Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLRs

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLRs..

GET Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLRs By Canon

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929 of 969 people found the following review helpful.
The answer to the crop sensor problem.
By Jim Krupnik
My take on this lens is that it is an "L" quality optic in a fine, non "L" package. There is nothing else on the market to compete with it (nothing at all), and it produces supurb images. It isn't an f/2.8 lens, but it is close enough for most uses. The competition from Tamron is a full stop slower, not as sharp, and is awful in dim light compared to the Canon 10-22 lens (sorry, Tamron fans, but the Tamron lens isn't even playing in the same ballpark).

I use this lens on a 30D body, and I always keep it on hand if I'm doing any indoor, or tight group photography. It is the perfect solution to the perennial problem of not having enough room to capture all the kids at a birthday party in one shot because your back is up against a wall. This lens will just about get your toes into the picture at the widest setting, yet delivers tack sharp, colorful, and contrasty images. The auto focus is spot on, silent, and fast. It is a must have lens for the active amateur, or any pro using a 1.6 crop factor camera. You simply can't beat this lens with anything available on the market today.

That beng said, do not try to convince yourself that this will make a good "walkaround" lens. It isn't. Even at max length, it is far too short to live on your camera as a standard lens. You need this lens, even if you don't know it yet, but it should not be your first lens, as it will only be used 15 to 20 percent of the time. At those times, it's performance simply cannot be equaled by any other zoom lens on a 1.6 crop factor camera. You will be amazed by the quality of this lens. It rivals the performance of modern prime lenses, presents a bright viewfinder image, and delivers the goods in tight situations.

This is not a casual assessment, nor a Canon "feel good" moment on my part. I developed my first B&W contact prints in 1964, in my own darkroom at the age of 9 (my parents were concerned:)), and have been an avid photographer ever since. Small, medium, and large format cameras and lenses have passed through my hands over the years, and Canon has become my favorite small format brand. Still, Canon builds some trash lenses that should be avoided. The 10-22 USM is not one of them :).

Before you go out and buy this lens, you should already own the EF-S 17-55mm IS f/2.8 lens. That is the king of 1.6 crop factor standard lenses, and includes the awesome Canon IS feature. It will end up being mounted on your camera 80% of the time, and keep you smiling after every shoot. Get that lens first. Then, get the 10-22mm lens. Then, let your imagination run wild, and plan on serious telephoto lenses for the future. Trust me or not, the two lenses mentioned above will provide you with photographic tools that will astound you. Get them in your kit as soon as you can afford them.

A little warning about either lens.... Some here will argue the point, but with either lens, get a GOOD quality UV filter that is multi-coated on both sides, and built extra thin to avoid vignetting at wide lens settings. A good filter will cost a little less than one hundred Dollars, and can cost up to one hundred forty Dollars. The minimum brand would be Hoya Pro 1 multi coated filters, and the ante goes up from there.

Everything else is garbage, including the Canon "sharp cut" filter that costs less than fifty bucks. No kidding, no conjecture. If you use cheap filters, you will never see what your lens can really do. Ever. No doubt that many will respond with claims that their twenty Dollar filter works just fine, but they simply don't know any better, and have never used their expensive equipment to it's full potential. It's akin to a Chevy owner passing judgement on a Mercedes Benz. The Chevy might feel real good, but until you own the Mercedes, you just have no clue.

Bottom line.... Make sure that the quality of your filters exceed the quality of your lenses. Yes, at a hundred bucks a pop for a 77mm filter, it hurts, but you will never regret it. Also, Amazon does not stock lens hoods for all non L Canon lenses. The price is stupid high for those hoods, but they make a night and day difference in in picture quality. Whenever you order a non L Canon lens, find a web seller who has the hood in stock, and get it right now. Again, you will never regret owning it.

That's it for my review/rant. Buy this lens. Buy the 17-55 IS f/2,8 first. Buy the lens hoods for both. Toss any "kit" lenses that came with the camera in the trash bin (where they belong), and be very happy.

