My Favorite Lens That I Own

Hello All! Today I want to talk about the EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM (that is one long name). This is my most versatile and favorite lens that I own (right now). Let’s go!

Price & Specs:

Okay, to start off we have the big question: How empty will your wallet be?

The list price of the lens is $299 from most well known places: Canon, B&H, Best Buy, etc. I feel bad that I don’t remember where my lens came from, but I’d recommend B&H. Buying from Canon directly does cost a bit more than B&H once tax and shipping is taken into consideration.

What are the specs on this lens?

Okay, after reviewing the Canon Macro Lens recently, this lens may sound boring…

• EF-S Mount
• Colors: Black & White
• Image Stabilization
• Ultrasonic Motor and STM
• Auto & Manual Focus
• F/32-F/4.0
• 55mm-250mm

Size: If you are wondering how long the lens is fully extended, here is a photo:

As you can see, it gets fairly long but overall, it isn’t that long. It is about the length of one and a half pens.

Performance:

Okay, so I have been using this lens for quite a long time now! A lot of photos and videos in my past posts have been taken through this lens. I got it in the winter and shot the Snowfall sequence on it! After that, I used it as my primary lens! It always has a spot in my camera bag.

It really is just a zoom lens, but it is just the perfect size, weight, and very versatile. Even if it isn’t anything special, it performs well! I think that out of the lenses that I own, it for sure has the best dynamic range. It is perfect for most photos because you can get up close to things like small flowers and zoom in to things like soaring birds! Now, I’ll show you some unedited shots that I got recently using this lens!

As you can see, these are three very different photos/situations. The first photo is a simple landscape shot with some blurred grass in the foreground. Photo two is a close up flower photo and the third photo is of some flowers against a bright sky. The third one is probably the worst lighting situation for photos because a lens with bad dynamic range would likely end up blowing out the sky. As you can see, these photos are very different situations that this lens still performs well in!

Video wise, this lens works great as well! I didn’t get chance to shoot any video but again, I do have a post from back in January with a video example.

Now I want to talk about autofocus speeds. The speed is okay, but it does peak sometimes while focusing. It might get into focus then slide out on its own… It really isn’t bad, but I do find that the 18-55mm base lens does perform a bit better. Manual focus is great though, just like all other STM series lenses, it has the infinite focus which I absolutely love! I have used lenses that stop you from moving the focus slider but have never really liked them and only own one, long story about that…

In okay lighting it is great if you are in shadows or in bright sun it is great. The lowlight photos never really come out great, but this might be partially the camera…

Other Options:

I wanted to quickly mention what other telephoto options you have for purchase. Sadly, I don’t think that Canon currently makes a new Wide Angle Telephoto in the STM series… Tamron does make one (18-400mm), but it is double the price. Tamron makes another lens that is a bit less expensive than the Canon lens with a shorter focal range 18-200mm. Those are two options for a wider fov telephoto. I am sure you can get lenses more geared to a macro telephoto as well if you would like. There are a lot of lenses in this price bracket to choose from so, if you are looking to by one, you certainly are not short of choice!

Conclusion:

I hope that you enjoyed this post and found it useful! If you want to see more photography/videography content, a follow would be superb! I am going to reach 50 posts on the blog in two weeks, and it would be awesome if I could also hit 50 followers at the same time!

This week on my second blog page, I wrote about the Google I/O keynote! I did an overview of everything that happened, so if you would like to see that visit:
digitalwondersandsmiles.medium.com

Thank you so very much for reading! I have a poll below for my curiosity to see what lenses you like!

-Digital Wonders & Smiles