I have this lens from when I started out in my photography journey. It is a good extra lens to have on you but If your looking to purchase I would go for the 70-200! This lens does ok in low light but not the best. It takes a lot of editing to fix and sometimes even with the fixing it is a decent shot. It changes out easy, you can wipe it up easy, has ok focus and can get you some nice shots in the daylight. I used it for my sons soccer and now that we are in Hockey the difference in my pictures is big. I went from shooting in daylight to shooting in low light situations. This would go for event shooting as well. I would only recommend this to someone who is on a budget , starting out and getting use to shooting.

Aespo326

New Jersey

If you are new to digital SLR photography, this lens is a good option for you if you need to get in close for pictures where you have plenty of available light. I got rid of this lens quickly after buying it because it just wasn't cutting it for me. I don't do a whole lot of photography where I need this extra length, and it just wasn't fast enough for me. The image quality was just okay, there was a lot of chromatic abberation, especially when you have it cranked all the way out at 300mm. This lens didn't have shallow enough depth of field for me, and I don't like the various apertures at the different lengths. The auto focus was not very fast. If you want a lens that is cheap and you can get some reach with, this is a fine choice. If you want qualty, look elsewhere.

yupimrich

Springboro, OH

Simply put, this lens gets the job done, but thats about it. If you have a camera that takes EF-S lenses (which most likely you do unless you have a top of the line camera, in which case you should get an L series lens to pair with it), you should get the 55-250mm. Losing 50mm on the top end is worth the jump in image quality, plus Image Stablization. Depending on where you buy each of these lenses, they are priced pretty close to each other, but when it comes to how the pictures look, the 55-250 beats this one when it counts.

NateWeber

Northridge, CA

My first zoom lens was the Canon 55-250mm IS, which suited my very well while I was learning digital photography. However, a little while in, I came across one of these lens and was able to use it for a month or two. I was very impressed with quality of this lens, especially with respect to its cost. While I still think the 55-250mm IS is the best zoom lens for the money, this is a close second for sure, but more than double the price of the 55-250mm IS. The nice thing about this over the 55-250mm IS is that you get the power of 300mm focal length on a crop body, giving you more reach than you will know what to do with (the equivalent of 480mm on a full frame body!). The construction is nice, and the lens isn't too big. The AF is super fast thanks to the USM motor, it never hunts or gets hung up. The aperture is a bit small if you are in low lights, but is more than sufficient for shooting outside or in good light. The image quality is above average, and definitely respectable considering this is half the price of any telephoto "L" series lens. I would highly recommend this lens to amateurs and hobbyists who are on a budget but need a good and powerful zoom lens.   

pdrober2

Durham, NC