Canon 10-22 lens

 

Canon 10-22 lens review

canon 10-22

Canon 10-22 lens review

canon 10-22 2

Canon 10-22 lens review
Introduction

The Canon 10-22mm lens is an ultra wide angle lens for an Aps-C camera. You cannot attach this lens even physically on the Full frame camera without cutting the back part of the lens. This focal length is equivalent of the 16-35mm focal length on the Full frame camera. With the 22mm focal length end this lens even can be compared as a general purpose lens for people who don’t care so much with the longer focal lengths. The wide end (10mm) is very useful in architecture, landscape or internal photography. The lens has a f/3.5-4.5 aperture/brightness which is not very bright but perhaps ok for most of the tasks, only perhaps inside the room is not the best without flash or tripod. The Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 is better for that purpose with it’s brighter f/2.8 aperture.

[do_widget Text]
[do_widget Text]

______________________________________________

Official name

Canon EF-s 10-22 f/3.5-4.5 USM
canon 10 22 7
18mm f/11 ISO 100 1/200s

Canon 10-22 specification

Release date: 2004
Minimal focus distance: 0.24m
Aperture: f/3.5-4.5
Max reproduction ration: 1:6
Aperture blades: 6 circular
Filter size: 77mm
Weight: 385g (0 lb 13.58 oz)
Optical formula: 13 elements in 10 groups
Hood:not included – EW-83E
Size: 83x89mm
Af: USM silent focusing
Constant physical size
Internal focusing

Compatibility

Canon Aps-c sensored cameras like Canon 100D, Canon 300d-700d, Canon 7d, Canon 10D-70D

Category Canon 10-22

It is interested how to categorize this lens: this not an “L”, because no “L” with small sensor coverage, but has a unique glass elements which used usually in high quality lenses, this is not a top of the line product with an extremely good performance like the 60 Macro, 135 f/2 or 200 f/2.8 or 70-200 “L” zoom lenses but not far from that, considered this is a complex wide angle lens.

About ultra wide angle lenses – Canon 10-22

If you want to use this lens to the Full of it’s potential (10-14mm) the details will be quite small on screen size. To use such a lens is not so automatic, I find myself harder to make the images I would like to do than with normal (16-55) lenses. It is very important where you place the camera and which direction you make the picture, and how close you go. With this ultra wide angle lenses you must go closer the subject in order to make the best images, with the best detail, and a small thing like the cigarette or a plastic bottle easily run your photo.

Nikon lenses Canon lenses Lens reviews Reviews
Canon 10-22 range

The Canon 10-22 has a very useful focal length range. Compare to the rivals: the Tokina has 11-16mm, the Sigma 10-20mm, the Samyang 8mm and 14mm the Canon has the widest and most useful range. If I use the lens as is natural for me, I use the 17-22mm “long” end of the lens most of the time and the wide end just occasionally, when I want extra wide shots. The wide end comes in handy when we want a real wide angle for buildings, inside photos or dramatic landscapes, which is rare.

Canon 10-22 optical quality

The Canon 10-22 lens has a very good optical quality. What is unique in this lens that it has very small distortion and very good against flare both of this qualities very rare among ultra wide angle lenses. The lens is reasonably sharp, if I want to compare for me seems sharper than the Canon 24-105 but less sharp than the Tamron 17-50 or the Canon 15-85, of course none of this lenses has this so wide angle, or even so small distortion.
canon 10 22 11f/8 ISO 100 12mm
canon 10 22 4
Canon 10-22 10mm f/3.5 ISO 100 1/400s Canon 30D the lens is quite sharp wide open no additional sharpening just in camera click to see in 1000 pix
canon 10 22 9 little sharpened
canon 10 22 10
f/5.6 ISO 100 19mm click to see in 1200 pixel little sharpened

Sharpness

At the center the lens is very sharp, even on a 8Mp camera, at the edges are not bad, but not fantastic either. Some sharpening helps in post-processing.

Contrast – Canon 10-22

The contrast is very good, but don’t think is superlatives.

Colours

canon 10 22 6
20mm f/7.1 1/80s ISO 100 800 pix
Colours are nice saturated, vivid. Even purple is purple which is sometimes come blue on Canon cameras.
canon 10 22 8
Purple flower cropped

Distortion, chromatic aberration, vignetting, flare

There is some vignetting at open apertures between 1.2-1.3 EV, at f/5.6 between 0,5-0,6 EV perhaps this is the biggest drawback of the lens. The distortion is very low for such a lens, and compare to the rivals. I don’t see chromatic aberration. The lens very good against flare which is unique between wide angle lenses, but some artifacts sometimes appear.

Canon 10-22 build quality

The lens has a reasonably good build quality, but the rivals are simply better in terms of how they look and feel. The zoom ring rotates very easily, the manual focus ring is little narrow and works ok, but has not the feeling that this a very high quality product, like old metal lenses or the rivals like Sigma 10-20 or Tokina 11-16 lenses. Although the lens has constant physical size the front element is slightly moves in and out inside the barell.

Autofocus

The autofocus is an USM focus, but not similar in terms of performance to the ones in super tele lenses. As I see it is not always works as it is expected, I don’t know it is an issue with the particular copy of the lens which I used or my old Canon 30D camera, which is not the newest. The sound of the focus is very quiet. Some may think this is an ultra wide angle lens everything is in focus. Not so simple. If you want to make dramatic looking shot you need to be very close and needs very precise focusing.

Stabilizer

The lens has no stabilizer. I thought not needed so high shutter speed like other lenses, but for critically sharp shot the faster shutter speed is preferred.

Switches

The lens has only one switch to switch between manual and autofocus.

Sweet spot

The sweet spot or sharpest aperture setting of the Canon 10-22mm is f/5.6 at shorter focal lengths, f/8 at 22mm setting.

Bokeh

It is very hard to produce a bokeh with this lens, easiest at 22mm setting with very close focus distances.
canon 10 22 5 Try to make a bokeh Canon 10-22mm f/5.6 1/1000s 22mm Canon 30d 1000 pixel

Price/performance ratio

This is not a cheap lens by any meaning. Other lenses like the Tamron 17-50 has better price/performance ratio, but is relative, what you prefer. The biggest drawback that it is only an Aps-C lens.

Compare to/rivals

The biggest rival is the Tokina 11-16mm which is generally perhaps a better lens in terms of brightness, contrast and sharpness, and build quality as well, but has smaller range, more distortion, more chromatic aberration. The Canon has USM focusing, less distortion, and less flare as well. The Tokina build quality is better. The Sigma 10-20mm lens has two versions: the f/4-5.6 and the constant f/3.5 version which is newer and reported to be better than the older version. The Canon is better. The Samyang 8 and 14mm lenses are manual focus lenses with much more distortion but the 14mm is a much sharper f/2.8 FF lens. The contrast of the Samyang is not so good at wide open, at f/5.6 this lens is incredibly sharp. The newest rival is the new Canon 10-18mm which is much cheaper. This is quite a new lens we haven’t tested yet. The new lens has stm focusing optimized for video.

Summary

This is a very good lens, but has very strong rivals as well. With good technique and little post processing can produce very good results. The price of the lens is high, even compare to the newest Canon 10-18mm stm, which is much cheaper.

Other reviews for Canon mount

Canon 200mm f/2.8 review
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 review

Fatbirders Top 1000 Birding Websites

 Posted by at 8:01 pm