Canon 55-200mm IS STM

EOS EF-M (2013-)

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Canon 55-200mm

Canon EF-M 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM in black; also comes in silver, (fits EOS-M cameras only, 52mm filters, 9.2 oz./260 g, 3.3'/1 m close focus, about $349). I got mine at Adorama; I'd just as well get it at B&H, at Crutchfield or at Amazon.

This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Canon does not seal its boxes, so never buy at retail or any source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective, dropped, damaged or used product, a customer return or if the warranty has already been registered to someone else online! The approved sources I use ship from secure, remote automated warehouses where salespeople or other customers never, ever get to touch your lens before you do, and they have the best prices, selection, service and return policies.

 

November 2015   Canon Reviews   EOS-M Reviews   Canon Lenses   Canon Flash   All Reviews

 

Sample Image

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Canon 55-200mm sample image

Ti Leaf on Granite, 05 November 2015. Canon EOS M3, Canon 55-200mm at 55mm, f/8 at 1/250 at ISO 100. Bigger or camera-original file to explore on your computer (mobile devices rarely can display at the full resolution).

 

Canon 55-200mm sample image

Canary Palm, 05 November 2015. Canon EOS M3, Canon 55-200mm at 75mm, f/5.6 at 1/200 at ISO 100. Bigger or camera-original file to explore on your computer (mobile devices rarely can display at the full resolution).

 

Introduction

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Adorama pays top dollar for your used gear.

Amazon

B&H Photo - Video - Pro Audio

The Canon EF-M 55-200 IS STM is a compact zoom for Canon's EOS-M system.

It has pretty good optical performance in a tiny package. It is the smallest and lightest telephoto zoom ever sold by Canon.

It has an electronic manual focus ring, that if activated in the camera's menu system, can allow manual focus.

 

Compatibility

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As an EF-M lens, it only works on Canon's EOS-M series of cameras.

It cannot be used on anything else.

 

Specifications

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Name

Canon 55-200mm

Canon EF-M 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM.

Canon calls this the Canon EF-M 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM.

    EF: Electronic Focus. All Canon autofocus lenses have been EF since they were introduced in 1987.

    -M: New smaller lens mount for Canon's EOS-M mirrorless cameras.

    IS: Image Stabilization. lets you leave the tripod at home.

    STM: STepper focus Motor. Runs quietly for video.

 

Optics

Canon EF-M 55-200mm STM internal construction

Canon 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS internal diagram. UD element, IS elements and Aspheric element.

17 elements in 11 groups.

5-group zoom system.

One UD glass element.

One aspheric element.

Internal focussing.

Pumper zoom; front section moves in and out as zoomed.

It's multicoated, which Canon calls Canon Super Integrated Coating.

 

Close Focus

3.3 feet (1 meter) from the image plane.

 

Maximum Reproduction Ratio

1:4.76 (0.21 x).

 

Diaphragm

Canon 55-200mm, front view

Canon 55-200mm at 22mm at f/32.

7 rounded blades.

Stops down to f/22~32.

 

Vibration Reduction

Rated 3.5 stops improvement.

 

Coverage

EOS-M mirrorless cameras only.

 

Focal Length

55 ~ 200mm.

When used on an EOS-M (APS-C) camera, it sees angles of view similar to what a 90~320mm lens sees when used on a full-frame or 35mm camera.

 

Angles of View

22.3º ~ 6.5° diagonal.

27.8º ~ 7.8° horizontal.

15.6º ~ 4.3° vertical.

 

Hard Infinity Focus Stop?

No.

You have to let the AF system focus at infinity.

 

Focus Scale

No.

 

Depth-of-Field Scale

No.

 

Infra-Red Focus Index

No.

 

Aperture Ring

No.

 

Filter Thread

52mm, plastic.

 

Hood

ET-54B plastic bayonet hood ($29), not included.

 

Case

LP-816 sack ($24), not included.

 

Size

2.4" (60.9 mm) diameter by 3.4" (86.5 mm) extension from flange, at 55mm. Gets longer at 200mm.

 

Weight

9.170 oz. (259.9 g), actual measured weight.

Rated 9.17 oz. (260 g).

 

Included

Lens.

Caps.

Big folded multilingual instruction sheet.

USA & Canada warranty card.

 

Quality

Made in Taiwan.

