Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II Lens Review

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II Handling and features

Just like the previous version, this lens is constructed from high quality plastics, including the lens mount, which does help to keep the weight down to only 390g. As it is an EF-S lens, it can only be mounted on EF-S compatible Canon cameras, like the EOS 600D used for testing. The lens balances well with this camera, thanks to its relatively compact size and light weight.

Autofocus is reasonably swift and precise, even though this lens doesn't sport an ultrasonic or STM motor. Full time manual focus override is not possible so autofocus needs to be disengaged to focus manually. The focusing ring isn't particularly well-damped, which can make applying fine focus adjustments manually a chore. A small switch on the side of the lens allows switching between manual and autofocus quickly.

Focusing is not performed internally, and the 58mm filter thread rotates, which can make attempting to use graduated and polarising filters with this lens a bit of a pain.

Sharp hand held images are possible around two thirds of the time at 1/25sec at 250mm, which is an impressive four stops slower than the usual rule of thumb for sharp images would allow. The image stabiliser keeps the viewfinder image very steady indeed, which also aids composition and focusing at telephoto focal lengths.

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