Disappointed in the sharpness
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I’ve been wanting a wide angle lens, and based on the reviews here (and a tempting new offer from Amazon (ie, the Amazon Store card)), I splurged on this lens. The first lens I got came in a box with no packaging, and was dropped by my UPS guy when he attempted to hand it to me. After some test shots, I felt the sharpness was disappointing and I exchanged the lens (BTW, Amazon return/exchanges … first class). I got the replacement, this time in a bigger box and with packaging, but I would still say somewhat poorly packaged (Amazon! secure this items in the box, do not allow them to flop around). So, with the news lens I went back to take shots of a major construction project from the top level of the mall parking garage (a great vantage point, until the mall cops ordered me to leave). The pictures, still don’t seem so sharp to me. Am I expecting too much? I tried a smaller aperture (down to 11), and at full screen (RAW format), they still disappoint. I am not ready to return it yet, but at this point, I am not thrilled. I am interested in any suggestions from other users.

Get Wide!… on a Crop!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This lens has a TON of reviews… so I’ll stick to a short couple of lists/facts. These are all from my PERSONAL experience with my particular lens, and in no way is an attempt to regurgitate over used buzz words or other peoples “facts”.

What’s hot?

* Sharp Optics (Surprisingly so. Better than my Canon 28-135mm IS USM and Tamron 70-300mm at their best)

* Full-time manual focus override

* Super wide angle to ~almost~ “normal” on a ASP-C (cropped) sensor

* Smooth operation, good fit and finish. Not a metal barrel, but still feels solid

* Good contrast

* Handles distortion VERY well when zoomed all the way out (though it’s still there, as is to be expected from something that gets THIS wide)

* Will hold it’s value, even used

* Good, minimal focus distance

What’s not?

* Chromatic aberration rears it’s ugly head when wide open and kicking it around 10mm’s. I hear it’s better than most the other choices in this range, but it’s still more than I’m a fan of. (This can be, mostly, compensated for by zooming in to about 12mm’s, or stopping down a little more.)

* Not “weather sealed”. I personally haven’t had any issues, but when I go hunting for an epic landscape shot, I shy away sometimes if the weather is particularly rainy because while my 7D can take it… my lens might not be so lucky.

* Pricey

* Won’t stay with me if I go “Full Frame” (EF-S mount)

* Without IS or F/2.8, it’s usable, but not ideal for low-light shots with subject movement or no tripod. (Usable, but not ideal)

Final Word:

If you’re running an ASP-C sized sensor on your Canon Rebel, xxD, or 7D and you’re looking for “real” super wide angle shots, there aren’t many choices to be had. BUT… when you have to pull the trigger, I highly recommend this lens and would purchase it again if I had too. If you do not need quite as wide a shot, as much usable range, shoot in lower light, and looking to save about $100… I’d go with a Tokina 11-16mm. I hear it’s supposed to be pretty good as well… but I have no personal experience with it. You win some and lose some either way… but my final word is… the Canon 10-22mm is tough to beat. Buy it, be amazed. I know I was.

Great lens
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased this lens as a consumer user for landscape and family photos with my Canon D40. While I don’t use it as an everyday lens, it works great in confined spaces (family pictures indoors) or when trying to get great scenic shots. There is little to no distortion around the edges and it’s focus is very quick and accurate. The lens came in very handy when I captured some shots of the DC blizzard in and around our neighborhood. I could capture wide-angle shots giving a much better perspective of the snowbanks in the streets (e.g. capture both street views at an intersection). And it’s great for capturing both close subjects and a broad background within the same shot. I haven’t used other wide-angle lenses but this has worked great for me.