 

Announced

Thursday, 27 August 2015 in USA. (announced 2013 elsewhere.)

 

Price, USA

August~November 2015: $349.

 

Box

Canon 55-200mm box

Box, Canon 55-200mm.

Microcorrugated cardboard box.

 

Performance

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Performance   Compared   Usage   Recommendations   More

Overall    Focus    Bokeh   Distortion   Ergonomics

Falloff    Filters   Lateral Color Fringes   Macro

Mechanics   Sharpness   Sunstars   Image Stabilization

 

Overall

The Canon 55-200mm is a tiny tele with reasonable performance.

 

Focus

Autofocus

Autofocus is fast and accurate as mirrlorless goes, no worries here.

 

Manual Focus

You set manual focus in the camera's menu system.

When set to AF+MF mode in an EOS M3, it works well, but only within the limits of the EOS M3's manual focus preference.

 

Bokeh

Bokeh, the quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to the degree of defocus, is neutral and pretty good. Backgrounds won't distract. Of course as with all lenses, shoot at the longest zoom setting, at the largest aperture and as close as possible for the softest backgrounds.

Here are samples shot wide open from headshot distance. Click any for the camera-original file to explore on your computer (portable devices rarely can display the full resolution of these files):

Canon 55-200mm  IS STM Bokeh

Shot on EOS M3 at 55mm at f/4.5 at 1/250 at ISO 125. bigger or camera-original file to explore on your computer (mobile devices rarely can display the full resolution).

 

Canon 55-200mm IS STM Bokeh

Shot on EOS M3 at 200mm at f/6.3 at 1/320 at ISO 400. bigger or camera-original file to explore on your computer (mobile devices rarely can display the full resolution).

 

Canon 55-200mm IS STM Bokeh

Tile in dew, 05 November 2015. Shot on EOS M3 at 200mm at f/6.3 at 1/640 at ISO 100. bigger or camera-original file to explore on your computer (mobile devices rarely can display the full resolution).

 

Distortion

The Canon 55-200 has moderate barrel distortion at 55mm and moderate pincushion distortion at 200mm.

These values in Photoshop's Lens Distortion tool will completely remove the distortion. These aren't facts or specifications, they are the results of my research that requires hours of photography and calculations on the resulting data.

 

at 3m (10')

55mm
+1.5
70mm
+0.4
100mm
-1.5
135mm
-2.0
200mm
-2.5

© 2015 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.

 

Ergonomics

Canon 55-200mm EF-M

Canon EF-M 55-200 IS STM.

Most of the lens is its zoom ring, which is perfect. It's geared just right and it's smooth and easy to use.

The focus ring turns well, but it only does something if you set your camera just right. I never bother with it.

 

Falloff

Falloff is completely invisible as shot on the EOS M cameras, which correct this automatically by default.

Even at the worst case wide-open, it's invisible in photos and not a problem even in the extreme case of exaggerating it by shooting a gray field and showing it on a gray background:

 

Canon 55-200mm falloff, corrected on EOS M3

Canon 55-200mm vigneting

Vignetting wide-open at f/4.5 at 55mm.

 

Canon 55-200mm vigneting

Vignetting wide-open at f/5 at 100mm.

 

Canon 55-200mm vigneting

Vignetting wide-open at f/6.3 at 200mm.

© 2015 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.

 

 

Filters, use with

There's no need for thin filters. Even several stacked filters work great with no vignetting.

Go ahead and use your fat standard rotating grad and polarizing filters.

 

Lateral Color Fringes

There are no color fringes as shot on EOS M cameras, which by default correct for any that may be there.

 

Macro

Macro only gets to 3.3 feet (1 meter), and at 200mm this is very close:

Canon 55-200mm macro performance

Mondaine A1323034811SBB at close-focus distance at 200mm at f/11. bigger or camera-original to explore on your computer (most portable devices can't show all the pixels in the full resolution file).

 

Canon 55-200mm macro performance

Crop from above at 100%. If this is about 6" (15cm) on your screen, printing the complete image at this same high magnification would result in a 40 x 60" (100 x 150 cm) print! Camera-original file to explore on your computer (most portable devices can't show all the pixels in the full resolution file).

Macro is sharp; I've never seen that the printing on this watch is actually three-dimensional.

This is stopped-down; wide-open the results are lower contrast due to some veiling spherical aberration.

