CanonCanon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM Lens - Ultra-Wide-Angle Zoom Lens | Compact, Lightweight | Architecture, Landscape, Travel Photography | Canon EOS DSLR Compatible

Having just taken delivery of my new Canon 10-18 lens, I have managed to fire off a few test shots to see how it performs in a range of situations. The camera used for this purpose was my Canon EOS 100D.Before I discuss that, though, let me say a few words about the lens itself.First impressions are that although the lens is made from plastic it feels very solid and appears to be extremely well constructed. Yes, it has a plastic mount, which might put some people off. Indeed, this being the first plastic-mounted lens I've ever owned I will confess to having had a few niggling doubts about this aspect of its construction when I was ordering it. But I need not have worried - the mount is solid, and in any case the lens is so light (compared to my Canon 10-22, for example, which is almost twice the weight of the 10-18) that it is simply not an issue. The lens mounts well to the camera body in one smooth twist, and there is no play whatsoever. Had the mount been metal, this would have added significantly to the price. The 10-18 simply does not need a metal mount.On the subject of 'play', in regard to the lens zooming and focusing rings, here again these are well damped and operate extremely smoothly, with no looseness or unwanted movement in any direction.Getting back to the test shots, these ranged from close-ups in artificial light (on a tripod, IS off) to shots of buildings 100 metres distant (hand-held, IS on). I used a variety of aperture settings (from f5.6 to f8) across the entire (albeit short) zoom range. I did not go smaller than f8 because most reviews I've read of the lens would suggest that anything smaller than f8 may lead to diffraction and a loss of sharpness. I always shoot Raw, so it gives me a good yardstick for comparison purposes, knowing that the images I see on my PC screen have not been altered in any way - they are straight out of the camera, with no in-camera processing applied.In every case the quality of the image is nothing short of stunning. Colours are lively, contrast is excellent, and most important - for me, at any rate - the sharpness of this lens has to be seen to be believed. The on-board image stabilisation performs impeccably. Knowledgeable on-line reviewers would have you accept that, like many wide-angle zooms, the sharpness of the 10-18 is only at its best in the centre, but I can honestly say that in my own case while centre sharpness is indeed superb I find it to be generally very good pretty much from edge to edge.As for the lens's 'sweet spot', I found this to be f6.3. The difference in sharpness between that and the next larger aperture - f5.6 - is admittedly marginal, but there is a perceptible improvement at f6.3. And remember: I'm talking about Raw images here, not something that's been post-processed.The other thing I would say about image quality is that - again, in contrast to what the on-line reviews would have you believe - there is no noticeable corner vignetting that I can observe. Light appears to be evenly balance across the image, as is certainly evident from a shot I took of the sky in which I can see no light fall-off or vignetting of any kind.Maybe I just managed to get myself a cracking example of the 10-18, but cracking it is, in every respect.Finally, I indicated that I also have a Canon 10-22 which I purchased about a year ago - a classic lens by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a beast to lug around, especially when it's hanging off a larger SLR body such as my 40D. I've been extremely happy with the 10-22, and thought I'd found the perfect lens for my needs (I shoot mainly landscapes, architecture and street stuff). Then, when I wasn't even looking for it (I actually had my eye on a Canon 24mm STM to use as a prime), along comes the 10-18, which has absolutely blown me away. OK, it's early days, and these are purely first impressions, but based on what I've learned about the lens thus far I can see that the 10-22 might be getting shifted on. Moreover, based on my limited testing thus far, the 10-18 appears to outperform the 10-22 in image quality, especially in the area of sharpness - at half the weight and half the price! If only the 10-18 had been around at the time I bought my 10-22, and I'd been able to compare the two on field test, there is no doubt in my mind which one I would have gone for. Don't get me wrong - the 10-22 is a great lens; it's just that the 10-18 does the job for me just as well, if not slightly better, for a lot less loot.Quite simply, the Canon 10-18 is worth £200+ of anybody's cash, and will give many lenses in its category a serious run for their money. Buy it: you won't be disappointed (in which connection I note that, as of 14 January 2015, it is now some £20 more expensive than when I ordered it a week ago - I guess it all depends from whom you get it. Interestingly, Amazon itself is temporarily out of stock, a telling fact on its own, and currently the lens is only available from a number of third-party sellers, at a range of different prices.)

This is a terrific lens at a price that's very reasonable for the level of performance you get. TL;DR version - buy it, it doesn't disappoint.If you're still reading, I've been wanting to try ultra-wide fields of view, but while i've been um'ing and ah'ing about the Canon 10-22mm for at least a year I couldn't really justify the cost for what will be a fairly infrequently used lens for me. When the 10-18mm appeared on Amazon UK at just under half the price of the 10-22mm it made the decision very easy. Although it's early days i've given it decent workouts in full daylight, sunrise/sunset, and inside buildings, and results are consistently excellent for the price - sharp, a little barrel distortion at 10mm but not bad (I quite like the effect it gives) and 12-18mm are very good. Great results with wide-angle HDR sunsets.As noted in another review it's fairly slow at f/4.5-5.6, but i've not found this a major issue - the IS seems effective when handheld, but I mostly shoot tripod-mounted anyway. With my 600D in low light I get better results from manual settings than auto/landscape which seems to go a bit underexposed, but that's a minor criticism of the camera rather than this lens. Focus is snap-to, quick and quiet, i've not encountered any issues there at all. The lens is plastic and very similar in construction to some of the kit lenses; as a result it doesn't really have the solid feel of Canon's more expensive lenses but is nevertheless well made, plus the construction makes it small and very light, which is a definite positive - makes it easy to stash away in the camera bag on a walkabout when you might well leave a heavier lens behind. Given that i'm unlikely to be in a situation where this is the only lens I'd want to have with me, overall i'd say the lightweight construction is a bonus rather than the negative that a few reviews elsewhere see it as.

I was looking for something with a wider field of view than the 18-55mm kit lens that has migrated from my old EOS 350D to my EOS 60D, in reality I was looking for something like a 6 - 8mm Fisheye but I saw this discounted here and with the Canon cash back offer I gave it a go.I've had the lens for about a year now and it has become pretty much my favourite lens for Landscape and close up photography, it may not be as mechanically fast as the more expensive USM version but the wide field of view and depth of field pretty much eliminate this for all but the fastest moving objects and you'd have to be dangerously close to the action for this be significant. At the low end of the scale although there is obviously some aspheric distortion it is not as significant as a full fisheye and is reasonably easy to correct in Lightroom / Photoshop. It makes for some dramatic landscapes and is pretty handy when walking around museums and exhibitions (where cameras are allowed). Overall build quality is good despite being at the budget end of Canon's range, this is a good thing because lenses stay long after camera bodies have been swapped as the content of my camera bag can attest. I'm not sure how useful the IS function actually is but I have managed to take some fairly clear, blur free shots in some low light conditions without winding up the camera ISO so I guess it's pretty effective. I take most landscape shots from a tripod so it's turned off for these anyway.If I have a bugbear it's not to do with the lens but Canon and has been expressed by many elsewhere. This type of wide angle lens really does need a lens hood and while the Canon retail price may be a little high, in practical terms there are third party lens hoods out there for less than half the price (retail) which means that the actual cost of making and bundling a lens hood must be pennies - why not bundle them?