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Canon 10-22mm
EF-S, APS-C only (2004-)

NEWER, BETTER and LESS EXPENSIVE: Canon 10-18mm IS STM

Intro   Specs   Performance   Compared   Usage   Recommendations   More

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

Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 EF-S. (APS-C coverage only, 77mm filters, 13.5 oz./383 g, 9.5"/24cm close focus, about $600). enlarge. My biggest source of support is when you use any of these links, especially this link directly to it at Adorama or directly to it at Amazon, when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. It helps me keep adding to this free website when you get yours through those links — but I receive nothing for my efforts if you buy elsewhere. Thanks for your support! Ken.

 

June 2014   Canon Reviews   Canon Lenses   All Reviews

 

NEWER, BETTER and LESS EXPENSIVE: Canon 10-18mm IS STM A much better lens for half the price!

How to Use Ultrawide Lenses

 

Canon 10-22mm

Canon EF-S 10-22mm. bigger.

 

Introduction         top

Intro   Specs   Performance   Compared   Usage   Recommendations   More

This 10-22mm was Canon's very first ultrawide for its APS-C DSLRs.

It was hot stuff when announced in August 2004, but today, the new 10-18mm EF-S is optically superior, smaller, lighter, add Image Stabilization and sells for half the price.

The best thing about this lens is its metal lens mount, slightly faster optical speed and direct mechanical instant manual-focus override. Otherwise, the 10-18mm is better in every other way and half the price.

 

Specifications         top

Intro   Specs   Performance   Compared   Usage   Recommendations   More

 

Canon 10-22mm

Bottom, Canon EF-S 10-22mm.

 

Name

Canon calls this the Canon Zoom Lens EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5 - 4.5 USM

   EF: Electronic Focus

   -S: Designed only for the smaller 1.6x sensor of the 20D, 30D and Rebel.

   USM: Ultra-Sonic Motor. Focuses silently.

 

Optics

Thirteen elements, ten groups.

One aspheric and one super UD

 

Diaphragm

Canon 10-22mm

Canon EF-S 10-22mm at 22mm, EF diaphragm not visible.

6 rounded blades.

Stops down to f/22-29.

 

Close Focus

9.5 inches (24cm).

 

Focal Length

10-22mm.

On APS-C cameras, it gives angles of view similar to what a 16-35mm lens would give on a 35mm or full-frame camera. See also Crop Factor.

 

Angle of View

63.5º - 107.5º  diagonal on APS-C DSLRs.

 

Maximum Aperture

f/3.5-4.5.

 

Size

3.3" (83.5 mm) diameter x 3.5" (89.9 mm) long.

 

Weight

13.510 oz. (383.0g) measured, 2014.

13.6 oz. (385 g.). rated.

 

Filter Size

77mm, the professional standard.

 

Item Number

9518A002.

 

Quality

Made in Japan.

 

Case

LP1319, optional.

 

Hood

EW-83E.

The bayonet hood is optional and unnecessary, except for physical protection. I wouldn't buy it; my Nikon hoods that come standard stay home in their boxes.

 

Announced

August 2004.

 

Price (USA)

$600, June 2014.

$840, November 2011.

$700, 2006.

Canon 10-22mm

Box, Canon EF-S 10-22mm.


Performance         top

Intro   Specs   Performance   Compared   Usage   Recommendations   More

 

Overall    Autofocus    Bokeh   Breathing   Color

Distortion   Ergonomics   Falloff    Filters    Ghosts

Lateral Color Fringes   Macro   Max & Min Apertures

Mechanics   Sharpness   Sunstars

 

Overall     performance      top

The Canon 10-22mm is well made, but optically inferior to the newest 10-18mm.

 

Focus     performance      top

Autofocus is very fast and quiet, but as fast and not silent like the 10-18mm.

 

Auto/Manual Switching

Just flick the focus ring with a finger anytime for instant manual-focus override.

To lock it into manual mode, move the switch on the lens.

 

Bokeh     performance      top

Bokeh, the quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to the degree of defocus, isn't visible. There is rarely anything out of focus except at macro ranges, at which point bokeh is neutral.

