Canon 11-22mm IS STM
EOS EF-M (2013-)
Sample Images Intro Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Usage Recommendations More
Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM (fits EOS-M cameras only, 55mm filters, 7.6 oz./215 g, 0.5'/0.15 m close focus, about $399). I got mine at Adorama; I'd just as well get it at B&H, at Crutchfield or at Amazon.
This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Canon does not seal its boxes, so never buy at retail or any source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective, dropped, damaged or used product, a customer return or if the warranty has already been registered to someone else online! The approved sources I use ship from secure, remote automated warehouses where salespeople or other customers never, ever get to touch your lens before you do, and they have the best prices, selection, service and return policies.
November 2015 Canon Reviews EOS-M Reviews Canon Lenses Canon Flash All Reviews
Sample Image
Top Sample Images Intro Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Usage Recommendations More
Trees, 03 November 2015. Canon EOS 3, Canon 11-22mm at 14mm, f/22 at 1/60 at ISO 160. Bigger.
Introduction
Top Sample Images Intro Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Usage Recommendations More
Adorama pays top dollar for your used gear.
|
The Canon EF-M 11-22 IS STM is a very high performance ultrawide zoom for Canon's EOS-M system.
It's near optically perfect as used on the EOS-M system. It also has remarkable macro abilities, focussing continuously from infinity to within 2" (5cm) in front of the lens.
It's a compact little lens that retracts to become about a half inch (15mm) shorter when carried.
It has plastic innards and a metal outer shell.
It has an electronic manual focus ring, that if activated in the menu system, can allow manual focus. Note that with a camera system that's usually held at arm's length I can't see how you'd ever want to use this mode; nothing is ever that far out of focus with a lens this wide.
Compatibility
Top Sample Images Intro Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Usage Recommendations More
As an EF-M lens, it only works on Canon's EOS-M series of cameras.
It cannot be used on anything else.
Specifications
Top Sample Images Intro Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Usage Recommendations More
Name
Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM.
Canon calls this the Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM.
EF: Electronic Focus. All Canon autofocus lenses have been EF since they were introduced in 1987.
-M: New smaller lens mount for Canon's EOS-M mirrorless cameras.
IS: Image Stabilization. lets you leave the tripod at home.
STM: STepper focus Motor. Runs quietly for video.
Optics
Canon 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS internal diagram. Aspheric elements, IS element and UD element.
12 elements in 9 groups.
Two aspheric elements.
One UD glass element.
Internal focussing.
Pumper zoom; front section moves in and out as zoomed.
It's multicoated, which Canon calls Canon Super Integrated Coating.
Close Focus
0.5 feet (0.15 meters) from the image plane.
This is 6" from the back of the camera, or only two inches (5cm) in front of the lens.
Maximum Reproduction Ratio
1:3.3 (0.3 x).
Diaphragm
Canon 11-22mm at 22mm at f/32.
7 rounded blades.
Stops down to f/22~32.
Vibration Reduction
Rated 3 stops improvement.
Coverage
EOS-M mirrorless cameras only.
Focal Length
11 ~ 22mm.
When used on an EOS-M (APS-C) camera, it sees angles of view similar to what an 18~35mm lens sees when used on a full-frame or 35mm camera.
Angles of View
102.1º ~ 63.5° diagonal.
91.7º ~ 54.5° horizontal.
68.9º ~ 37.7° vertical.
Hard Infinity Focus Stop?
No.
You have to let the AF system focus at infinity.
Focus Scale
No.
Depth-of-Field Scale
No.
Infra-Red Focus Index
No.
Aperture Ring
No.
Filter Thread
55mm, plastic.
Hood
EW-60E plastic bayonet hood ($29), not included.
Case
LP-814 sack, not included.
Size
2.4" (60.9 mm) diameter by 2.3" (58.2 mm) extension from flange, when retracted.
Varies with zom setting, but typically 2.9" (73mm) long when extended for actual use.
Weight
7.600 oz. (215.4 g), actual measured weight.
Rated 7.8 oz. (220 g).
Included
Lens.
Caps.
Big folded multilingual instruction sheet.
USA & Canada warranty card.
Quality
Made in Taiwan.
Announced
Thursday, 27 August 2015 in USA. (announced 2013 elsewhere.)
Price, USA
August~November 2015: $399.
Box
Box, Canon 11-22mm.
Microcorrugated cardboard box.
