Canon Ef-s 55 - 250 Is Stm Reviews

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Canon 55-250mm STM
EF-S IS (2013-)

Intro Specs   Performance   Compared   Recommendations

Catechism EF-s 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM (58mm filters, thirteen.three oz./377g, 2.8'/0.85m close focus, nearly $349, works on Canon APS-C cameras only). I got mine at at Adorama, and you also can get it at Amazon or at B&H.

My biggest source of support for this free website is when yous utilise those or any of these links when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. It helps me continue adding to this free website when y'all get your things through these links — but I receive nothing for my efforts if you buy elsewhere. Thanks for your support! Ken.

December 2014 Canon Reviews   Canon Lenses   All Reviews

Introduction top

Intro Specs   Performance   Compared   Recommendations

This Catechism 55-250mm IS STM is an cheap, lightweight, fast and silent focusing lens that is also very abrupt.

The older models of 55-250mm IS and 55-250mm IS 2 were among Catechism'southward best selling lenses, and this new lens adds instant manual focus override, silent autofocusing and even closer focusing than the older models.

All these Canon 55-250mm lenses super precipitous, focus very close, take a perfect telephoto zoom range, has Image Stabilization for sharp manus-held photos in dim calorie-free, and are pocket-size, low-cal and inexpensive.

Y'all tin pay more to get a lens that works ameliorate while being rained-on or blasted in a sandstorm while being beaten around past a news lensman, or that works on expensive full-frame cameras, but even if you pay more for something like a 70-200mm f/4 50 IS, you lot'll have a bigger lens to carry around, information technology won't be whatsoever sharper, and it won't take as wide a zoom range, and information technology won't focus equally close. There are many reasons these 55-250s are amidst Canon'south best selling lenses.

The reasons you might want to pay more than twice as much for some other lens with a more limited zoom range are if you shoot a 35mm or total-frame camera on which this lens won't work, or if the plastic lens mount isn't tough enough for you lot. Otherwise, this lens is sharp, light, inexpensive and works great.

Compatibility

Every bit an EF-due south lens, it volition only piece of work on Canon's APS-C cameras.

It volition non work on 35mm cameras, it will non piece of work on sometime ane.3x cameras, and it certainly won't work on full-frame digital.

Versions

There are a 55-250mm IS and a 55-250mm IS II, which differ from each other only in cosmetics. They used a noisier AF motor and require moving a switch to become back and along betwixt manual focus.

This newest STM version allows instant manual focus override just by grabbing the ring, focuses silently, and focuses closer.

Catechism EF-Due south 55-250mm IS STM. bigger.

Specifications superlative

Intro Specs   Performance   Compared   Recommendations

Name

Catechism calls this the Canon Zoom Lens EF-S 55-250mm f/four-5.6 IS STM.

   EF: Electronic Focus. All mod Canon lenses focus with a motor in the lens.

   -South: Only works on newer, small-scale (APS-C) DSLRs.

   IS: Image Stabilization, which means no tripod needed except at dark. See Why IS Matters. Canon claims three.5 stops.

   STM: Stepper (focus) Motor, meaning that AF is fast and silent.

Optics

xv elements in 12 groups.

1 UD glass chemical element to reduce chromatic aberrations (color fringes and halos).

Atomic number 82-free glass.

Rear focus.

Pumper zoom; the front extends a lot as zoomed to longer focal lengths, merely never rotates with zoom or focus.

Diaphragm

Front, Canon 55-250 IS STM (EF diaphragm not visible).

7 rounded blades.

Stops down to f/22-32.

Optical Image Stabilizer

Rated for up to 3.5 equivalent stops of shake correction.

Close Focus

2.8' (0.85m) at all focal lengths.

Maximum Reproduction Ratio

ane:iii.4 (0.29x).

Focal Length

55-250mm.

On the APS-C cameras for which it is designed, information technology gives angles of view like to what an 88-400mm lens would give on a 35mm or total-frame camera. Come across also Crop Factor.

Angle of View

27.7º - half dozen.25º  diagonal.

Maximum Aperture

f/4 - 5.half-dozen.

Lens Mountain

Plastic.

Size

2.8" (70mm) diameter x 4.4" (111.2mm) when prepare to 55mm.

Gets longer at longer focal length settings.

Weight

thirteen.283 oz. (376.55g) actual measured.

Rated thirteen.2 oz. (375g).

Included Accessories

Only caps.

Optional Accessories

ET-63 hood.

LP1019 pouch.

Introduced

21 August 2013.

Price, USA

2013 Baronial-Nov: $349.

2014 December ~ 2016 March: $299.

Box, Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS STM.

