lenses, it also doesn't come with a lens hood included in the price. Come on Canon.....this really is a case of spoiling the ship for a h'peth of tar! A lens hood is essential and should either be built into the lens or a separate one included in the box. Tight or what?!

The plastic lens mount would in my view, only represent a problem is you are a full time professional, whipping lenses off and on your camera all day and every day. This is unlikely to be the case for most potential purchasers of such a lens so surely, will not represent any sort of problems whatsoever.

This is a superb little lens, very sharp, effective image stabilization, small, lightweight, fast AF (auto-focus) and superb image quality. Particularly with respect to out-of-focus areas created by differential focus. Amazingly good value and for me, difficult to justify spending any more money on a lens in this class/range. It will be on my camera a great deal I am sure.

Very highly recommended.

Angela Fernandez

The Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Lens is a compact and lightweight telephoto zoom lens that is specifically designed for the range of EOS digital SLR cameras that use the smaller EF-S lens mount. Combining powerful performance with high image quality, this lens offers the equivalent of 88-400mm in 35mm format, and is ideal for photographers seeking an affordable, versatile lens for general-purpose telephoto photography.

The EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Lens incorporates Canon's 4-stop compensation Image Stabilizer technology. This allows the use of shutter speeds up to 4 times slower with no perceptible increase in image blur. Automatic panning detection automatically turns off the Image Stabilizer in either the horizontal or vertical direction when following moving subjects.

Note! Only fits on the EOS Digital Rebel Series or 20D, 30D, 40D & 50D SLR cameras

• Image Stabilizer
4 step Image Stabilizer (IS) extends low light options to previously unavailable levels. Photographers normally shooting handheld at 1/250 sec can switch on IS to obtain a similarly steady and blur-free result with a shutter speed of just 1/15 second.

• Superior Image Quality
One UD (Ultra-low Dispersion) lens element is used to suppress the effects of secondary chromatic aberrations - for crisp, sharp, high-contrast images without fringing throughout the zoom range.

• Super Spectra Coatings
Optimized Super Spectra lens coatings and lens element shaping, suppress flare and ghosting - more prone to occur with digital cameras due to reflection off the image sensor. Coatings also help achieve true color balance and increase contrast for vivid hi-fidelity images.

Got a budget Canon Digital SLR? The lens you need first is 50mm f 1.8 - its cheap, fast and great for portraits. Its not great when you can't close enough to the subject e.g. a bird, footballer or surfer though. So this is where this lens come in really useful. It is equivalent to 400mm so that's serious zoom. Although it is not as fast as 50mm f1.8, the image stabilisation helps with low light shots.

I have not really had a chance to use it seriously yet as I use my camera most in the summer. I'm looking forward to getting better close ups of the kids in the sea without risking the camera.

It will not fit on full sensor Canon's and the image quality is not as good as much more expensive L series lens.