 

Color Rendition     performance      top

The color balance of this 10-18 seems the same as my other Canon EF and EF-S lenses.

 

Distortion     performance      top

The Canon 10-18 STM has moderate barrel distortion at 10mm, and otherwise no visible distortion.

For critical use, use these values in Photoshop's Lens Distortion tool to remove the distortion. These aren't facts or specifications, they are the results of my research that requires hours of photography and calculations on the resulting data.

 

at 10' (3m)

at 50' (15m)

10mm
+2.0*
+2.0*

12mm

 
+2.0
14mm
0.0
+0.5
17mm
-1.0
0.0
20mm
 
-0.05
22mm
-1.0
-0.05

© 2014 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.

* some waviness is visible after correction.

 

Ergonomics     performance      top

Canon 10-22mm

Canon EF-S 10-22mm.

Ergonomics are perfect. The front half of the lens is the zoom ring, and the focus and IS controls are right under your fingers.

The zoom ring includes the gold ULTRASONIC band, which keeps your hand form slipping forward off the zoom ring.

The thinner black ribbed ring at the rear is the manual focus ring. Flick it with a fingertip at any time for instant manual focus override.

 

Falloff (darkened corners)     performance      top

Without a profile, falloff is visible wide open, and goes away by f/5.6.

In the newer DSLRs with automatic correction, be sure you have a profile loaded for this lens and the falloff becomes completely invisible (not shown here).

I've greatly exaggerated the falloff by shooting a flat gray target and presenting it against a gray background:

 

Canon 10-22mm falloff, uncorrected

 
f/5.6
f/8
10mm
Canon 35mm f/2 IS falloff
Canon 35mm f/2 IS falloff
Canon 35mm f/2 IS falloff
15mm
Canon 35mm f/2 IS falloff
Canon 35mm f/2 IS falloff
Canon 35mm f/2 IS falloff
22mm
Canon 35mm f/2 IS falloff
Canon 35mm f/2 IS falloff
Canon 35mm f/2 IS falloff

© 2014 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.

 

 

Filters, Use with     performance      top

There's no problem with vignetting, even with thick rotating filters.

There's no need for thin filters; regular thick and rotating filters work great.

In fact, I can stack a regular Hoya rotating polarizer over a fat Tiffen Haze filter, and I get no vignetting so long as I don't zoom wider than 12mm!

 

Focus Breathing     performance      top

Focus breathing (the image changing size as focused) is mostly of interest to cinematographers who don't want the image changing size ("breathing") as the lens is focused among different subjects.

There is only the slightest bit of breathing. If you can see anything, the image gets very slightly smaller as focussed more closely.

 

Ghosts       performance     top

Nikon 18-300mm ghosts

Shot directly into the sun at 10mm at f/10. bigger.

There's no problem with flare or ghosts.

If I go out of my way, I can get one faint green blob opposite the sun, but you have to realize that this is an extreme example shown above.

This is excellent performance, but still not quite as good as the 10-18mm.

 

Lateral Color Fringes     performance      top

Without an in-camera profile, there are green-magenta corner color fringes at all zoom settings.

Newer cameras with a lens profile loaded will clear these up.

The 10-18mm is much better.

 

Macro     performance      top

Macro gets very close.

It's rated as 9.5 inches (24 cm), but that's from the image plane at the back of the camera.

I measure its close-focus distance as 8.5" (22 cm) from the image plane, which is 3-3/4" (9 cm) from the front of the lens!

Here's what you get zoomed to 22mm:

Canon 10-22mm macro performance

Omega Constellation at close-focus distance at 22mm at f/11.

 

Canon 10-18mm macro performance

Crop from above 10MP image at 100%. If this is 6" (15cm) on your monitor, the complete image printed at this same high magnification would be 40 x 26" (1 x 0.7 meters) at this very same sharpness.

