Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II USM review
Review Date : Mon, 5 Nov 2007
Author : WDC Team
Canon's EF 55-200mm digital SLR lens has an Ultrasonic Motor (USM) for fast and quiet autofocus and provides an imaging circle suitable for full frame and APS-C sensors.
| Pros: | Quiet, fast AF. |
|---|---|
| Cons: | No focus ring, chromatic aberration. |
Canon Compatible
Canon’s EF 55-200mm has an Ultrasonic Motor (USM) for fast and quiet autofocus and provides an imaging circle suitable for full-frame and APS-C sensors, so it will work on any Canon EOS camera. If using a model with an APS-C sensor such as the EOS 400D, the lens offers the focal equivalent of 88-320mm.
Fiddly Manual Focus
The lens is constructed of 13 elements in 13 groups and incorporates optimised lens coatings to reduce flare and ghosting. The all-plastic, two-piece barrel, including a plastic lens mount, is lightweight but the zoom ring is quite loose. The USM-driven AF system, however, is quick and reasonably quiet, if a little juddery. What it’s lacking though is a gripped manual focus ring – you need to rotate the inner barrel, which is awkward, especially at 55mm.
Performance
The lens displays reasonable sharpness which, if not the best, is certainly consistent. Apertures up until f/11 maintain similar degrees of sharpness, with a rapid drop in sharpness at f/16 and f/22.
Chromatic aberration is among the worst in this category, with good central control but a consistently high pixel rise at the corners.
Verdict
Really a budget or starter lens, reasonably priced, but lacking the fast maximum aperture and expensive glass of more professional lenses.
Have your say!
Latest comments
December 18 10:26
Faith
Sorry to say it, but the WDC scoring system is very broken. This is my first visit to the site, looking for information on Canon lenses. I read the 55-200 review and then check the scores:- 15/20 for Design - so that's 75% Another 15/20 for Image Quality That jumps to 16/20 for Performance Value jumps again to 17/20 Finally, Features scores 16/20 That gives us an overall average of 16/20 Which is 80% in any mathematicians book So why is the final score only 50% ? I think there are 3 options:- 1) Typo - they meant to press 8 but got 5 2) Score is not based on testing - smart 3) WDC as a magazine is 'bent' and ignores test results when giving buying information I have no axe to grind here, but from reading this first review - I can tell straight away that there are 'issues' with the content If there is an issue here - and I spotted it on my first read - then how many issues are there throughout the site? Worrying to think that people might be spending their hard-earned money with a scoring system like this Come on chaps - step it up - we need decent buying advise - not a big scoop of fudge
December 20 15:45
WDC
Faith, This seems to have not ported across from our old mk1 system to the current mk2 platform that we're running. Indeed the resulting score is incorrect (should be 80%). Regarding the lens: Fundamentally I'd say that a budget lens such as this offers a good zoom range, but it's not the best built or designed compared to the more premium optics that Canon also produces.
December 28 23:11
Faith
Thanks for replying. This lens does exactly what it should do, but it also makes you wish you had the will power to spend another £700 on the Canon EF Zoom lens (24/70) which :-(