Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens

by Geoff 14 Sep 0 Comments

Canon EF_S 18-200mm 3.5-5.6 IS Lens

The Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens is a very compact and lightweight wide zoom range lens, it covers the range 18-200mm and will be a very attractive travelling lens.

This lens is specifically designed for the cameras with the EF-S lens mount (APS-C).

Note that this lens is compatible with cameras that have the APS-C size sensors.

If you want a wide range focal length lens for general photography and travelling where you do not wish to be continually changing lenses then this may be your lens choice. The lens does have its limitations, such as the aperture of f/5.6 at 200mm and may not be suitable for many photographers when shooting in low light as a consequence.

If you are shooting still subjects in low light then the Image Stabilisation (IS) with this lens will give you some assistance in capturing subjects and keeping the shutter speed at a reasonable figure to freeze any camera movement. Keep in mind that the image stabilisation with this lens will not help with any subject movement, only camera movement.

The size and weight of this lens is very reasonable for a lens covering this focal length range and with other constant aperture lenses or lower aperture lenses, several lenses would be required to cover the same focal length range.

A wide range lens such as this is some what of a compromise in performance compared to other lenses with a shorter range of focal lengths. You will need to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages which is really size weight and convenience versus the additional weight and inconvenience of changing lenses if you use several higher performance larger lenses.

Some of the lenses in this category are summarised as follows:

EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Lens – Ultra wide angle lens with variable aperture
EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens – Wide angle variable large aperture lens
EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Zoom Lens - Fixed large aperture low light zoom
EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Autofocus Lens – Wide angle variable large aperture lens
EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens – Wide focal length variable large aperture lens
EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens – Wide focal length range variable large aperture lens
EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens – Low aperture macro lens

My preference is to go with higher performance lenses as this will in general if you use good techniques, give you far better image quality which is what I generally aim for, but the choice is yours.

See sample images from this lens on flickr.