Performance superlative

Intro Specs   Performance   Compared   Recommendations

Overall    Autofocus    Bokeh   Animate   Color

Coma   Baloney   Ergonomics   Falloff    Filters

Lateral Color Fringes   Macro   Mechanics   Sharpness

Stabilization

Overall performance      height

The Catechism 55-250mm IS STM is optically superb and handles very well for a mostly plastic lens. The biggest negatives of the previous models were that their focus rings and filter threads rotated during autofocus, and that y'all had to move a switch for manual-focus override. This new lens fixes all these annoyances.

This is also a kit lens sold with many less expensive Canons, and information technology's excellent. There is no reason to pay more than for a telephoto lens for a Catechism APS-C photographic camera.

If yous can't get brilliant, sharp and colorful photos with this lens, you're doing something incorrect.

Autofocus performance      top

Autofocus is fast and silent. Past silent, I hateful I can't hear it unless I hold my ear closer than a few inches, and I can hear a watch ticking across a room.

With this STM, you can focus in the middle of a concert and no i will notice. (Shooting is another story).

Automobile/Transmission Switching

Just grab the band at any time.

The AF/MF switch but locks out AF in the MF position; MF is always agile.

AF Speed

AF is instantaneous at 55mm, and super fast at 250mm.

AF Accuracy and Consistency

I saw no autofocus error.

Manual Focus

Transmission focus is 100% electronic focus-by-wire; there is no mechanical connection between the focus ring and the lens' mechanics.

Manual focus is set up for precision, not speed. It takes some turning to go focus to move.

Focus while Zooming

Focus is continuously compensated every bit you zoom, and the camera has to be ON for this to happen.

If you zoom the lens with the photographic camera OFF or asleep, focus won't concur as you zoom. If the camera is awake, focus holds as zoomed because the advanced electronic programs are compensating focus electronically as you turn the mechanical zoom ring.

Bokeh performance      top

Bokeh, the quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to the degree of defocus, is unremarkably pretty proficient.

For the softest backgrounds, zoom to 250mm, get equally close as possible and shoot at f/5.6.

Focus Breathing performance      top

Focus animate (the image changing size equally focused) is mostly of involvement to cinematographers who don't want the image changing size ("breathing") as the lens is focused amid different subjects.

The image from the rear-focusing Canon 55-250mm IS doesn't seem to change as it'due south focused.

Colour Rendition performance      top

The color balance of this 55-250 seems the same every bit my other Catechism EF lenses.

Coma performance      meridian

Blackout, or saggital coma flare, is when points of lite in the corners turn into batwing-shaped blobs. This is often a trouble with fast normal or wide lenses.

I come across none in this lens; information technology's super abrupt in the corners even wide-open.

Distortion performance      acme

The Canon 55-250 Two has moderate butt distortion at 55mm, and no visible distortion from 70mm to 200mm.

For more critical use, use these values in Photoshop's Lens Distortion tool to remove the distortion. These aren't facts or specifications, they are the results of my inquiry that requires hours of photography and calculations on the resulting data.

Correction factor on APS-C	at 10' (3m)	at infinity
55mm	+2.0	+two.5
70mm	+1.2	+1.0
100mm	±0.0	±0.0
135mm	-0.v	-0.5
200mm	-1.0	-0.5
250mm	-1.0	-1.0

© 2013 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.

Ergonomics performance      top

Catechism EF-Southward 55-250mm IS STM.

Ergonomics are dandy: virtually of the lens is the mechanical zoom band.

Focal lengths are well spaced at about a constant 2 cm/octave.

The AF - MF switch falls correct nether your thumb, merely you don't need it: just plough the band at any time.

Falloff (darkened corners) operation      top

All new Canons since belatedly 2013 have both a lens profile and ability to correct this in-camera, so it's not likely to be an issue.

For users of older cameras, here is the falloff as seen with no corrections, a.yard.a. correction for peripheral illumination DISABLED.

Even with no in-camera corrections, falloff isn't visible except wide-open at the long stop. If it bothers you with an uncorrected camera, stop down to f/8, and it goes away.

I've profoundly exaggerated what little there is past shooting a flat gray target and presenting information technology against a greyness groundwork:

Canon 55-250 IS STM uncorrected falloff

	Broad Open	f/5.six	f/8
55mm
100mm
200mm	max. is f/5.6 ->
250mm	max. is f/five.half-dozen ->

© 2013 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.

Filters, Employ with performance      top

The plastic 58mm filter threads are big enough that even thick or stacked filters won't cause whatsoever vignetting.

Go ahead, use any big, fat thick filter, and you'll even so be able to add a 2d 1, also!

It'southward easy to cross-thread the plastic threads, be conscientious.

Canon could take used a much smaller thread, just used 58mm for compatibility with other lenses and so you lot don't need to duplicate your filters in different sizes. Therefore, even with several stacked filters you won't get any vignetting.

Lateral Colour Fringes functioning      top

Today's Canon cameras can correct for any that might be here with a lens profile.