Best in This Class
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was in doubt about what ultra wide angle lens I should get for my Canon 40D. Firstly, I thought about Sigma 10-20mm but after reading the reviews that say that there is a great possibility of getting a bad copy from Sigma I gave up. Then I thought about Tokina 11-16mm but I did not like all that fringe coming along with it and price was about the same of the Canon 10-22mm. Finally, I decided for the Canon 10-22mm after reading the reviews in pro of it. I can tell you after some shots with Canon 10-22mm that I agree that this lens is the best in its class. I bit expensive one must confess but we pay for what what we get and quality does not come cheap. This lens is Tac Sharp and the construction is wonderful. I think it is not considered a red ring by Canon because it is not sealed. It has internal focus and the ring focus and zoom are smooth all the way. It is also pretty wide for an E-FS lens. The only not so good characteristics of this lens that I could point out is that the maximum aperture is F/3.5 but that is not a big issue if you do outdoors. There is a photo of mine uploaded to Amazon taken with my Canon E-FS 10-22mm on my Canon 40D. It is New York seen from above. Check it out and make sure the lens is good. An image says more than 1000 worlds, right? I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THIS AWESOME LENS…

Canon 10-22mm lens
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have been very happy with this lens. I like to take a lot of landscape type pictures, and I really wanted a lens with a wider angle. I took this lens to the beach and the angle was so wide that I could get the last of the sunset and the moon in the same picture (the moon was almost directly overhead). I would just say if you get this lens to make sure you also have a lens that zooms since the nature of this lens is to not zoom in very much.

awesome lens!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I got this lens when I first got into photo and I had no idea what I was doing. I’m sure glad I blindly bought this lens! It’s such a fun lens to shoot with, super wide, nice crisp images. extremely durable too, mine has been hit by a couple skateboards and there has been no damage.

10mm is just OMG!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Everything you see through 10mm lens wide view is totally OMG-!! It is pretty expensive for beginner like me, but it was definitely a good buy. Build quality is very nice. USM is quiet and fast. Before you buy it, make sure you know it is 77mm, and not 58mm, so you need new UV Haze filter for it. I got a lens hood and it is huge!! Thats another OMG for me, but I will tell you, this lens is awesome. (or I should say, 10mm wide-view is awesome. I am a beginner and I don’t know much about sharpness and colors)

Excellent “L Lens” Optics – Very fun, enjoyable, high quality lens
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
First of all, this lens is an absolute blast to use. If you’ve never shot a full frame camera with a wide-angle lens, you’re in for a treat. Sitting on a chair I can easily see my knees as I look straight ahead with the lens – its just silly.

The optics are spectacular. I was skeptical too, but taking some test photos, they are very, very sharp – comparable or better than my 24-105L and 100-400L (still can’t beat the 70-200, sorry).

The build quality is good… but not great. Take this comment with a grain of salt. Besides my 60mm macro, i’ve only owned and used “L” lenses over the last year – so my expectations as far as build quality go, are high.

There is definitely distortion (i forget if its pincushion or barrel), most noticably at the widest focal lengths when the focus is near (less than 30 feet away). Its definitely not severe distortion, or even distracting. If you look for it, you will find it though. That being said, this isn’t really a problem when you are taking pictures of landscapes, buildings etc. In fact, this lens does a better job of keeping buildings/rooms looking natural in terms of perspective (think about how your pictures have leaning buildings in them usually – this lens is good at fixing that).

For the price (its not terrible but not cheap), I would have liked to see a metal body (of course it won’t be without “L” designation) and a lens hood (something they don’t include outside of “L” lenses). But for the price, its definitely still of good value as it is just that sharp and that much fun to use.

Bottom line…. if you only use a crop camera (not full frame) you will absolutely love this lens if you ever wish you could get more in the frame than your current lens. The image quality is worth it alone… but seriously, its a REALLY fun lens!

Blown away…
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I read a lot of reviews about this lens before making a purchase of my own. The 2 things I liked the most about what I read were the claims that Canon appeared to be using “L” glass, or near-”L” glass in this lens, and of course the main feature of having an ultra-wide angle capability with a 1.6 APS-C camera like my EOS 50D. I can say now after some field testing that this lens gets a 5-out-of-5 stars on both of these accounts.

Crisp focus and tack sharp images seem to be trivial to achieve with this quiet USM AF lens. I found the best 50D lens micro adjustment on my camera to be +3, but also found +0 to be quite acceptable, using the LCD monitor/moire pattern tuning technique at both ends of the zoom range. What REALLY tooted my horn however was the new found capability to take shots that were simply not achieveable before with my 28mm lens. Whole rooms in the house became one-shot deals, as opposed to the cumbersome image stitching technique. Groups of people near by – no problem getting them all into 1 shot. Landscape challenges – a snap without having to back up and up some more, and still wind up stitching multiple images together. Of course, everything written about straight-line distortion at the 10mm end of the zoom is true, but not to an excess, and in my opinion is MORE than offset by the capability to simply “get the shot all at once”. An indoor 6 story atrium that previously took 6 stitched photo’s to capture – now easily captured in 1 shot.

