Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 II IS Lens(UK version)

Best economy telephoto lens for the digital slr canon range. I like its great all round performance. sharp pictures and good image stabilization. You could criticise that it can appear slightly soft at 250mm but that is to be expected and that it has a plastic mount so treat it carefully. Has won many awards and for the money is fantastic value, read the professional reviews but do shop around prices vary hugely. If you can't afford at least £400 and you want a cheap but good telephoto this is the one to buy.

I purchased the item to go with my Canon EOS 500D T1/rebel camera which came with a 18-55mm lens. This 55-250mm lens is the cheapest way to have the posess the ability to be able to cover shots from 18-250mm. The equivalent single lens with this capacity would cost almost twice as much.
The down side to this is that you have to swap the lenses over at times. If you are going to be using your camera for fast moving action shots where you are tracking and shooting you will be limited to one lens or the other. But if you are shooting planned images such as wildlife or vista shots you can pick and choose at you leisure.
The lenses are easy to handle and change over. The bodies are of a plastic but the locating pins and mechanisms are metallic. Overall the lens is quite sturdy.
The auto-focus works well and is quick and precise. The zoom function is ok if a little stiff. This is not an issue when taking still shots but when using the video option the zoom can look a bit jerky and this can cause the auto-focus to lose clarity momentarily.
The quality of image reproduction is excellent. I am only a beginner but I have found little or no distortion of the images I have taken.

I have seen cheaper versions of this spec of lens but when looking at the image reproduction from them they displayed image distortion at the upper and lower extremes of the zoom. In my opinion it was worth the little extra to ensure I could capture the shot I wanted without compromise, either not getting the framing I wanted or getting it and losing the image integrity.

The choice of quality is down to the individual. I have seen this lens at much higher prices on the net. I purchased from Digigood on E-bay and found them very good to communicate with and question before I purchased.

I would recommend this lens to anyone who wants quality at a reasonable cost, but if money was no object I would go for a single lens with the ability to do the job of both of mine and just give me the flexibility to try other areas of photography.

The Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Lens is definitely an 7/10 for flexibility
8/10 for Quality 8/10 for Ability and 9/10 for Value.

Positively recommended.

although not one of canons dearest lenses it does have a very good range and is very capable I purchased this to mate with the canon 50d camera it works well is well made and has a good finish the lense moves through the zoom range smoothly and the proof of the puddin is in the pictures taken I would recomend a tripod or similar be used because although light enough due to the range its asking a bit much of the cameras image stabaliser to expect pin sharp images by hand holding all in all a very nice lense to compliment the camera at avery reosonable price

Having my new EOS 1100D for about a month, this purchase was almost certain from the beginning. This is my entry in DSLR photography and I have only to compare with my previous baby, PowerShot S5IS. Some fellows at work at first made some comments that created some doubts regarding the lens's brightness. So, I was rather happy to see that my expectations were highly met with the quality and the sharpness of the images taken. Targeting towards daylight sports, the depth of field achieved gave me some excellent shots with no problems at all. I have to admit that I was not ready to afford now at the beginning the amounts that similar lenses demanded. A tripod helps a lot in night shots for the moon and stars and I had a very nice set of shots during an open-theater performance with rather mid-intensity lighting.
I like the stabilization performance and the successful auto-focus. I dont like the feeling when the motor comes to a stop, almost can feel the camera kick due to inertia.
At all,this is one of the best options for a start, if things show that my talent needs higher quality optics to get advertised, then I shall think about it again. For now, job is done with pleasant results.

I'm not one for writing reviews but after purchasing the 55-250 lens it hasnt come off my camera yet, its definately a good all rounder to use and the autofocus is dead fast and with the IS at full zoom you cant go wrong with plenty of sharp images. Well worth the price and you wont be dissapointed.