277 of 294 people found the following review helpful.
The best lens I own
By M. A. Filippelli
I have had this lens for several months now and let me start out by saying WOW. I looked at the lens in the store along with the Sigma 12-24 and I was in total awe of what I saw though the view finder with the Canon 10-22. This is an ultra wide angle lens that is incredible. I went home and thought about where I would use this lens and determined that I would use it quite a bit. I went ahead and bought the lens and I continue to be more impressed with it every time I use it. I have used the lens for both close-up (which can give you some very interesting distortion shots)and wide angle shots with great success.

The 10-22mm is equivalent to 16-35mm field of view using a canon 20D which is not a full frame sensor. With a minimum focal distance of .24m (about 9.5 inches) you can get very close to objects and still get alot of focal width in the photo. There is incredible clarity in the lens. The photos I have taken are very clear with only a slight hint of softening at the corners at 10mm; everything else is sharp after that. There is a little barrel distortion at 10mm but everything else up to 22mm is nice. I have not gotten any light flare in my photos. The Ultrasonic motor is very quiet. The depth of field is outstanding. A slim UV filter helps prevent some slight vignetting at 10mm. With a maximum aperture that ranges from f/3.5 to f/4.5, the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Lens is a medium speed lens. I would recommend using a tripod if you are at all unsure about your ability to hold the camera still for action shots with this lens. The lens it's self is fairly light weight. If you are going to use filters the lens requires 77mm.

The lens can produce some interesting distortion shots if you are taking close-ups and are not perpendicular to the object. For close-up shots with out distortion it is best to be perpendicular to the object.

Inside the lens housing there are three aspherical lens elements and a Super UD element that produce clear vibrant shots. The lens it's self sturdily built and comfortable to handle.

UPDATE 7/30/2011: I still love this lens. It functions every bit as well as it did the day I got it.

600 of 648 people found the following review helpful.
Very good lens, but expensive
By Svend
I am very impressed with this lens. I didn't realize just how wide-angle this lens was. At 10mm, I can stand just a few feet in front of a 13-story building, and get the whole thing in the picture, from the entrance to the top of the building.

As with all very-wide lenses, you have to be careful that you don't have people at the edges of the frame or too close to the lens, or they will appear very distorted when taking pictures at 10mm. Also note that a wide angle lens is not easy to use at first to create compelling images, as it's very easy to include too much clutter in your compositions.

PROS
- optical quality is excellent (deserves an "L" lens designation)
- uses the higher quality ring-type USM focusing
- minimum focusing distance is very close
- surprisingly lightweight
- very flare-resistant even without hood
- the only option for EOS digital cameras (Rebel, Rebel XT, 20D) to get true wide angle shots due to the smaller APS-C sensor in those cameras.

CONS
- It's expensive! But at least it is cheaper than a year ago.
- The lens is a little soft in the corners at 10mm, but is very sharp at 12mm and up.
- Canon has not formally committed to how long they will continue to make cameras and lenses using the EF-S system.
- The lens currently only works on the lower-end dSLR cameras -- the 10D, 1D, 1Ds, and 5D cameras cannot use this lens.
- The hood is not included with this lens, but it's such as ugly hood and the lens doesn't have flare problems, so I don't really think it is necessary anyway.

In 5 years when you upgrade your camera, there is a possibility that it will not support this lens. This depends on what direction Canon goes in making camera sensors:
1) continue to make cameras that use the smaller APS-C sensor, and keep improving its density to support more and more resolution. This will help keep the dSLR cameras smaller and lighter, and will necessitate making EF-S lenses the standard.
2) make the sensors match the size of a frame of 35mm film. And at the same time increase the density to yield even more resolution. Right now sensors this big are very expensive to produce.

I now think that #2 is more likely to happen. All the other lenses out there are built for a 35mm-film-sized sensor, and now that Canon has released another full-frame camera (5D) at a lower price, I'm betting that in another few years the APS-C sensor will be practically obsolete. A 5D body and 16-35 or 17-40 lens will give you better results than a 20D with this lens, but the difference in price between the two setups is a few thousand dollars right now.