Focus was achieveable at a tiny bit over 4″ from the front of the lens. No IS on this lens, which I missed while trying some low-light shots (I kept waiting for IS to kick in out of habit, since all my other lenses are blessed with this feature), but this is only a concern on extreme close-up’s, which is not generally what you’d use this lens for anyway.

The lens has an AF/MF switch of course, and is only usable on certain camera’s that are compatible with EF-S type lenses (there is tons of online info about that to be read elsewhere). The filter size is 77mm. There is a light hood available from Canon, which I don’t own yet, and I’ve read that it’s marginally beneficial for blocking light since it’s so small in order to accomodate wide angle zooming without getting in the way. I’ll still buy one and put it on for extra front-end lens protection at around $14. It’s easy to bump in to things and a lens hood makes a lot of sense for that reason alone. Anyone who’s ever bent the metal of a filter after lightly bumping in to something, and then struggled with filter removal, lens cap fitting, etc., will know just what I mean.

I took some test shots with the built-in flash, and the 10-22mm lens does block the lower 5-10% portion of the picture at wider angle zooms. I was able to compensate for this in most shots by pointing the camera downward a bit more. Still, I’d recommend an external flash when using this lens, to take care of this interference and of course to get far superior bounce flash shots. There was no issue with the lens blocking any output from a camera mounted EX flash.

No lens creep on this lens. The overall lens length does not change with zooming. The zoom ring is snug, but turns smoothly, as does the focus ring, which can be turned after AF’ing for any fine tuning of the focus. The subject end of the lens does NOT TURN when zooming, which is great for circular polarizers and other filters that need to stay oriented. The lens length is 4″ (with a UV filter attached) from the front of the lens to the camera body face.

At first I thought this lens might be a specialty lens that I would only use when I needed whole room shots or was met with other wide angle challenges, but with an effective 35mm range on an APS-C camera, the quality of this glass makes it a candidate for a lot more uses as well, enabling quick access with a twist of the zoom ring to any action that comes in “close”, or to capture 2 subjects that are not conveniently side-by-side, as is sometimes the case with candid photo’s.

I have to admit that I’m writing this review after taking less than 300 photo’s with this lens, but the image quality and jaw dropping access to amazingly wide “views” that I’ve never had the ability to capture in one shot with a dSLR compelled me to brag “now” about this lens. If I encounter anything noteworthy after taking some more test shots under various conditions, I’ll amend this post.

In all honesty, it’s hard to imagine anyone who has ever been challenged by a wide angle shot not immediately falling in love with this gem once they get in to the field with it. Five star thumbs up on this one. Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLRs

UW bliss
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I love this lens. The USM with full time focus is great. I don’t think I would by a lens without it. Build quality seems good. Barrel distortion is minimal, very well controlled. Color and contrast are great. It’s so wide that you’ll take a picture of your toes if your not careful. I use it mostly to bring a different perspective to landscape and architectural photos. At the wide end with subjects up close it really does distort. Cute with puppies, but terrible for people. Highly recommended. Amazon was great. I got what I ordered and when they said I would get it.

An excellent but expensive ultrawide zoom
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
(4.5 of 5 stars)

This was my third lens purchase, after getting the kit lens with my Rebel XS and the 50mm f/1.8. Why did I choose this lens? Well for one, I was suffering from cheap lens syndrome. While I enjoyed the results I was getting from my other lenses, they weren’t much fun to work with because of the cheap build quality. More importantly perhaps, I was finding myself at 18mm on my kit lens more than 50% of the time. While I was generally happy with those results, I was disappointed by the barrel distortion, CAs and flare, and wanted something wider that would give me more flexibility.

