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

[dougan]

I have the Canon 18-55 kit lens and the matching 55-250 lens. I know these are classed as starter lenses, but are fine to start you off.

I was thinking of replacing the two lenses with the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, I am not to worried about loosing 50mm off the telephoto end.
Would this lens be a big improvement over my present two? Or do I need to spend silly money to get any real improvement.

Thanks

 

[vaizki]

I think image quality will be same or worse actually. There's a lot to like in an all-in-one zoom but IQ is always sacrificed with them.

How much do you use the 55-250? If it rarely goes on the camera, get a quality 17-50 f/2.8 zoom... Canon 17-55 IS is great but expensive, tamron is a good cheaper choice.

 

[odd jim]

The IQ of the 55-250 is actually very good indeed, MUCH better than that of the 18-200 superzoom. It depends how much you value having a good telephoto lens.

 

[Ksanti]

You don't need to spend silly money to get an improvement if you try out primes

You could replace the 18-55 with a Tamron 17-50 if you don't want to go primes, all of them being around £300 (Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, Sigma 50mm f/1.4)

Superzooms only really seem applicable as walkabouts - and even then only when you never want to change lens (even on walkabout you don't need a huge range, as you'll mostly be shooting the same sort of stuff), so it tends to be the people who still want to treat their DSLR like it's a compact who buy them.

 

[odd jim]

You don't need to spend silly money to get an improvement if you try out primes

You could replace the 18-55 with a Tamron 17-50 if you don't want to go primes, all of them being around £300 (Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, Sigma 50mm f/1.4)

Superzooms only really seem applicable as walkabouts - and even then only when you never want to change lens (even on walkabout you don't need a huge range, as you'll mostly be shooting the same sort of stuff), so it tends to be the people who still want to treat their DSLR like it's a compact who buy them.

Thats a bit of a sweeping statement!! I bought one to take on holiday with me, but I also have a host of primes, a UWA a couple of telephotos one of which is a 2.8. I like to think I dont treat my SLR like a compact

Edit - I do know what you were trying to say though!