Performance
Top Sample Images Intro Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Usage Recommendations More
Overall Autofocus Bokeh Distortion Ergonomics
Falloff Filters Lateral Color Fringes Macro Mechanics
Sharpness Sunstars Image Stabilization
Overall
The Canon 11-22mm is an ultrasharp little lens that weighs next to nothing. Bravo!
Focus
Autofocus
Autofocus is fast and accurate, no worries here.
Manual Focus
You set manual focus in the camera's menu system somewhere, which I never found.
It focuses by wire, and since autofocus is so great, I don't know why I'd use manual focus for anything other than to keep the focus locked for some reason.
Bokeh
Bokeh, the quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to the degree of defocus, is neutral, but it doesn't matter since its nearly impossible to get anything out of focus with a lens as slow and as wide as this.
Here are samples shot wide open from headshot distance. Click either for the camera-original file to explore on your computer (portable devices rarely can display the full resolution of these files):
Shot on EOS M3 at f/4 at 1/200 at 11mm at ISO 160. bigger or camera-original file to explore on your computer (mobile devices rarely can display the full resolution).
Shot on EOS M3 at f/5.6 at 1/200 at 22mm at ISO 160. bigger or camera-original file to explore on your computer (mobile devices rarely can display the full resolution).
While you're here, notice how the spider webs are exceptionally sharp are in the center where they are in focus. The sides are out of focus; this isn't shot straight-on.
Distortion
The Canon 11-22 has moderately strong barrel distortion at 11mm and 12mm, but no visible distortion from 14mm through 22mm
These values in Photoshop's Lens Distortion tool will completely 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 3m (10') |
11mm |
+4.0 |
12mm |
+2.5 |
14mm |
+0.5 |
17mm |
0.0 |
22mm |
-0.4 |
© 2015 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.
Ergonomics
 |
 |
Collapsed for carrying. bigger. |
Ready to shoot. bigger |
Most of the lens is its zoom ring, which works perfectly. It's geared just right and it's smooth and easy to use.
The focus ring turns well, but it only does something if you set your camera just right. I never bothered with it.
If you want to make the lens a little shorter, push the release button forwards and rotate the zoom ring to the dot. As you do this you'll see the lens get a little wider than 11mm, but the EOS M3 won't shoot since it knows you have the lens retracted and tells you so.
This is much better than LEICA's collapsible lenses, which ever since the 1920s have allowed you to shoot with the lens retracted without any warning — and with but one exception, none of LEICA's cameras have let you see that the pictures were worthless until you developed the film or played back the files.
Falloff
Falloff is completely invisible as shot on the EOS M cameras, which correct this automatically by default.
Even at the worst case at 11mm wide-open at f/4, it's invisible in photos and not a problem even in the extreme case of exaggerating it by shooting a gray field and showing it on a gray background:
Canon 11-22mm falloff, corrected on EOS M3
Vignetting at 11mm and wide-open at f/4. © 2015 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.
|
Filters, use with
There's no need for thin filters. Even two stacked normal filters work with no vignetting as wide as 12mm.
Go ahead and use your standard rotating grad filters.
Don't use polarizers on ultrawide lenses; nature looks funny through them. This is the case for all ultrawides.
Lateral Color Fringes
There are no color fringes as shot on EOS M cameras, which by default correct for any that may be there.
Macro
Macro gets very close: 2" (5cm) from the front of the lens:
Mondaine A1323034811SBB at close-focus distance at 22mm wide-open at f/5.6. bigger or camera-original to explore on your computer (most portable devices can't show all the pixels in the full resolution file).
Crop from above at 100%. If this is about 6" (15cm) on your screen, printing the complete image at this same high magnification would result in a 40 x 60" (100 x 150 cm) print! Camera-original file to explore on your computer (most portable devices can't show all the pixels in the full resolution file).
This is super-sharp, and it's wide-open at f/5.6!
Mechanics
Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM.
The Canon 11-22 is a metal shell protecting plastic innards.
Filter Threads
Plastic.
Hood Mount
Plastic.
Front Barrel
Plastic.
Focus Ring
Metal.
Zoom Ring
Metal.
Release Lock
Plastic.
Internals
Seem like plastic.
Rear Barrel
Metal.
Identity
Printed on plastic ring inside filter threads.
Dust seal at mount
No.
Mount
Chromed metal.
Markings
Paint.
Serial Number
Laser-engraved into bottom of barrel near mount.
Date Code
None found.
Noises When Shaken
Nearly no clunking.
Made in
Taiwan.
