18-200 best zoom

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joescrivens

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What's the best 18-200 or thereabouts lens going for a canon in peoples opinions?
 
The best would be the 28-300. But thats a hell of a lot of money. Apart from the 18-200 its self theres nothing. Your best getting 2 lenses. Maybe the 24-70 f2.8 and a 70-200 f2.8.
 
I tried the Tamron 28-300. Too soft and slow to focus, not worth it in my opinion.
The new VC (stabilised) version might be better

Have heard better things with the Sigma 18-200 OS though and the optical stabilisation really helps).
 
I have the 18-200 OS Sigma version, and its great, i use it as my primary lens all the time and cant fault it at all, and to be honest i hardly ever use the optical stability (but then again most of the time i amusing a tripod)

if you want to see some examples have a look at my Flickr, nearly all of the photos from the past year are with the 18-200 (maybe some of the very new ones are with a 10-20, just double check the camera properties, and just let me know if there are any your not sure of)

as i say, its a great lens for the money and i couldnt live without it.
 
joescrivens said:
What's the best 18-200 or thereabouts lens going for a canon in peoples opinions?
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What do you want to use it for and take photo's of.....general walk around holiday lens? 1 lens with abit of zoom capabilities so you don't have to carry extra lenses?
 
I bought the Canon 18-20is as it seemed to be the fastest focusing and I got a good deal on it. What has surprised me so far is that there does not seem to be a lot of difference zooming between 135mm-200mm, so it is possible that a shorter zoom like the EF-S 18-135 may have been adequate. Also there is no doubt that it is not as sharp as my 17-55, but the convenience factor outweighs that.
 
this is taken from kenrockwell.com full review http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/18-200mm.htm

Zooming

Zooming is good, which is important for a lens that zooms this far.

There is so much moving around as you zoom that it's more difficult to zoom if you point the lens directly up or down, since you now have to pull half the lens up or down with the zoom ring. If this is difficult for you, point the lens the other way first if it helps you zoom in (pointed down) or zoom out (point it up). It's no problem pointed horizontally.

The range is a bit cramped at the shorter end, making it less easy to set precise framing. It's fine throughout the rest of the range.

The lens will extend when carried on a camera around your neck and it points down. There is a lock to keep the lens set to 18mm, but it's as much trouble to set ad release this lock as it it to have to rack the zoom back in as you bring the camera to your eye.

At infinity, 200mm really is 200mm.

At closer distances, like 20 feet and closer, 200mm isn't really 200mm. At close range, you'll see almost no change as you zoom between 100mm and 200mm.

This is normal for ultra-range zooms that focus as closely as the 18-200mm. Canon and Nikon both play optical tricks to allow long lenses to focus this close. Those tricks are that they reduce the focal length as yo focus more closely, which is how they get these lenses to focus this close. You probably don't realize this, but physics tells us that it is impossible to focus a true 200mm lens any closer than 800mm (0.8 meters or 2.6 feet). This Canon 18-200 focuses to 1.5 feet or 0.45m!
 
I have numerous lenses, but I have taken most of my pictures with my Canon 18-200mm IS lens as it spends all the time on the camera for convenience and only comes off to take specifically planned shots. It can be a bit soft at times, but the Canon software is brilliant at sharpening the pictures if i really need to.

I wouldn't be without mine.
 
joescrivens said:
What's the best 18-200 or thereabouts lens going for a canon in peoples opinions?
Click to expand...

The Canon EF-S 18-220 IS is the best super-zoom, as you would expect for the price.

It also has the advantage of being compatible with Canon's DPP post processing software which has a unique custom lens aberrations correction facility. You have to shoot Raw though.

It works very well with just a mouse click to correct chromatic aberration, vignetting (which you also have in-camera) and distortion. It elevates the performance of this lens particularly well, but doesn't work with third-party lenses.
 
I have both the Sigma 18-200 & 18-250 and find them both excellent. I don't find the IS as quick as Canons and thus took getting used to. I find modern lens in this price range very good compared to what I used 5 years ago, and maybe only go up to L for what you use most. I couldn't live without my 100-400 L.
 
I'm using the Sigma 18-200 os, super lens £283 from warehouse express.
The canon 18-200 has lens creep and i was advised by Warehouse express the Sigma was the preferred lens.
 
Canon has a zoom lock. I think they all zoom-creep a bit, but at least you can lock the Canon. Nikon version has recently been revised with a zoom lock added.

Good reviews here, from DP Review. Canon and Nikon are overall best I think, but they're all a bit short of perfect. Good demo of Canon's DPP aberrations correction software in action, which IMHO makes a big difference to image quality that is not available with the other brands.

Canon 18-200 IS
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/canon_18-200_3p5-5p6_is_c16/

Sigma 18-200 OS
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/sigma_18-200_3p5-6p3_os_n15/

Tamron 18-270 VC
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/tamron_18-270_3p5-6p3_vc_n15/

Nikon 18-200 VR
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/nikon_18-200_3p5-5p6_vr_afs_n15/
 
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