Even with older cameras that take no lens profile, I saw no lateral color fringes except for the slightest green-magenta fringes at the 250mm end.

Macro performance      top

The 55-250 gets so close that I doubt you'll ever need a dedicated macro lens:

Hamilton 992B Railroad Special pocket watch (size sixteen) at close-focus distance at 250mm at f/xi.

It's super-precipitous; here's a ingather from the 8MP image at 100%:

Crop from above paradigm at 100%, shot at f/11. If this is 6" (15cm) broad on your screen, the full image would print at 40 10 25" (100 x 60 cm)!

The sparkles aren't racket; they are the texture of the sentinel hands, crystal and face up!

Mechanics operation      top

Rear, Canon 55-250 STM. enlarge.

The Catechism 55-250 IS is all plastic, except for electrical connections and the glass.

Filter Threads

Plastic.

Hood Bayonet Mount

Plastic.

Identity Band

Painted on front plastic ring.

Focus Ring

Ribbed plastic.

Zoom Ring

Ribbed rubber over plastic.

Barrel

Plastic.

Moisture seal at mount

No.

Mount

Plastic.

Mounting Index

Painted white square.

Markings

Paint.

Series Number

Laser engraved into the bottom of the black plastic lens barrel near the mountain.

Date Lawmaking

None found.

Noises When Shaken

Very balmy rattling.

Made in

Malaysia.

Sharpness operation      top

Epitome sharpness depends more on you than your lens, and lens sharpness doesn't mean much to skillful photographers. Information technology's the least skilled hobbyists who waste the most fourth dimension blaming fuzzy pictures on their lenses, while real shooters know that few photos ever utilize all the sharpness of which their lenses are capable due to subject motion and the fact that real subjects are rarely perfectly flat.

This said, this Canon 55-250 is just almost perfect. The merely mode to go annihilation other than a abrupt pic is to have it out of perfect focus, shoot at f/eleven or smaller where diffraction softens the prototype, shoot at college ISOs where camera racket reduction softens images, or let the camera or subject move.

Hey, sorry to spare you endless boring charts, but with a lens this skilful, there'due south nil to show other than abrupt pictures nether all conditions — unless y'all practice something stupid.

The biggest detriment to sharpness volition be a lack of proper vision and technique, never this lens. I bought mine directly from Adorama. I can't vouch for anything if you buy from a local store or concatenation where you never really know who'due south opened and played with your lens before yous buy information technology. I never buy retail; too many risks, so why pay more?

There is no difference in sharpness at any focal length as you cease down to f/eleven in any office of the image; information technology's super sharp all over at every setting.

This 55-250mm lens is simply most perfect.

Canon'due south specified MTF curves:

Epitome Stabilization operation      height

Canon claims iii.five stops improvement.

I didn't test that specifically, but I practice know that the image e'er locked-downwardly solid in the finder. I've never heard anyone complain about Canon's IS system.

Compared top

Intro Specs   Performance   Compared   Recommendations

	55-250 STM	55-250 IS II	55-250 IS	70-200 IS L
Anni	2013-	2011-	2007-2011	2006-
Lens Mountain	plastic	plastic	plastic	metal
Works on	APS-C only	APS-C only	APS-C only	APS-C, 1.3x and full-frame
Filter thread	58mm plastic	58mm plastic	58mm plastic	67mm metal
Length at 55mm	4.4" 111.2mm	4.3" 108mm	4.3" 108mm	6.8" 172mm
Close focus	2.8' 0.85m	iii.6' 1.1m	three.6' one.1m	4' i.2m
Maximum aperture	f/four-5.6	f/iv-v.half dozen	f/4-5.6	f/4
Optics	15/12, one UD	12/ten, one UD	12/x, 1 UD	twenty/15, i UD, 1 fluorite
Weight	13.three oz. 377g	13.8 oz. 391g	13.8 oz. 391g	26.vii oz. 756 g
Price, 11/2013	$349	$300	$160 refurbished	$1,349
Price, 12/2014	$300	$249	northward/a	$i,100
Cost, 03/2016	$299	$199	n/a	$1,149

Recommendations top

Intro Specs   Performance   Compared   Recommendations

This inexpensive Catechism 55-250mm IS STM offers exceptional optics in an inexpensive parcel with a profoundly improved autofocus organisation from earlier versions.

The 55-250 STM is perfect for school and family sports shooting.

If you're on a budget, the older model 55-250mm IS is available refurbished for $160. Photos volition be but as good, but the AF and manual focus systems aren't as elegant.

Even if IS is a mystery to yous, the fact that this lens focuses so closely is another reason I can suggest it so strongly. Canon makes no junk, and hey, if you break the plastic mount and if Canon won't fix it nether warranty (effort beginning), you lot tin buy another and however be out far less money than I paid for my one lxx-200mm f/iv IS 50.

© Ken Rockwell. All rights reserved. Tous droits réservés. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

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