The Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens is currently Canon’s widest lens in its entire EF/EF-S lens line up. In the world of wide angle lenses to fit crop sensor cameras this is one of the most talked about and popular. The 10mm range is the equivalent of 16mm on taking into account your cropped sensor which is certainly wide. This lens is a very popular choice for those after seriously wide angle however recently it has faced much stiffer competition from the likes of Sigma and of course the Tokina 11-16mm.
Build Quality
As you would expect from a Canon lens the build quality of this lens is good with a solid construction (though not quite as good as the Tokina in our opinion. As you would expect there is a metal mount for this lens which adds to the overall feel of quality this lens has however no sign of the weather proof sealing you get on the L-series glass.
Compared to some of the other EF-S range this is certainly at the higher end of the scale in terms of build quality.
Lens Performance
When focusing the barrel does not either extend or rotate which is not always the case with other cheaper alternatives. In addition the 10-12 is powered by a USM motor which focuses both quickly and quietly. Manual focusing feels smooth, solid and as it should.
With such a wide angle lens flare is to be expected however to be fair this lens does a pretty good job to keep this down to a minimum. That said it is still rather annoying that Canon does not include a lens hood with this lens. For the price you’d expect to get one included as you do with other manufacturers such as Tokina.
The picture quality of this lens is very impressive. Image sharpness is pretty good throughout the focal range. If we had to pick some weakness then if you look really hard images at about 10-11mm look a bit soft and some sharpness is lost in the corners of images. This however is a problem that affects almost all ultra wide angle lenses.
Despite it’s wide angle distortion is kept to a minimum, in fact it is as far as ultra wide angle lenses go this is one of the best we have seen for this. Even down at 10mm there is minimum distortion.In addition there is very little chromatic aberration (another inherent weakness of wide angles) and any that is detected is fairly simple to fix in post processing.
If this is your first ultra wide angle then don’t be worried if you get some initial disapointment from this lens. Shooting at such wide ranges as 10mm take some getting used to and you really need to learn how best to fill your composition to get interesting shots out of a lens like this. Once you do get it right however the results are spectacular.
Verdict on the Canon 10-22mm Ultra Wide Angle
Overall, this is a very nice lens. Optically, the EF-S 10-22mm performs very well producing very sharp images throughout it’s focal range.The build quality is great with a durable solid feel, without it weighing a ton.In truth if thy stuck an L on this lens it would not look out of place.
Shooting so wide can take a bit of getting used to however when you do the images this lens will produce are stunning. Whether it is landscapes, architecture or quirky portraits that you shoot a lot this lens will produce some great results for you. If you are looking for some wide fun then you could do a lot worse than invest in this lens!
Check out the latest prices of this lens on Amazon.
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