Best telephoto lens on a budget

Although the review was lacking on details & commentary, I agree that it's a terrific lens for travel or for a small budget.  It's small, cheap, and fairly sharp throughout the range.  It's not L quality mind you, but for 300 bucks it's hard to beat.

Mark

Mark B. wrote:

Although the review was lacking on details & commentary, I agree that it's a terrific lens for travel or for a small budget. It's small, cheap, and fairly sharp throughout the range. It's not L quality mind you, but for 300 bucks it's hard to beat.

Mark

Of course the 55-250 STM cannot compare build quality wise, but the little 55-250 STM's IQ holds up quite well to the 100-400 4-5.6 L according to The-Digital-Picture.com comparison.

Jon_T wrote:

Mark B. wrote:

Although the review was lacking on details & commentary, I agree that it's a terrific lens for travel or for a small budget. It's small, cheap, and fairly sharp throughout the range. It's not L quality mind you, but for 300 bucks it's hard to beat.

Mark

Of course the 55-250 STM cannot compare build quality wise, but the little 55-250 STM's IQ holds up quite well to the 100-400 4-5.6 L according to The-Digital-Picture.com comparison.

How does it hold up at focal lengths above 250

EJ Fudd wrote:

would not that be apples and oranges??

...exactly my point.

Mark B. wrote:

EJ Fudd wrote:

would not that be apples and oranges??

...exactly my point.

Just an interesting comparison being that on crop sensor DSLR's the EF-S 55-250mm provides similar EFV(88-400mm) as the EF 100-400 would on a FF DSLR. For the purists, one would assume they would limit comparison to the "actual" focal lengths (100, 135 & 200) the two lenses have in common.

As to "apples and oranges":

• In a way yes as one would think the EF 100-400 "L" IQ would be superior to the EF-S 55-250 STM given that using the EF 100-400 "L" a crop sensor you're using the so-called "sweet-spot" of the lens. Hence at the corners the EF 100-400 "L" should be much better than the EF-S 55-250 STM.
  
• Yes it I had did a EF-S 55-250 STM and 60D vs. 100-400 "L" and 1Ds Mark II; i.e., two entirely different sensors.

The EF-S 55-250 STM also holds up quite well to 70-200 4 "L"i.e., closer similar zoom focal range.