I read many reviews of the 10-22mm, as well as the Tokina 12-24mm f/4 and 11-16mm f/2.8. All were received pretty positively. I didn’t consider Sigma or Tamron options because of apparent quality control issues. So why did I pick this one?

1) Focal length/zoom range: As far as focal lengths were concerned, I wanted something that would give me a fair amount of flexibility, since I’m not too keen on switching lenses frequently. At the wide end, it really does help to have a zoom. The 10mm (16mm equiv) setting is pretty extreme and can be useful, but often the intermediate focal lengths (12-17mm) are more appropriate. Furthermore, at 22mm the resulting perspective could be described as “wide-normal” – things still appear pretty natural. Therefore, you get a lens that dabbles with extreme perspective on the wide end while offering a fairly normal perspective on the long end.

Those who are buying the lens purely for the widest setting may be more attracted to the Tokina 11-16, as it gives you nearly an extra stop in maximum aperture and is apparently a bit sharper than the Canon.

2) Distortion: Some have commented that they don’t use the 10-16mm range as much because of distortion. I imagine these are the same people who are using the lens as a substitute for backing up. In fact, the Canon offers the lowest amount of optical (barrel) distortion in its class – much smaller than most standard zooms at their widest setting. It is trivial to correct in post-processing. Therefore, I can only assume that the complaints are about the perspective distortion, which is the result of using the ultra-wide focal lengths. This is the whole point of an ultrawide lens!! If you don’t want perspective distortion, back up and zoom in! Or if you’re looking for parallel lines buy a full frame camera and the $2500 tilt-shift 17mm lens. Problem solved.

3) Handling of flare: This is the single characteristic of this lens that I appreciate the most. Based on samples I’ve seen of the Tokinas and other 3rd party lenses, the Canon is the hands down winner on managing flare. With this lens it is possible to have the sun directly inside or just outside the frame with very little consequence to the final image. Even when you do manage to get flare in the frame, it is fairly minimal and not very unsightly. This is a very desireable characteristic of an ultrawide lens, since lots of light sources will find their way into your huge field of view. I find myself shooting into the sun even more than I normally would because of it. Another benefit of this characteristic is that there is little incentive to buy or use the bulky lens hood.

4) Chromatic Aberrations: Compared to the Tokinas, this lens has minimal CAs at the wide end that many will be able to live with in their JPEGs. If you want to get rid of them, it is again trivial to do by shooting RAW and post-processing.

5) Light weight: Despite being about the same size, the Canon is lighter compared to the Tokinas (13 oz. vs. 20 oz.). I feel that it is ideally balanced on my small Rebel XS, and therefore appreciate the weight advantage.

6) Colors: Is it just me or does this lens render beautifully saturated colors? Wonderful green trees and gorgeous blue skies.

Complaints:

1) Price: The Canon is significantly more expensive than 3rd party alternatives, which is not unusual. Maybe more annoying, though, is that it is priced similarly to the full-frame equivalent, the 17-40mm L. Basically you’re paying the same price for a lens with less glass and poorer build quality (though the build is not bad). As with the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 Canon has put “L” glass in a consumer body and charges “L” prices because there’s no in-house competition. On the bright side, compared to the Nikon equivalents (12-24mm and 10-24mm), which are around $900, this is cheap.

I got this lens during rebate season, but I would have hesitated to spend more than $700 on it with the good 3rd party alternatives available.

2) Sharpness: I must have had unreasonably high expectations in terms of sharpness. The lens produces excellent micro-contrast at normal viewing sizes (very good for all but the largest prints). However, looking at the images at full size on your monitor will reveal somewhat inferior pixel level detail. The results do respond pretty well to sharpening, though. Sounds like the Tokina 11-16 might be a little better in terms of pixel-level detail, but I wouldn’t expect it to be too noticeable. For the best sharpness across the frame I try to keep the aperture between f/5.6 and f/8, and never smaller than f/11. Larger than f/5.6 the center is fine but the edges degrade. The only serious complaint is the extreme corners, but this is typical in almost all wide-angle lenses. In any case, I am of the opinion that sharpness is an over-emphasized lens characteristic. I will take the contrast, handling of flare, bokeh and low distortion of this lens over greater sharpness any day.

