Product ReviewsCanon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 STM Lens

Best budget zoom lense I have ever used.

We bought this lens for my wife who is using her first DSLR (a crop-sensor camera). Personally, after my experiences with a full-frame camera and large aperture L-class lenses, my expectations for Canon 18-135 lens were low. However, I after I saw her first pictures, I changed my opinion. Canon 18-135 is sharp, has great colors, excellent zoom range and suitable for all kinds of photography: landscapes, portraits and anything else that comes to your mind. Honestly, I often can't tell if a picture was taken with this lens or my L-class zoom on full frame until I look at the exif file.
Versatility: on the wide end 18mm corresponds to about 28 mm on the full frame camera. This is not super-wide, but wide enough, if you know how to compose your shot. 135 mm, on the other end equals 216 mm lens angle of view on the full frame and this is an awesome zoom capacity to carry around! BTW, bokeh looks very pleasant if your use it for portraits at the long end with f5.6 aperture. Ironically, a lens with this zoom range simply does not exists for Canon full-frame cameras. In summary, Canon 18-135 is the best walk around lens for a crop-sensor Canon camera at a very reasonable price. Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: kentread55

Finally, my "walkaround" lens

I have quite an assortment of lenses, both longer and shorter, but I always seemed to have the wrong lens for the moment. This lens has finally hit the sweet spot and I'll probably be selling some of my collection. It's just the right range, very well built, and is not too long when zoomed. Importantly, it doesn't "fall out" into the zoom length, even without the zoom lock.

Performance-wise, it's very focus fast, smooth, and quiet. I ran a series of test shots immediately. the test shots and subsequent photos, confirmed that this lens can produce superior images that are very sharp, especially comparing them to some of the lenses I wanted to replace. I'm taking noticeably sharper and better photos now.

I think this lens is only available via camera package break-ups and not stand-alone from Canon. Don't know why - this should be a prime lens in their line-up.

I'm VERY happy with this lens.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: eternalphoto

Good Lense - Great Price

I will grant you that most professionals won't care much for this lense, as most have bashed it. But, then again most of us aren't professionals. I moved from Minolta to Cannon and this was the kit lense with the Rebel XT I purchased. This lenses does as well, or better, then most people will ever ask of it. It takes great close up shots, and provides you with a little distance as well. The photos are sharp and clear and focus is right on every time. The focusing is also fast and quiet, as well. I have purcahsed two additional lenses for the camera, one a Canon and the other a third party lense (filled the gap between my two Canon lenses), and this one out produces both the others, in my opinion. I read the reviews before purchasing the camera, but as I had no Canon lenses I went ahead and paid the extra ($50) for the kit lenses, and I could not be more then happier with it. Where else are you going to find a quality lense at this price?

I am currently a Assistant Scout Leader for the local Boy Scout troop and we recently had a Court of Honor for the boys awards and I used this lense to shoot it. The photos came out remarkably better then I had hoped for (wished it had a little more length for the further away shots - as I was behing the parents and didn't want to get in their way).

So yes most of the reviews on this lense are not that great, and I can see not purchasing it if you already have Canon lenses. But for someone like myself making a switch from another system to Canon, or someone moving from a point and shoot to an SLR, the I highly recommend spending the little extra and getting this in the kit, you will be glad you did.

I am rating it as good, but if it was a little longer (say a 18mm to maybe a 70mm) then it would have had an Excellent.Read full review...

Perfect lens for the Canon APS cameras

I use this 18 to 135 mm lens on my Canon T5. It has the equivalent full frame zoom range of 29 to 229 mm (almost 8x). The lens balances very nicely on the camera, and has easy to use controls. It is not too light (like the regular 18 to 55 kit lens) or to heavy (like some of the expensive L series lenses). I was surprised that I rarely had to reach for the 10 to 18 mm wide angle or the 70 to 300 mm telephoto. The pictures looked sharp, but you will have to hunt down a lens test review for actual resolution numbers.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: eternalphoto