The 10-22 is an excellent lens, but it will probably not hold its value as well as the Canon 16-35 and 17-40 lenses. A slightly more affordable alternative is the Sigma 10-20mm, which sounds like it nearly equals the optical quality of this lens.

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Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX Nikkor Wide-Angle Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX Nikkor Wide-Angle Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras..

GET Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX Nikkor Wide-Angle Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras By Nikon

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274 of 282 people found the following review helpful.
Nice lens in the right hands! Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX
By Webtrance
Upon first inspection, fit & finish are on par with Nikon's own 18-200, 16-85, etc. I would say that it's very-very close to the build, size/weight of my 16-85. It's a very decent build, solid plastic, and has smooth operating zoom and focus rings. This lens has a metal mount, weather seal gasket, and a focus distance window.

Why I didn't buy the 12-24 f/4: The Nikon 10-24mm will give me 10mm at f/3.5, which works fine for me. The 12-24mm will give me 12mm at f/4, which is neither wide or bright enough. I hear so many folks state "but the 12-24 is a constant f/4." I've also heard people say that "variable aperture" lenses are indicative of cheaper or consumer-grade lenses. I don't necessarily agree with that. I believe most lenses are a touch sharper when stopped down from their maximum aperture anyway, therefore a constant f/4 with the 12-24mm doesn't necessarily attract me to that lens. I wouldn't shoot the 12-24mm at f/4 anyway, especially for landscapes. In my opinion, the 10-24mm makes more sense with it's wider field of view.

I choose the Nikon 10-24mm for the following reasons:

1. Versatility. This is one of its best attributes. The 10-24mm is versatile due to ultra wide views for landscapes, yet can zoom to a more natural focal length for a quick snapshot or portrait at your home gathering or outing.

2. Landscape photography. For me, it comes down to real-world applications and benefits of having a wide angle. I love landscape shots and though you can make decent landscapes at 18mm, having an ultra wide in your bag allows you to capture expansive vistas, whether at the beach or the mountains.

3. Perspective. The perspective you're able to get with this lens is tremendous. Though there is fair distortion on the 10mm side, it's easily correctable with DxO or Photoshop, among other graphics programs. To be creative with wide angle, read Ken Rockwell's page on using a wide angle lens. He and others will explain that a wide angle is for drawing people into the picture. Use your wide angle to emphasize the main subject. As Ken says, ultra wide lenses are for getting close and bringing the viewer into the photo, not for fitting a subject into a photo.

4. Range. Opting for the Nikon 10-24mm gives more range than both the Tokina 11-16mm and Sigma 10-20mm. It can easily be left on the camera all day, allowing landscape shooting and a decent portrait lens from 18-24mm without the need to switch lenses.

So how's the lens? It's outstanding, given the nature of ultra-wides. You'll notice distortion in the far corners/sides of your images below 15mm or so. Those corners will be a little soft at times, depending on your aperture setting. Wide open at f/3.5, you'll get softness away from the center of the image. Depending on your shooting habits, the large aperture will not detract from your images if you place your main subject in the center. Even wide open the main subject or center of the image will be sharp. Stopping down to f/5.6, f/8, and smaller apertures sharpens entire image. For landscapes, I routinely shoot at f/5.6-f/11 or smaller for optimal sharpness across the entire image.

Alternatives to Nikon:

A. Tokina 11-16mm. In my opinion the 11-16 at f/2.8, though a fine lens, is not necessarily a landscape lens. I don't shoot landscapes at f/2.8, f/3.5, or f/4 for that matter. If I want captivating ultra-wide shots with foreground/background in clear focus, I'd set f/5.6 through f/16 or beyond, depending on the lens I'm using. This is not to say you can't bring the Tokina to the Grand Canyon and shoot at f/11 to capture an expansive view at 11mm. You can surely do that with the Tokina, but you can see where I'm going with this. The Tokina's maximum aperture of f/2.8 is not utilized when shooting in a landscape setting. The Tokina makes for a superb low light interior ultra-wide, whereas it's hard to use a flash and light the entire room properly. I believe that lens serves a different purpose all together and you may find the zoom range too limited.