3) Vignetting: This is most noticeable wide open at 10mm, but again is fairly easily corrected. Not a big deal to me.

4) Not really a complaint, but a warning: The lens isn’t very compatible with the built-in flash except at the longest focal lengths. A lens shadow appears at shorter focal lengths, and the flash is unevenly distributed anyway so the effect is pretty undesirable. Better keep the kit lens around when you want to use flash.

Overall, I’m very happy with this lens. It has more or less displaced my kit lens, as I use my 50mm f/1.8 for any short tele needs. I should note, however, that dealing with wide focal lengths requires a lot more skill as a photographer in almost every respect: composition, selection of aperture, focusing, and metering. This is not a point-and-shoot lens. It is tempting to use the 10mm setting a lot but you will find with time that it does not suit all subjects equally well – Some of my favorite photos were taken at intermediate focal lengths, where the IQ of the lens really shines.

This is a great photographic tool that will challenge you to be more creative. You will get the best results with this lens when you are thinking outside the box. In fact, some of my favorite photos from this lens are when I use it for close-ups. It’s not by any means a macro lens, but the perspective distortion as well as the large apparent depth of field can make for some nice close-up shots with the right background. Regardless of the brand, I whole-heartedly recommend a wide-angle zoom to those who enjoy capturing big scenes or getting close to their subjects. It’s challenging to use but fun and rewarding.

I love this lens!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I like zoom lenses. I have a 100-400L that I use all the time. I had no idea that I would like wide-angle lenses so much as well!

This lens is WIDE. Even on the crop factor cameras that it is designed for, it is still pretty wide compared to anything I was used to before.

It is great for landscapes and at 22mm is usable as a 35mm type everyday lens on a crop factor sensor camera.

The effects you can get by using the 10mm side of the lens are extremely interesting and the landscape shots are also very useful.

I even have a picture of an underground waterfall (Ruby Falls) that I took handheld with 1/8th of a second exposure that is sharp and crisp because of the short focal length.

Construction and quality are excellent and I consider this a must-have lens in my kit for my EF-S cameras.

Canon EF-S 10-22 mm Wide angle zoom
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
After reviewing all the lens choices available in the 10-20mm range I choose Canon’s 10-22mm. I am pleased with the new lens performance.

The construction is sturdy, distortion is low compared for the 10mm end compared with other lenses. The images are very sharp if the camera is tripod mounted. I shoot hand held most often and most of the images are very sharp as long as I pay attention to not allow shutter speeds below about 1/50 sec.

I do miss the IS quite a bit.. like that on my Canon 18-55 kit lens.

And I do feel that for a lens this expensive ($650+) Canon should provide a lens hood.

Overall I’m very satisfied with my purchase

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 Review
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
First of all, I love this lens. For those who are contemplating between the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 & Canon 10-22mm f3.5-4.5, you can’t go wrong with either one, IMO. Everyone has different things that they look for in a lens.

I personally am satisfied with my Canon 10-22mm. When I was deciding between this & the Tokina, I was divided between focal length & the f#. The f2.8 caught my attention, but the limiting focal length just couldn’t cut it for me. People commented that the Tokina was a solidly built, but the Canon feels great.

My 10-22mm is awesome. I use it for my all-purpose lens. It’s great for landscape photography, especially with panoramic photos. It’s decent for indoor low-light photography, but with a good flash, it’s perfect. I’m especially fond of the distortion effect (some people don’t like it); it makes unique/different photos, which I love.

Overall, I would make the same purchase if I could. I haven’t used or held the Tokina, but I stand by my decision.

For some examples, check out my blog!

http://reevebantug.blogspot.com/

Not compatible with all Canon EOS SLR’s
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I’m sure this is a fine lens, but I never got a chance to use it. I own a Canon EOS 5D and, apparently, “EF-S” lenses are not compatible with it. Only “EF” lenses will work with the EOS 5D. I didn’t realize that until I received this lens and (believe it or not) read the instructions before opening the plastic. This was not evident to me from the description, but now I know.

I hope this comment saves you some time and money if you own a 5D. Please ignore the rating. Amazon wouldn’t let me post the comment without attaching a rating… not really fair since I could never try it.