If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.
Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II USM Autofocus Lightweight Compact Telephoto Zoom Lens
Photo Zone:
The Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 USM II is a lens with “potential”. Unfortunately it is wasted due to a very poor mechanical quality based on very cheap plastics. The lens has been simplified to a degree where even the focus ring has been abandoned. Thanks to the unambiguous aperture and focal length range the optical quality of the lens is very good or at least it could be. The formal results are fine if not impressive for such a lens but they vary extremely across the frame – probably also a side effect of the low build quality standards. If Canon had put the optics into a decent lens body it would have been an interesting budget lens but in its current incarnation the Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 USM II cannot be recommended. READ FULL REVIEW
Other Canon 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II USM EF Reviews
SLR Gear
The bottom line here is that this isn’t a lens that stacks up to the standards of Canon’s expensive higher-end models, but it’s a very workmanlike option for photographers on a budget, particularly if There’s enough light to shoot stopped down to f/8 or so. The one caveat we’d add is that if you need to shoot wide open at 200mm — for sports shots, say — this really isn’t the lens for you, as it’s really quite soft at that specific combination of aperture and focal length. READ FULL REVIEW