The EFS 18 - 135 STM is a fantastic lens

I was looking for a lens to replace my 18-55mm kit lens, I still wanted the wide angle but also wanted a medium zoom to match up with my 55 - 250mm lens. When I looked at the 18 - 135mm STM lens I searched the internet for reviews and test, I found very little bad about it. This lens is an EFS lens that works on the crop sensor cameras only (which is what I have).
Using this lens has been great, I find for most of my shooting with just the one lens, if I'm hiking it's great for some nice shots, whether shooting al landscape or zooming in for a tighter shot. The lens has an internal focusing system which is great for a polarized filter and focusing when using extension tubes for macro photography as the lens doesn't extend when you focus.
The lens is a bit slow f3.5 - 5.6 but at 50mm it's faster than the 18 - 55mm. For indoor shooting, increasing the iso is necessary for places that don't allow flashes.
Having it to again I would still purchase this lens again, it's everything I expected for the price, it feels very sturdy, no lens creep at all, extremely quiet focus as well as fast and it's nice that I can manually focus while the lens is set on alto focus.
I highly recommend this lens for any of the Canon APS cameras as part of their collection.Read full review...

Great Lens for the Price

This Canon lens, also known as a "kit lens", because it is commonly included with many Canon Digital Camera Kits, is specifically designed for digital cameras that have the x1.6 image sensor, such as all of the Canon Digital Rebel models, the 20D, and the 30D. It can not be used with the 5D or 1D models with has a full frame image sensor.

This lens is inexpensive yet performs like an expensive lens. It is a must for every camera bag. Even if you can afford the more expensive versions of this lens, you will want this lens for everyday shooting. It is sometimes better to take a risk with a $100 lens than a $1000 lens.

You can read all the technical specs on this lens on the Canon website if you want. What I know is that the 18-55mm zoom lens is perfect for 90% of your general picturing taking. The wide angle is necessary for shooting group shots inside where you may not be able to get back far enough to get everyone in the shot with other lenses. The zoom range of 55mm is actually like a 90mm lens on a film camera, which is adequate. Team this lens with the Canon 75-300mm f4-5.6 Tele-Zoom lens (generally under $200 on ebay) and you have the entire shooting range covered for a fairly small investment.Read full review...

Not an ordinary lens.

You can't compare this lens quality with "L" type lens and say image quality is bad. Well, the lens is cheap, so you can't expect everything to be perfect. Per price point, I think it delivers its money's worth. You can get this lens for about $70 here in ebay and it's very light compare to other lens. And since it's so cheap, you don't have to worry about losing it or breaking especially when you travel. It covers wide angle to midium telephoto. Since it is EF-S type, you can only use this in Canon Digital Rebel, Canon Digital rebel XT, Canon 20D and future cameras with EF-S support. I think it's good lens for its price. If you need absolute best quality pictures out of your digital camera, try "L" type lens but be ready to spend $600+Read full review...

Must have for Canon T4i owners

I had Canon T4i with 18-55 EF-S + 40 mm STM before buying this 18-135 STM. After a couple of months of usage, I am completely satisfied with this purchase and would recommend this product to every T4i owner.

- Picture quality is very, very good, much better than with 18-55 and comparable to 40mm prime lens (when using around the same focal length).

- STM functions great with video, making it focused and noiseless.

- Construction is very good, lock button is very helpful and considerable weight contributes to stability.

- Recommended to add tripod (regardless of lens), if you have not already, and UV filter for lens protection (I got Tiffen).

Since I bought 18-135, I switched back to 40mm STM only a couple of times and never to 18-55.Read full review...

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

The lens is a great beginner lens if your just looking for something to use without dropping loads of dough on expensive glass. The new STM AF motor is lightning fast and dead silent. The only problem with the STM is that there isn't an exact position of the ring that correlates to focusing distance so you can't use a follow focus system very effectively with this lens. A big plus is the long zoom range from a wide 18mm to a medium telephoto of 135mm. Overall, the lens works great for travel (all in one) and some video work (fast AF) but it's not the sharpest.Read full review...

Great lens, just too noisy in auto mode

I bought this lens seperate from my canon rebel t4i camera...
I heard that the stm lenses worked great for automatic use.

This lens takes great pics, auto or manual. Focus & zoom
great... this lens feels, look & operate the same as the
canon 55-250mm lens.

I don't know if its just my camera... but using this on
automatic mode taking pics & video... This lens is very loud
& constantly adjusting to focusing... takes so long.
I rather use this lens on all manual mode.
The canon stm 40mm pancake lens operates less noisy but still
sometimes have a hard time focusing. So I will continue using
these lenses in manual mode.Read full review...