The sides are softer at 55mm at close distances.

 

Mechanics

Canon 55-200mm

Canon EF-M 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM.

The Canon 55-200 is an all-plastic lens, with glass elements.

 

Filter Threads

Plastic.

 

Hood Mount

Plastic.

 

Front Barrel

Plastic.

 

Focus Ring

Plastic.

 

Zoom Ring

Plastic.

 

Internals

Seem like plastic.

 

Rear Barrel

Plastic.

 

Identity

Printed on plastic ring inside filter threads.

 

Dust seal at mount

No.

 

Mount

Plastic.

 

Markings

Paint.

 

Serial Number

Laser-engraved into bottom of barrel near mount.

 

Date Code

None found.

 

Noises When Shaken

Moderate to mild clunking.

 

Made in

Taiwan.

 

Sharpness

Image sharpness depends more on you than your lens, and lens sharpness doesn't mean much to good photographers. It's the least skilled hobbyists who waste the most time blaming fuzzy pictures on their lenses, while real shooters know that few photos ever use all the sharpness of which their lenses are capable due to subject motion and the fact that real subjects are rarely perfectly flat.

This Canon 55-200mm is reasonably sharp. As you can see at the top (be sure to click the "bigger" links), it's plenty sharp for any reasonable use.

It's sharp edge-to-edge at long distances at all apertures and focal lengths where you might need it for nature and landscape work.

It's softer on the sides at 55mm at close distances where this may help for portraits.

It's not a standout, but sharp enough for anything people are likely to do with it. I doubt you'd ever really print anything 60" (1.5 meters) wide, and if you do, the center is what matters, which is sharp.

It's not as sharp as the superb 22/2 or 11-22mm lenses if you split pixels, but if you split pixels, go ahead and step up to the incredible 100-400mm IS L II on the 5DS R and stop complaining

Canon 55-200mm MTF at 200mm

Canon 55-200mm MTF, 10 and 30 cycles/mm, wide-open and at f/8.

 

Sunstars

With curved diaphragm blades, the Canon 55-200 makes dull sunstars, if any.

 

Image Stabilization

Image Stabilization (IS) works well.

I get sharp results at every speed I tried, even at 200mm handheld.

 

Compared

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There are no other telephoto EF-M lenses as of 2015. Done.

You can adapt the EF-S 55-250mm STM to fit EOS M cameras. It's the same price and sharper (visible only if you actually print more than three feet wide), but it weighs 50% more — and you still have to buy the $200 adapter, and when you add its weight, the 55-250 + adapter combo weighs double what this lens does.

The EOS M system is all about size and weight, and therefore this 55-200mm lens is perfect.

 

Usage

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Auto and Manual Focus settings

These are made in the EOS M3's CAMERA 2 menu.

If you want manual focus in the M3; you have to set the AF+MF mode to ON.

 

Image Stabilization (IS) Switch

There is none on the camera or on the lens.

It is ON by default.

If you want to turn it off, look towards the bottom of the CAMERA 2 menu.

 

Recommendations

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As of 2015, this is the only telephoto lens native to the Canon EOS-M system. It's tiny and works well, so it fits perfectly in this system.

While I can think of sharper tele lenses, they weigh many times more, which eliminate the whole point of the EOS M system. For my EOS M cameras, this is the tele lens of choice.

I'd use a Hoya multicoated 52mm UV to protect this lens. It's inexpensive and superb.

Filters last forever, and the very best is the Hoya HD UV which is made of hardened glass. The B+W 52mm 010 and Canon 52mm Protector are also excellent filters, for more money.

 

Where to Get Yours

I got mine at Adorama; I'd just as well get it at B&H, at Crutchfield or at Amazon.

This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Canon does not seal its boxes in any way, so never buy at retail or any source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective, dropped, damaged or used product, a customer return or if the warranty has already been registered to someone else online! The approved sources I use ship from secure, remote automated warehouses where salespeople or other customers never, ever get to touch your lens before you do, and they have the best prices, selection, service and return policies.

Thanks for helping me help you!

Ken, Mrs. Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.

 

More Information

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Performance   Compared   Usage   Recommendations   More

 

Canon USA's 55-200mm page

 

© Ken Rockwell. All rights reserved. Tous droits réservés. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

 

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05 November 2015