 

Maximum and Minimum Apertures        top

 
Maximum Aperture
Minimum Aperture
10mm
f/3.5
f/22
12mm
f/3.5
f/22
14mm
f/4
f/25
17mm
f/4
f/29
20mm
f/4.5
f/29
22mm
f/4.5
f/29

 

Mechanics     performance      top

Canon 10-22mm

Rear, Canon EF-S 10-22mm. bigger.

The Canon 10-22mm is all plastic, except for the metal mount and identity ring.

 

Filter Threads

Plastic.

 

Hood Mount

Plastic.

 

Identity Ring

Metal.

 

Zoom Ring

Rubber-covered plastic.

 

Middle Barrel

Plastic.

 

Focus Ring

Rubbery plastic.

 

Rear Barrel

Plastic.

 

Switches

Plastic.

 

Moisture seal at mount

No, but the rear black flare shield (seen only with lens unmounted) has a rubber bumper on it.

 

Mount

Metal.

 

Markings

Paint.

 

Serial Number

Laser-engraved into plastic lens barrel near mount.

 

Date Code

None seen.

See Canon Date Codes.

 

Noises When Shaken

Mild clunking.

 

Made in

Made in Japan.

 

Sharpness     performance      top

Image sharpness depends more on you than your lens, and lens sharpness doesn't mean much to good photographers. It's the least skilled hobbyists who waste the most time blaming fuzzy pictures on their lenses, while real shooters know that few photos ever use all the sharpness of which their lenses are capable due to subject motion and the fact that real subjects are rarely perfectly flat.

This Canon 10-22 is sharp stopped down, and moderately soft on the sides wide-open. It almost look broken compared to the new 10-18mm.

Diffraction will dull the image at the smallest apertures.

At 10mm, the sides are soft wide open and have lateral color fringes if not corrected with a profile. It gets sharper at f/8, but the color fringes, if left uncorrected, can be distracting.

At 14mm, the corners are soft wide open and at f/5.6, and much sharper at f/8 and f/11.

At 22mm, the sides are soft wide open, and much better at f/8 and f/11, but still not that fantastic. Lateral color fringes are visible if uncorrected.

This is what I saw in 2014; I saw similar results with a different sample back around 2006. This used ot be the best you could get for a Canon APS-C camera, until the 10-18mm came out in 2014.

 

Sunstars     performance      top

Canon 10-18 mm sunstar

Canon 10-22mm sunstars at 12mm at f/10. bigger.

With its rounded 6-blade diaphragm, this Canon 10-22mm makes only muted sunstars at best.

Worse, if you can get any sunstars, they are silly 6-pointed stars nlike the one above.

 

Compared         top

Intro   Specs   Performance   Compared   Usage   Recommendations   More

The new Canon 10-18mm is optically far superior, as well as half the price. See its comparison.

 

Usage         top

Intro   Specs   Performance   Compared   Usage   Recommendations   More

 

Filters

I'd leave either a 77mm Canon UV filter or a 77mm Hoya Alpha MC UV on the lens at all times.

If you want the best possible protective filter, the 77mm Hoya HD2 Protector is ultra multicoated, repels dirt and fingerprints and made of shatter resistant glass.

If I was working in nasty, dirty areas and don't want to spring for the HD2 filter, I'd use an uncoated 77mm Tiffen UV filter instead. Uncoated filters are much easier to clean, but more prone to ghosting.

I wouldn't use a hood.

 

Flash

The 10 - 22 is so wide that it will cast a shadow from the flash at the bottom of the image at 10 mm with built in flash. It's OK at 22mm. Be careful.

Tip: Turning the camera upside down will throw this shadow into the sky where you usually won't see it!

 

Recommendations         top

Intro   Specs   Performance   Compared   Usage   Recommendations   More

Forget this classic; get the new Canon 10-18mm instead.

This is unusual for me, but even if you already own one of these, it makes sense to sell it and buy a 10-18mm to replace it. Not only is the 10-18mm a much better lens, you'll probably wind up with cash in your pocket after the transaction!

 

More Information         top

Intro   Specs   Performance   Compared   Usage   Recommendations   More

Canon USA

 

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Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.

 

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2011, 11 June 2014