B. Tokina 12-24mm. It's definitely a contender at half the price. Superb build - better than Nikon. However, wouldn't you rather have Nikon for the ultimate in quality, dependability, and resale value?

C. Sigma 10-20mm. It's worth looking at due to fair reviews, better range than the Tokina 11-16mm and its low price point compared to Nikon.

D. Tamron 10-24mm. I wouldn't write it off completely. However the reviews I've read do indicate it's too soft, so and check the user reviews and Ken Rockwell's review as well.

The filter for this lens is a 77mm. I opted for a B&W multi-coated UV filter. B+W 77mm UVA (Ultra Violet) Haze MRC Filter #010 Filters in this size can be pricey, especially a 77mm circular polarizer, which isn't recommended for this lens due to uneven darkening of skies. You'd be better off grabbing a Cokin Z or for UWA lenses, the X-Pro series filter. The Lee foundation kit utilizing 4x6 filters or Hitech's 4x5's would be a good option.

Neutral Density (ND) Filters. Many of you may wish to make cool wide angle shots of a waterfalls, creeks, rivers, or oceans with the silky smooth water movement you see so often in these pictures. To do that you need a neutral density filter if shooting in daylight conditions. I would recommend an inexpensive Hoya 77mm ND8X. Hoya HMC NDx8 - Filter - neutral density 8x - 77 mm If you're worried about vignetting with the Hoya, please don't. I use it on the Nikon 10-24mm and see absolutely no vignetting at 10mm. The ND8x is a 3 stop filter and will allow you to get between 1-2 second shutter speeds during broad daylight. With those speeds and by using a tripod, you're able to get the silky water movement in your waterfalls and such. Better still would be to wait until later in the evening or find a shaded cove or dense foliage location with a waterfall or creek. Your shutter speeds in those conditions may be upwards to 5-6 sec or more.

Circular Polarizer's (CPL): Not recommended for UWA lenses due to uneven darkening of skies. However, I carefully and strategically use a 77mm Marumi Super CPL with no issues with uneven darkening and no vignetting. The Marumi is fantastic with a solid 5mm thin build, superb polarization quality, and smooth operation. It's almost equivalent to B&W's top end CPL and less than half the price. What I mean by strategic use of a CPL is to use clouds, trees, buildings, etc, to "mask" any uneven darkening of skies. Moreover, you don't have to use your CPL with its maximum effect. It works very well at giving you a touch more blue in your skies, while helping to bring out details is clouds and brighten & saturate your foregrounds. On cloudy days, the CPL can help you with your reflections, so it's not only good for those sunny days. I would avoid using it for landscapes with clear blue skies that fill the frame. If you are to do that, you'll clearly see a dark striation down the center of your image. The CPL effect can't cover the field of view at 10mm and there's no getting around it, less "masking" your shot with clouds, trees or buildings as mentioned earlier. Marumi CPL is here: Marumi DHG Super Circular Polarizer CPL PL.D 77 77mm Filter Japan By the way, I can stack the Marumi and the Hoya ND8x down to 11mm with no vignetting.

Regarding my copy of the 10-24mm, with thourough testing, 10mm seems sharpest at f/5.6 - f/8. Depth of field appears as broad at 10mm f/5.6-f/8 as it is at smaller apertures. At 24mm, my sharpest setting is f/11.

Bottom line: The Nikon 10-24mm is a superb ultra wide lens for DX cameras. Its build quality is typical Nikon with a solid plastic feel, smooth zoom & focus, weather sealed gasket, metal mount, and quick/quiet auto focus. It's capable of sharp landscape pictures and offers any photographer the ability to take creative pictures with tremendous perspective and depth.

148 of 158 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent on DX and works on FX too
By Doctor.Generosity
Another work of Nikon lens genius which gives the ability to take dramatic, unusual, never-before-available, super-wide pix. As recently as a few years ago, before Nikon learned to mass produce aspheric elements, manufacturing this complex 14 element lens at reasonable cost would have been impossible. Compared to the earlier 12-24mm, significantly wider angle.

