For many years, affordable "super-zooms" were the exclusive province of the third-party manufacturers - primarily Sigma and Tamron. OK, Canon makes the 28-300mm "L", and before that made the 35-350mm "L", but affordability by the masses wasn't obviously one of the key design criteria for those lenses! But in 2005 Nikon caused a few stirs with their DX 18-200mm VR, and three years later Canon decided to get into the act. Here's their offering.

In many ways this lens is about what you'd expect. The build quality is decent but not outstanding. The focus is quick-ish and quiet-ish but isn't going to win any awards. It does a decent job of managing the compromises inherent in the design of an 11x zoom, but inevitably there are going to be residual problems with distortion, chromatic aberration, and so on.

But in one specific way, the lens is remarkable. The Image Stabilisation system is absolutely superb. Some reviewers have found it to be the best they've ever tested, despite it being Canon's "budget" IS design. It's easily good for four extra stops of shutter speed in most normal situations!

Remember, this isn't a lens for the purist or the professional - but it's a good lens to take on holiday if you want to be prepared for anything without carrying a bag full of equipment.

COMPATIBILITY NOTE: This lens only fits the following EF-S mount cameras: 7D, 20/30/40/50D, 300/350/400/450/500/550D, 1000D. It does not fit on 1D or 5D series cameras.