[Music] Howdy everyone and once again I'm Hopping into the old time machine to Check out how some of Canon's Legacy Digital SLR lenses work here in 2023 in The age of very high resolution cameras This time we are going back 10 years to 2013 to check out the Canon EFS 55 to 250 millimeter F4 to 5.6 is STM don't Mix it up with the original non-stm Version of the lens this newer STM Version of it has greatly improved Autofocus and sharper Optics too it's Still available today for 300 US dollars Or about 300 pounds here in the UK and It was originally designed for Canon's Apse digital SLR cameras so it will work On the old 2000d 4000d 250d 850d 80d 90d And other Canon aps-e digital SLR Cameras it will not work on Canon's full Frame digital SLR our cameras at all It's designed not to physically even fit Onto them but it will also work on Canon's mirrorless cameras EOS M or EOS R system if you have the appropriate Adapter as you can see I'm adapting it Here onto my EOS R7 if you choose to Adapt it onto one of Canon's full frame EOS R mirrorless cameras then it will Work but only in a lower resolution Cropped mode I hope that all makes sense And the chief attraction of this lens is Obviously its great Zoom range the full Frame equivalent of 88 to 400 millimeter
That is absolutely brilliant for all Kinds of telephoto photography picking Up where a wider angle 18 to 55 Millimeter kit lens might leave off its Maximum aperture of f4 at the wide end Narrowing to F 5.6 as you zoom in means That it can't get you the most out of Focus backgrounds or Snappy shutter Speeds but still if you zoom in then Some nice portrait shots will be Available to The lens also features its own image Stabilization here's some footage with It turned off and now turned on while The stabilization isn't Rock Steady it's Still doing a good enough job for a 10 Year old lens shooting at the equivalent Of 400 millimeter Let's take a look at the build quality The lenses body is quite cheaply Constructed with no weather sealing Around to the rear and even a plastic Lens mount and it tips the scales at a Fairly lightweight 375 grams however it's actually quite Solidly constructed it feels nice in the Hand and doesn't have any wobbly parts To it the lens has external switches for Auto manual figures and for the image Stabilizer something I always love to See then comes the rubberized Zoom ring This copy of the lens is virtually new And my zoom ring turned lovely and Smoothly with only a little bit of
Stickiness to it in front of that comes The mother loose and freely turning Focus ring which is electronically Coupled to the Focus motor in use it Works really responsibly as you can see Here and the lens exhibits very little In a way of focus breathing The lenses autofocus motor is from the Early days of Canon's STM design but Still it focuses very quickly smoothly Accurately and silently I had no Problems with autofocus here at all the Lens has a 58 millimeter filter thread Size and it does not come with a lens Hood although one is available Separately overall while the build Quality is rather basic the lens Actually works fantastically well with Good stabilization and autofocus and a Nice smooth Zoom ring and I also think It looks pretty cool there on my EOS R7 With the adapter Okay let's take a look at image quality Now the lens originally performed pretty Well on my old Canon 70D with its 20 Megapixel aps-c sensor the 32.5 Megapixel sensor of my EOS R7 will be a Different ballpark altogether though in Camera Corrections are turned on for These tests at 55 millimeter and F4 the Lens is further soft in the middle of Your images Corner image quality is About the same stop down to f516 for a Little Improvement in those corners but
Back in the middle image quality is way Sharper now looking very nice and Detailed stop down to f8 and the middle Looks about the same but the corners now See another Improvement looking Reasonably good stop down to f11 though And the lens begins to soften again due To the effect of diffraction and F16 Looks very poor for the same reason so At its widest angle stopping down to F 5.6 yields a huge benefit let's zoom in About halfway to 135 5 millimeter the Maximum apture has now darkened to F5 in The middle of the image again the Picture quality is rather soft strangely The corner image quality is actually Just a little sharper here than in the Middle although that kind of thing is Not unheard of it's top down to f8 for Pretty sharp corners and back in the Middle another huge Improvement once Again now if we stop down to f11 then The lens just gets a little softer again Due to diffraction finally let's Zoom All the way into 250 millimeter at the New maximum aperture of f 5.6 once again The lens is rather soft in the middle of Your images and over in the image Corners too stop down to f8 and the Corners look about the same but the Middle of the image looks decently sharp Now stop down to f11 and the middle Looks the same but the corners see just A tiny Improvement again though stop
Down further than that and diffraction Will just soften the image too much Overall I was a bit disappointed by the Performance of this classic lens because I was was hoping its sharpness wide open Would be much better than this but for Those of you willing to stop down your Aperture by Just One Stop throughout the Lenses Zoom range you'll be able to get A decent performance out of it okay Let's turn off in camera Corrections and Take a look at Distortion and vignetting At 55 millimeter we see some very mild Barrel Distortion being projected by the Lens however even at the brightest Aperture of f4 there's little in the way Of vignetting if you zoom in then that's Distortion flips into a mild pin cushion Pattern instead with vignetting falling A little more heavily stop down to f8 or F11 for those Corners to brighten up Very well so overall that's a pretty Good performance for vignetting and Distortion this lens has a bit of a Bonus feature in that when you zoom Right in it offers great magnification Getting you nice and close to even very Small subjects at f516 close-up image Quality looks a bit soft and hazy here With some purple fringing and Contrasting edges top down to f8 and we See a return of contrast and good Sharpness though let's see how the lens Performs against Bright Lights now the
Lens displays surprisingly little Flaring when bright lights are in the Picture whether you're zoomed out or Zoomed in however there's certainly some Glaring around the bright point of light Itself still a good performance overall And finally let's see about the quality Of this lenses bokeh out of Vegas Backgrounds just look averagely smooth Here nothing special but nothing too Distracting either overall well the Biggest takeaway from this retest for me Is that I wish the lens had turned out To be sharper when shooting at its Brightest apertures it's definitely soft There and you will notice that softness On a 24 megapixel aps-c camera too I'm Sure you can top it down for some very Good resolution though which will please Landscape photographers but for bird and Subject photography where a more Diffused background is desired or faster Shutter speeds you will have to settle With a somewhat soft image in all other Areas though the lens does perform Pretty well if you're willing to stop Down its aperture a little then this Could be a decent enough lens to buy if You can find it for a bit less than 300 That is Cool another classic lens re-tested for 2023 I think those are the main Canon Ones out of the way now although maybe I'll cover some more in the future if
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