Sharpness
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 11-22mm is super sharp. It's so sharp that diffraction is already dulling image by f/8; f/5.6 is usually the sharpest aperture if you don't need depth of field. It's sharp out to the edges wide-open. Bingo!
Canon's MTF curves confirm spectacular performance, and are unusual because they show wide-open performance is slightly better than at f/8. This is a relative first in the 30 years that Canon's been publishing MTF curves.
Canon 11-22mm MTF, 10 and 30 cycles/mm, wide-open and at f/8.
Sunstars
Sunstar in Palm, 03 November 2015. Canon EOS 3, Canon 11-22mm at 11mm, f/22 at 1/15 at ISO 100. Bigger.
With curved diaphragm blades, the Canon 11-22 makes dull sunstars, if any.
This is the best I can get. See also the Sample Image at the top.
Image Stabilization
Image Stabilization (IS) isn't critical for ultrawide lenses, but its nice to have.
At 11mm, I always get tripod-equivalent sharpness with 24MP files viewed at 100% at 1/15 hand-held.
90% of my shots at 1/8 are perfect.
70% are perfect at 1/4.
50% are perfect at 1/2 second hand-held.
Even at 1 full second, about 15% of my shots are perfect at 1 full second exposure hand-held.
Of course no one displays images at 100%, so therefore I can hand hold this lens at much slower speeds and get great results for normal uses.
Here's the weird part: unlike telephoto lenses, where IS is always a good thing and usually completely fixes any camera shake, things get weird with ultrawides due to crazy perspective distortions at the sides. No matter how well IS corrects the center, it can't correct the sides independently of the center, so depending on how you move the lens in 3D space during the exposure and what and where you have on the sides, don't expect IS to correct the sides of the image as well as it eliminates blur in the center.
While this lens is ultrasharp in the corners wide-open, my shots made hand-held at 1 second that are sharp in the center still have motion blur in the corners. I doubt any of this would be significant at normal print sizes, but I can see it at 100% with 24MP images. The sides are softer due to IS' inability to correct camera motion at the corners as well as it does the center.
Compared
Top Sample Images Intro Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Usage Recommendations More
There are no other ultrawide EF-M lenses. Done.
You can adapt the EF-S 10-22mm and EF-S 10-18mm lenses to fit EOS M cameras.
The 10-22mm is the most expensive; it's also oldest and optically poorest. Forget it.
The 10-18mm is a superb lens, and less expensive. It's clunkier to use the 10-18mm with an adapter than to use this 11-22mm, but what you save buying the 10-18mm and apply towards the adapter might make sense if you plan to get the adapter anyway.
This 11-22mm has a metal mount and outsides, while the 10-18mm is all plastic. Both are optically superb.
Usage
Top Sample Images Intro Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Usage Recommendations More
Collapsing
Push the little catch on the zoom ring towards the front of the lens to unlock the zoom ring so you can turn it to the white dot.
To erect the lens for shooting, push the catch towards the front of the lens and rotate the zoom ring.
Image Stabilization (IS) Switch
There is none on the camera or on the lens.
It is ON by default.
If you want to turn it off, look towards the bottom of the second red Camera menu.
Recommendations
Top Sample Images Intro Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Usage Recommendations More
As of 2015, this is the only ultrawide lens native to the Canon EOS-M system, and it is optically superb. Considering its very reasonable price, I'd strongly recommend it.
I'd use a Hoya multicoated 55mm UV to protect this lens. It's inexpensive and superb.
Filters last forever, and the very best is the Hoya HD UV which is made of hardened glass. The B+W 55mm 010 and Canon 55mm Protector are also excellent filters, for more money.
Where to Get Yours
I got mine at Adorama; I'd just as well get it at B&H, at Crutchfield or at Amazon.
This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Canon does not seal its boxes in any way, so never buy at retail or any source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective, dropped, damaged or used product, a customer return or if the warranty has already been registered to someone else online! The approved sources I use ship from secure, remote automated warehouses where salespeople or other customers never, ever get to touch your lens before you do, and they have the best prices, selection, service and return policies.
Thanks for helping me help you!
Ken, Mrs. Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.
More Information
Top Sample Images Intro Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Usage Recommendations More
© Ken Rockwell. All rights reserved. Tous droits réservés. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Help Me Help You
I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.
The biggest help is when you use any of these links when you get anything. It costs you nothing, and is this site's, and thus my family's, biggest source of support. eBay is always a gamble, but all the other places always have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.
If you find this page as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.
If you've gotten your gear through one of my links or helped otherwise, you're family. It's great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!
If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.
As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!
Thanks for reading!
Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.