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

The Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS is a large, solid-feeling piece of kit with a good sturdy build.

Until recently, the choice of affordable superzooms in the Canon line-up was a bit limited, with the only other options being the 28-200mm and 28-300mm – both not wide enough to make them an attractive all-in-one option. The gap’s now been plugged with the recent arrival of the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS superzoom, and it’s a large, solid-feeling piece of kit. It tips the scales at 600g and has a sturdy build, balancing well once attached to a camera body.
On a Canon D-SLR, it has a 35mm equivalent focal range of 28.8-320mm, while the maximum aperture of f/5.6 at the long end is pretty fast.
It incorporates Canon’s Image Stabilizer (IS) system to reduce camera-shake, allowing you to maintain sharp shots at 4 stops slower than you would be able to normally. The IS works very well – during testing, it was still possible to achieve sharp shots at shutter speeds as low as 1/15sec at 200mm.
There’s no Ultrasonic motor (USM) to reduce AF noise, but it’s actually still pretty quiet during operation, while AF is fast and reliable.

Digital Photo Silver Award