A nice suprise is that this DX lens can also be used FX, with some limitations of course. Although it will give the full zoom range only when used on the smaller DX format, it actually covers the frame of an FX camera - not over the full range but from 24mm down to about 18mm focal length, with acceptable vignetting (edge darkening). I am using it that way on my film Nikon F6 and digital D700. (For the D700, turn the DX Crop default OFF and turn the Vignette Control to HIGH.) This is pretty cool because it means that someone who wants only occasional use of an 18-24mm lens on a full frame camera does not have to go out and buy a new lens if they already have this one.

I disagree with the reviewers who complain about the plastic, Made in China construction. If this lens were made of brass and steel like a Leica, it would weigh twice as much, cost much more, and be no better photographically. Is it more important to have the controls be smooth than to capture new kinds of photos? In my opinion Nikon has taken the right approach - state of the art computational design, innovative manufacturing of aspheric elements, good enough construction, and breakthrough capability affordable for the amateur photog.

115 of 132 people found the following review helpful.
Soft in the corners
By GroovyGeek
I have owned and shot with the Nikon 12-24, Tokina 12-24, and three copies of the Sigma 10-20. With the exception of one recent bad copy of the Sigma they were all notably better than the 10-24 in the corners. My copy of the 10-24 is nice in the center, but all four corners were uniformly degraded. Every other WA lens I have owned cleans up very fast in the corners at 10-12mm and by f/5.6 was nearly as good as f/11. Not so with 10-24, which is mushy in the corners at f/3.5 and improves only gradually as it is stopped down, with peak sharpness at a bit over f/11. At f/11 it mostly catches up with the third-party lenses mentioned above and Nikon's own 12-24. I have posted sample images on DPR, photo.net, [...], look them up to see what I am talking about.

The 10-24 range is ideal for my needs so it is a shame that the performance is not as good as the 12-24, even at 12-14mm. The MTF numbers would have suggested that it would be better. My copy is not. Since all four corners are nearly uniformly degraded I don't think that I have a lemon, it may be just inherent in the lens design. I am tempted to call it curvature of field, but with the extreme DOF at 10mm even at f/5.6 I am not sure this would be a reasonable explanation.

While not as terrible as the sample images I have seen from the Tamron 10-24mm, my copy of this lens would not seem to be as good with flat-field subjects (aka brick walls :-) as the other WA lenses I have owned. However, in real-life images with variable depth the corner softness is very difficult to see. Not sure if this is because of the possible field curvature mentioned above, or because it is very rare that I shoot something that has good detail all the way to the corners.

Overall I am a bit disappointed. Given the price it should have been unambiguously better than the competition. Not 2x better as other reviewers have suggested, I am prepared to pay a decent premium to Nikon just for the consistency of color rendition I would get between this and my other most used lens (70-200). However, my expectation was to be able to say "about the same as the Sigma 10-20 in most respects, better at X and Y". Right now I am not sure what X and Y would be, at least in comparison to the excellent copy of the Sigma 10-20 I used to have.

I will probably end up keeping the lens. The 10-24mm range is just too convenient for me, and there is no way I would consider replacing this with the Tamron 10-24, which is absolutely terrible in the corners at 10mm according to numerous reviews.

===========================
Update on 1/7

I need to amend the review. I am leaving the original text unchanged for reference purposes, so it is clear what I said earlier and how my views have evolved.

After using the lens for a few months I need to retract my "soft in the corners" assessment. Not sure how I came to this conclusion with the original tests, the softness was clearly there, but try as I might I cannot reproduce it now with careful focusing. My best guess is that I slightly mis-focused, AF can be unreliable on WA lenses. If you test it against a brick wall make sure to be square and use LiveView with manual focusing. With careful focusing the lens is at least as good as the Sigma 10-20 that I loved so much. Not corner-corner sharpness, that would be a small miracle at 10mm, but slightly better than anything I have seen from the competition. Overall the lens is still not a great value for the quality delivered, but if price is a secondary concern you will love the range and consistency of color rendition with your other Nikon lenses. If you want the absolute best bang for the buck go for the Sigma, just make sure you test it carefully, there are many documented instances of significant copy variation. The colors a slightly different, not better or worse, just different.

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