Make The Most Of Your Environment With The Best Wide-Angle Lens For Canon

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Today we’re looking for the best wide-angle lens for Canon cameras. No prime lenses, no telephoto lenses. We’re only talking about wide-angle! And yes, these lenses are going to be compatible with just about any Canon camera on the market, new or old.

What makes a wide-angle lens so much more exciting than any other lens? Well, these are the lenses used for capturing epic scenery, dramatic panoramas, large groups of your friends, and wide-open spaces. Every professional photographer has a wide-angle lens in their toolkit. It’s a critical part of any photographer’s gear, even if they’re just doing something simple. This is because the wide-angle lens allows you to capture much more of your environment than any other lens. And that’s a fact!

Anyone who hikes, travels, or spends any amount of time in the great outdoors and is looking to photograph their adventures – you need a wide-angle lens!

1. Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Zoom Lens

We’re starting the list with the most expensive lens that we’ll talk about today. Yes, this Canon USM zoom lens is expensive, but it’s worth every penny. This unit was designed specifically for professional, high-end photographers who need the very best equipment. Yes, the lens is fairly heavy and bulky, but that’s because of all the technology packed into it. The lens offers amazingly sharp images with crystal clarity from edge to edge and corner to corner. There simply isn’t another lens that provides such remarkable image quality.

The lens itself offers smooth handling, the autofocus is quick and silent, and you can create a beautiful natural background blur when shooting at your widest apertures. The lens includes an internal focusing ring, a one-year warranty, and you’ll get some of the best landscape and nighttime photography shots of your life. Believe us when we say that this lens will pay for itself after just a handful of shooting sessions. It’s great for weddings, real estate, and of course the outdoors.

Pros

• Extremely Sharp Images
• Reduced Soft Corners
• Extremely Smooth Handling
• Fast & Silent AF
• Designed for High-End Photographers

Cons

• Outrageously Expensive
• Not Ideal for Wildlife

2. Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM SLR Lens

This is one of the newest wide-angle lenses from Canon, and it is hugely popular! This unit offers some of the best optical quality for those who have a digital SLR camera. It gives superior autofocus speed and performance to any SLR camera with full manual focus simply by turning the ring. You get a very close focusing distance of 9.5 inches, and you’re able to fill the frame with extremely tiny subjects. The lens itself is small and compact, and surprisingly lightweight for such an ultra-wide zoom lens.

Then there’s the inner focusing system, which has been tuned to perfection. You get excellent colors, beautiful visuals, and it doesn’t matter if you’re inside or outside. Whether taking photos of old buildings or uploading pictures of real estate interiors, this is the lens that will work. It really is that versatile.

Pros

• Superior Autofocus Performance
• 1-Year Warranty
• Can Focus To 9.5”
• Works w/ All EF-S Mount Bodies
• Makes Colors Come to Life

Cons

• Not Designed for Full-Frame Sensors
• Not the Fastest Lens

3. Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM Lens

This next lens from Canon is one of the best pieces of equipment you can use for shooting real estate photos and architecture photos. This is because it keeps the sharpness from one edge to the next with absolutely no sacrifice in image quality. The lens itself is a combination of advanced performance with a very wide angle of view stuffed into a small and lightweight package that you can take with you anywhere. The lens is super portable and basically invisible on camera. It is ideal for EOS cameras that have APS-C sensors.

Not only is the lens great for real estate and architecture, but it’s one of the better lenses if you’re looking to do everyday photography or travel photography. The only issue is that some people have complained about the video capabilities. But if you’re strictly a photographer, it’s doubtful you’ll be taking many videos anyway! And besides, the incredibly quick autofocusing is perfect for fast shots. You can even do full manual focusing for precise adjustments.

Pros

• Lightweight
• Great Stabilization
• Silent Step Motor
• Durable & Sturdy
• Excellent for Real Estate

Cons

• Lens Hood + UV Filter Sold Separately
• Slow Aperture for Videos

4. Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM Lens

Another great standard wide-angle lens from Canon, this piece of equipment is designed to complement any EOS SLR camera. It has fairly good lowlight performance, it incorporates an optical image stabilizer for clean and clear photographs, and it has up to four stops of correction that improve its performance even in some very dim light settings. The lens also features three aspheric lens elements and two UD lens elements which work to minimize aberrations. Plus, the coatings have been optimized to minimize any possible ghosting.

Aside from the great specifications, this really is a quality lens. It’s discreet, it’s lightweight, and it’s fast. You get great autofocus throughout the entire zoom range. It’s also been designed to function perfectly in adverse weather conditions. The lens is resistant to dust and water, and it offers professional performance everywhere it goes. It is a bit expensive, but that’s because it’s one of the best lenses for Canon cameras currently on the market.

Pros

• • Superior Landscape & Real Estate Photos
  • Sharp from Corner to Corner
  • Perfect Image Stabilization
  • Great distortion at Fullest Focal Length
  • High Shutter Speeds

Cons

• Not Best for Astrophotography
• Pretty Expensive

5. Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM Super Wide-Angle Lens

Out of all the third-party lenses available for Canon cameras, Sigma has definitely made the best one. This is a super wide-angle lens with a huge aperture of F3.5 throughout the full zoom range. This makes it not only a great lens for using when there’s little light, but also for when you’re indoors. You have a wide angle of view from 102.4 degrees, which is quite honestly incredible. Your images are going to be big and bold, and you can get some amazing exaggerated perspectives. This will enable you to emphasize your subject perfectly.

Additionally, the lens incorporates a hypersonic motor to ensure very fast autofocus with full manual focus override. The lens comes equipped with a petal-type hood and an inner focusing system, and the minimum focusing distance is 9.4 inches at every focal length. When it comes to lenses for under $500, this is honestly the best it gets. You can’t find a single bad review of this quality lens anywhere online!

Pros

• Massive Zoom @ 102.4 Degrees
• Fantastic Exaggerated Perspective
• Petal Hood
• Quiet & Fast AF
• Unbelievable Image Quality

Cons

• Not Weather Resistant
• Could Be More Solid

Final Thoughts

Before you go ahead with any purchase, there are still a few important things to know about what kind of lens you should choose.

The first thing we need to talk about is the actual width of the angle. Any lens 35mm or shorter is considered wide angle, but there are a few more categories. For example, you have the ultra-wide lens, which is anything 24mm and shorter. And believe it or not, there’s actually a huge difference.

It all depends on how wide you need to go. If you’re standing on the side of a mountain, you probably want ultra-wide. If you’re only using the camera for city photography or wildlife photography, ultra-wide may not be that important.

The other main point is the distortion. Most wide-angle lenses are going to give you some amount of distortion. The first kind is known as perspective distortion. This means the closer a subject gets to your lens, the larger it will look in relation to other things inside of the image. The only issue with this is that sometimes the thing you’re trying to take a picture of can become way too distorted. For example, if you try to fill your frame completely with one subject, it’s going to look ridiculous.

For that reason, you always want to understand what the perspective distortion is going to be with your lens so that you can pay attention and master the effect. And then of course there is the barrel distortion. The best example of this is when you take a picture of a tall building and it looks like the wall is ready to collapse. This happens a lot especially with fisheye lenses.

Basically, you just need to have a rough understanding of what the distortion will be with any given lens. It’s generally easy to manipulate the effect the way you want.