Customers Review Amazon Product

Works for me
I agree with most of the reviews that I have read on this product. It is well worth the money. I don't have a bunch of lenses lying around so I can't compare it to any other lens. For the basic user (like me) here is what I found:
1) the basic lens that comes with the Canon cameras goes up to 55mm. This is not very much but I did notice when using this new lens that we had a hard time zooming out so we could get everything inside a room. I don't know as any lens can do it all but you will want to keep your old lens.
2) if you get a zoom lens, you will want IS. I talked to a couple of friends that went the cheap rout because they didn't know why the IS lens cost so much. They said that unless you are outside on a very sunny day, the non-IS lens is worthless.
3) If your wife wants it for Christmas (like mine) you will score major points with this lens :-)

new favorite lens
I have the rebel xti and currently have the 18-55mm that came with it, and the 50mm f1.8, but I needed a little more focal range. I opted for the 55-250mm with IS not only for the increased focal range but also for the amazing price. Although it is plastic, the lens has a good, sturdy feel. The image stabilization is spectacular and has made photo opportunities that were previously impossible for me a breeze. If you are debating between this and the 70-300 with IS, though I have not used it, I would recommend this. For only 50mm more focal range and the price increase I couldn't see how the 70-300 could be worth it. I am considering eventually getting a 1.4x teleconverter that will bump this lens up to a max 350mm for only around 0, however it will need to be used mainly for outside photography due to its decrease in aperture. Well done, Canon.

Great Lens
Great Image Stabilized lens the 70-300 is like 0 the 55-250 was 0 or less. I love this lens

Great Performance for the Price
The Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6IS Lens boasts great performance for the reasonable price. I shoot with this lens on a Canon Rebel XSi as my primary telephoto lens while I collect my funds for an L series zoom.
Image quality on this lens is great, especially outdoors on a bright day, it captures great colors and details. Images tend to loose sharpness in most cases when set at 250mm although the images still turn out nicely. The auto focus works well and generally fast, though a few times it struggled find the right object to focus on and a few times struggled to focus on anything at all; these few cases by no means drop the quality of this lens. the image stabilizer also works very nicely. I was shooting an Indiana Hoosiers game in Assembly Hall (anyone who has been to Assembly Hall knows how poorly lit the arena is unless you are right down on the floor) and was worried about the poor quality of the shots since I did not have floor seats and knew this lens wasn't the fastest. Much to my chagrin, the vast majority of the pictures turned out to be a boon to my collection.
While there are many other lens that have much superior optics and build quality, I simply must give this lens five stars for the fact that it gives GOOD performance at a GREAT price. It is not without its quirks, but i would recommend this lens to anyone with a limited budget looking for a good telephoto lens.

Pleased to See Afar
We are ver pleased with the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens. It arrived on time as promised and in excellent condition. Look forward to the many, many pictures from a distance. Thank you!