can anyone here comment on the new 55-200mm lens? why does canon produce such a lens with wide end at 55mm but not the usual 28 or 24? thank

-- legnum (legnum212@email.com), June 14, 2001

Answers

Comment? That's a pretty broad thing to request. I haven't used one of these lenses personally, however, so perhaps I shouldn't "comment."

But you ask why Canon makes one. The 55-200 is designed to complement their 22-55 lens. (ie: carry two lenses and you've got 22-200 covered)

They're both slow, dirt-cheap consumer zoom lenses. I understand they're also both originally intended for use with their APS cameras, where the 22-55 lens behaves much like a 28-70 would on a 35mm camera and the 55-300 lens behaves much like a 70-250mm lens on a 35mm camera. Hence the range.

Of course, they're EOS lenses so you can use them just fine on your 35mm EOS camera as well. If you wanted to. Given the extremely low price of these lenses I very much doubt that the image quality is particularly impressive. But hey - they *are* cheap!

-- NK Guy (tela@tela.bc.ca), June 14, 2001.