Canon EF-S 10-18mm F/4.5-5.6 IS STM Review

Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5” 5.6 IS STM is a lens which combines excellent output with cutting-edge performance. It offers ultra-wide viewing angle within compact and portable package which is ideal for EOS cameras featuring APS-C sensor.

The lens comes along with 4 group optical zoom system, including large-diameter aspect, spherical lens element, UD lens aspect, plus improved coating of lens that provides images with high contrast and resolution, yet having minimal aberration and glare. A 7-blade circular aperture helps in ensuring fine background blur, with the Optical Image Stabilizer system of Canon offering a maximum of four equivalent shake-correction stops.

This lens has stepping motor (STM), along with refined mechanism of focus that provides continuous and smooth AF while recording video. Furthermore, it has rear focusing system along with high-speed CPU and enhanced AF algorithm for high speed uses. EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5“5.6 IS STM from Canon as well provides full-time manual focus that delivers adjustments quickly. It delivers speedy, reliable as well as quiet wide-angle performance, which makes it a superb lens for daily photography, stills, travel and recording of video.

Canon has had within its lineup general purpose, inexpensive telephoto EF-S zoom lenses for long. A lens was however absent which brings to users great value addition. The DSLR kit with APS-C/1.6x format is cost-effective ultra-wide angle lens with EF-S zoom functionality. It covers focal lengths quite impressively. Within its class, the 10-18 lens is the only one which exhibits IS, or Image Stabilization.

The 18mm focal length offers a viewing angle which is equal to 28.8mm on full frame 35mm DSLR format, with the length being only wide by moderate margins. The expanded viewing angle employed by this lens (together with others sharing similar range of focal length) is quite enjoyable. It fails to zoom out better than the EF-S 10-22mm alternative, although neither it nor the 10-18mm range is extreme. Ultra-wide angle lenses get used commonly for landscape, interior, architecture and other kind of photography which requires wide viewing angles. In general, it gets easy keeping all elements in frame with sharp focus with wider viewing angles. If you intend to blur the background away, this lens is probably not the one for you. In case you desire an image with sharp distant background plus foreground, it may be necessary settling on the ultra-wide functionality.

The Ultra-wide focal length is vital for creating dramatic perspective. Moving in close to the primary subject such as flower for instance, makes the subject appear larger than subjects within the background lying at a distance (like a mountain). Such technique is avoided best in portraits since a magnified nose is most often unappreciated by subjects. Employ this lens to carry out environmental, group and full-body portraits of human-subjects. Ultra-wide zoom can prove to be invaluable when working within confined spaces.

Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-inch 5.6 IS STM has full-format equivalent focal length of 16-29mm and depth-of-field full-format aperture equivalent to f/7.2-f/9. It measures 74.6 x 72.0mm and weighs 240g, having a non-rotating filter measuring 67mm. The hood features an optional petal-shaped, EW-73C bayonet-mount and includes an Image stabilizer and STM.