Is the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens the lens you’re looking for?

By On3legs Contributor: Jason LeGuier

The Canon 10-22mm lens is probably my favourite lens, but don’t tell my other lenses…

I am a practical person and a “value” based buyer. I also travel a lot, often for work, so I shoot mainly with my Canon 70D. It is a great camera!

Shooting with a 70D means that I’m working with a 1.6x cropped sensor. What difference does that make? I’m glad you asked.

Working with a Crop Sensor Camera

Full Frame cameras get all the good stuff right? Canon for example, don’t make an EF-S (the S stands for short focus specifically built for the Canon range of CROP SENSOR cameras) L series lens. The L lenses do work on the 70D, very well in fact, but there is one major problem, their focal length is tuned to the full fame cameras.

Shooting with the excellent EF 16-35mm L lens on a cropped sensor is like using a 26-56mm lens. Not very wide really. Fortunately, Canon also make a great wide angle lens for the smaller sensor camera, the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens. This focal range is the equivalent to 16-35.2mm on a full frame. Coincidence? Of course not.

About the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens

Just like the crop sensor range of cameras, the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens is built with value for money in mind. It’s not a cheap lens by any stretch, in fact it is Canon’s most expensive EF-S lens, along with my other favourite the Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM.

The build quality is excellent yet it remains light and practical. A 77mm filter thread out front with all zooming and focusing being internal.

It’s not fast, moving from f/3.5 at the 10mm end to f/4.5 at 22mm. But I don’t buy a landscape lens for speed. The optics however, ARE what I buy a landscape lens for. And the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens holds its own against the much more expensive and less practical L equivalents.

Shooting with it

The Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens is wonderful to use. It balances beautifully on the xxD and xxxD range of cameras and won’t pull the nose of your camera down. This makes it an excellent walk around lens for exploring cities, shooting buildings, bridges and other landscape targets.

It’s also a great indoor lens for parties and groups, although you may need to increase your ISO to counter the lack of speed.

There is no image stabilisation and when shooting at f4 and higher, you’ll need to be careful when shooting hand held in fading light. The manual focus ring is not huge, but it’s useful.

The focusing is the super fast and very accurate ring USM type that is used in all Canon’s high quality lenses. Overall it is great to use and the output is terrific.

Competitors to the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens

There are 2 other quality options to consider. Tokina make a high quality 11-16mm lens and Sigma make a very sharp 10-20mm lens. Both are great options, around the same price and around the same image quality as the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens.

I considered these options, but for similar money, I got guaranteed compatibility with my camera, a tiny bit more reach and the Canon reliability. I used the Tokina and while nice, I think the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 is a much better lens.

Conclusion

The Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens is Wider, Cheaper, Lighter and more practical that a high end Canon EF lens. And in reality, has very similar image quality. Used well, it is razor sharp and an outstanding lens for those of us who prefer the lighter and pocket friendlier xxD range of cameras from Canon.

If you love your photography like I do, and use a xxD or xxxD series Canon camera, this should be your go to lens when you want to shoot wide. It’s probably my favourite lens, but don’t tell my other lenses.

Cheers, Jason.

Jason LeGuier is a talented photography enthusiast specialising mainly in travel and landscape photography. An experienced and frequent traveller, Jason not only produces great quality photos, but does so without a suitcase full of equipment. I am thrilled to have Jason share his experience with you and I am sure you will enjoy reading his posts. Make sure you check out his Facebook Page and hit the LIKE button!