timwim's reviews

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

I had my copy of my Canon 10-22 now for about 6 months, I have been very surprised by the image quality of this lens.

All by all, I would like to first touch upon a couple of important aspects of this lens and then show some pictures taken over the last couple of months to get my point across.

Optically the image quality is very good wide open, but absolutely shines stopped down to f5.6- 8.0. Wide open (10 mm) there is some softness in the corners visible, which is really inherent with wide angle lenses, but again gets quite better stopped down to f5.6. The saturation/colors, contrast in the images are just splendid and have a 3D feel to it, creating the pop and punch what makes the images so beautiful.

The distortions (barrel and pin cushion) is so well controlled with this marvelous optic, I only need to change perspective, and everything will straighten-up, if desired of course! This “fisheye-effect” this super wide angle lens provides can be both good and bad, depending on your personal style and creativity…The flare with this lens is very well controlled, to the point that a hood is in 95% of the shots taken really not necessary. Vignetting or light falloff of in the corners of the image is visible wide open at 10mm (taken picture of blue sky for example) but still very well controlled and quite less vignetting is present when stopped down to f8.0. Just be careful to use thin-filters, standard ones make matters quite worse. Chromatic aberrations (purple fringing) are present with this lens, nevertheless the use of the super UD glass element. I found that -all by all- it is not super bad at 10 mm and gets actually pretty good at 22 mm; but I would have hoped it was better since Canon has some lenses where it is quite better…

Regarding the built and handling of this lens it is for sure not the same feel as the “L” Lenses; nevertheless the zoom ring has been a joy to use, silky smooth since it came out of the box. The reversed focus/zoom position does take some getting used to, but one learns…Note that this lens is not weather sealed, but currently no canon crop-sensor body is neither….thus what is the point? The canon auto focus (AF) motor design per USM, is super fast, accurate and basically noise free. Nothing more can be anticipated really from the AF, as good as it gets in my opinion…

Please check a “out of the camera picture and a DxO corrected” one here for perspective, CA and vignetting:
National parks picture Great Falls
No correction: http://www.pbase.com/timwim/image/66039060
With correction: http://www.pbase.com/timwim/image/66039061

Since, I really enjoy landscape photography, this lens is a must have for crop sensors owners to capture big field of views. Optically the image quality is quite good wide open, but absolutely shines stopped down to f5.6 to f8.0. Please make SURE the UV or CP-L filters CLEARS the front glass piece it is very close (I own thin Hoya PRO1 Digitals w/front threads and it works beautifully, the standard thicker ones do create visible vignetting)

Find some nice landscape shots here (feel free to enjoy the rest of my galleries as well…)
http://www.pbase.com/timwim/image/66037883

All by all some close-up focusing is possible even with this super wide angle lens …”macro” is not correct description, but surprisingly beautiful close-ups can be taken with this lens…

See some images here:
http://www.pbase.com/timwim/image/66038078
http://www.pbase.com/timwim/image/66039123

This hibiscus flower image gives is a good idea about the bokeh of this lens ( rendition of the out of focus areas, upper right hand corner here for flower shows a very pleasing bokeh IMO)

In conclusion:
Very sharp super wide angle lens even wide open but absolutely shines at f5.6 to f8.0, definitely the “sweet spot range for optimal optical quality (sharpness, minimize vignetting, and CA ” . The images have a 3D quality to them, without excessive distortion, creating bold and punchy images straight out of the box. Basically best super wide angle lens in my books, making it an enormous fun and creative lens. Optically, it is awesome. It's definitely an “L” version for us 1.6 crop sensors.

However, for a “non-L” lens, it isn't cheap. On top of that there is no hood included for the price since this is not an “L”….

All by all, I LOVE my copy of my lens….but be aware that my experience may not be the same as other users and you should read more reviews to get good feel about it. Highly recommended nevertheless.