Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS ($255)

Product Details

Bring your photographic subjects closer with this Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Image Stabilizer Telephoto Zoom Lens. It is designed with Canon's Optical Image Stabilizer technology and is compact and light. This high zoom ratio lens is equivalent to a focal length of 88-400mm in the 35mm format (when used on Canon EOS cameras compatible with EF-S lenses). The image stabilizer effect is equivalent to a shutter speed about 4 stops faster than the same size lens without Image Stabilizer. In other words, if the slowest shutter speed you could formerly hold a 250mm lens steadily was 1/250th of a second, with Canon's 4-stop stabilization correction, you could hand-hold at shutter speeds as slow as 1/15th of a second. It also uses a UD-glass lens element to correct chromatic aberration for excellent image quality throughout the zoom range.

Filter Size - 58mm Max. Diameter - x Length 2.8 in. x 4.3 in./70 x 108mm (maximum lens length) Weight - 13.8 oz./390g Canon 1 year limited warranty

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Product: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Image Stabilizer Telephoto Zoom Lens	Price: 255

Photo.net Review Excerpt

The EF-S 55-250IS is a relatively new lens designed to supplement the EF-S 18-55IS "Kit Lens" for the Digital Rebel line of DSLRs. Like the EF-S 18-55/3.5-5.6 IS, the 55-250/4-5.6 IS uses Canon's new low cost IS system. Nevertheless, Canon claims up to 4 stops of additional stability, which is as good as (or even better than) lenses with Canon's traditional IS control. Canon suggests that sharp images can be obtained at shutter speeds as low as 1/15s.

Like the image stabilized EF-S 18-55IS, the EF-S 55-250IS seems to be Canon's answer to low-cost DSLR bodies with stabilization built in, which are currently being offered by Sony, Pentax and Olympus. With those DSLR bodies a stabilized lens is not needed to make a stabilized system, thus potentially lowering lens cost.

The EF-S 55-250IS has been designed to meet a low price by the extensive use of plastics - even the lens mount is plastic. However, the optics of the lens haven't been compromised too much, and in fact the 55-250IS uses a special element of ultra-low dispersion (UD) glass in order to minimize aberrations. The front of the lens rotates during focusing, which can be inconvenient when using a polarizer.

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