Best superzoom for Canon DSLRs: 8 tested

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS - £350

Despite being a kit lens option for the Canon EOS 7D - arguably the most advanced APS-C camera in the world - the Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS isn't entirely convincing when it comes to specifications and features. On the surface, it's quite a bare-bones affair, with no focus distance scale or even a zoom lock switch, and the finish feels a bit lacklustre.

Other omissions are any kind of USM (Ultrasonic Motor) autofocus system and - like most of Canon's lenses - it doesn't even come with a lens hood, which costs about £25 extra to buy separately. It's not especially big on zoom range either, with a humble 7.5x zoom (equivalent to 29-216mm).

At least you get Canon's latest 4-stop image stabilisation, which comes complete with auto detection for panning and tripod mounting - although the latter didn't work entirely consistently in our tests.

Image sharpness is merely average, but distortions are reasonably low for a superzoom lens. Chromatic aberrations are quite noticeable but, because it's a genuine Canon lens, you can tune these out in Digital Photo Professional if you shoot in raw quality mode.

18mm sample image from the Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

135mm sample image from the Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS