Canon EF 16-35 mm f/4L IS USM Lens – Black
Canon EF 16-35 mm f/4L IS USM Lens – Black
| Weight: | 0.62 Kilograms |
| Dimensions: | 8.3 x 8.3 x 11.3 centimetres |
| Brand: | Canon |
| Model: | 9518B005AA |
| Part: | 9518B005AA |
| Colour: | Black |
| Dimensions: | 8.3 x 8.3 x 11.3 centimetres |
| Origin: | Japan |
bought as a gift for my partner as she knows what she’s doing. amazing build quality and the pictures are as good as you want them to be. my only gripe is the poor packaging, for the cost would of been nice to see a sturdy box but I’m Just picking. Great produc
Very good image quality, having IS is useful, and is my staple for wide angle shots. Good build, weather sealed and a friendly 77mm filter thread.
One of canon’s better value L series lenses.
As expected from a modern L-rated Canon lens, this product is fantastic.
There are lots of detailed reviews online and I can’t find anything to fault with it – just buy it!
“Unfortunately, our records indicate that the serial number provided (please check above) is for a product that was not intended for import and sale in the European Economic Area (EEA). Such products are known as “parallel imports” or “grey market” goods and their sale in the EEA has a number of implications including legal implications.”
So while the lens is fantastic, I can’t claim to be a happy customer. The warranty included with the lens is probably as useful as a chocolate ironing board – and there is no point trying to claim the cash-back that Canon is running on this lens at the moment – unless you’d like your very own copy of the email quoted above.
Edit:
I returned the lens to Amazon/Pompi and got a full refund – and then repurchased from Amazon directly (3.08 more expensive). The new lens came with a European Warranty and I have reapplied for the 80 cash-back being run by Canon until the end of September 2017 for this (and other) lens. I am now a happy customer again.
Edit:
Turns out the replacement was also a grey import (intended for sale in the EAC(russia,asia) and not the EEA(europe)). So I am back to square one and am an unhappy customer again.
She’s a beauty! Great design, much improved over some of the older Canon lenses I have. Much easier to attach lens hood than the old screw on ones. Solid build and great pictures which is the most important thing after all. IS really does make a difference in low light situations.
If you shoot landscape at f/11 or smaller then you do not need to upgrade as both lenses are near identical at that aperture. I know, I’ve had both and done a head to head with them.
If however you want to shoot things at f/4 then there really is no competition between them. The 17-40 is well known to be soft in the mids and corners wide open and doesn’t really get sharp across the frame until f/11, which is great for landscapes but useless for anything else that you may want to be sharp across the frame.
The 16-35 f/4 on the other hand is superb wide open. Truly. At all focal ranges, making it an incredibly versatile lens. In fact, at f/4 there’s not much in it between this and my primes at the same aperture in terms of sharpness, just marginally softer, but that’s to be expected. Primes are primes for a reason. However, I’d be more than happy to use this lens instead of my primes if all I needed was f/4.
Bottom line…
Landscape at at f/11 or smaller? Get the 17-40. It’s just the job and nearly half the price (plenty of good 2nd hand copies on the auction site)
Landscape + everything else: Get this. It’ll see you right for many years to come. Expect it to be 15-20 years before Canon attempt to update this beauty, and I’ve not even mentioned how useful the IS is for hand-held work…!
Highly recommended.
Very crisp clean shots. Great even in low light situations and can be hand held at lower than normal shutter speeds when needs must.
Great lens from what I have seen so far – Yet to achieve maximum potential as have only had lens for a couple of weeks, so I know there is so much more to come – happy days 🙂
Good things:
– It’s quiet
– It’s quick to focus and never hunts
– Focusing is very accurate
– The image stabilisation, unusual for such a wide angle lens, at least partly makes up for the relatively slow f/4 maximum aperture (in low light ability if not in depth of field) and I’ve been able to get decent images on shutter speeds as slow as half a second without recourse to a tripod, though leaning on something helps!
– It’s very sharp and there’s very little drop-off in the corners (though see below)
– 16mm is quite wide even on APSC sensors
– It isn’t light but its weight (615 g) isn’t remotely enough to make it a chore to carry around.
– It has a common filter size (77 mm)
– It’s very solidly built and (like all L lenses), weather sealed – although the latter isn’t too much use unless your camera is weather sealed too …
– It’s cheap for an L series lens, especially when Canon have one of their cashback deals on.
Not so good things:
– Its length (113 mm) is sufficient, combined with its weight, that it will hang down when the camera is on a strap round your neck – certainly with any of Canon’s APSC cameras.
– With the (useful and included) lens hood added, you’re carrying around something about 200 mm long including the camera, which becomes a little unwieldy.
– Moderate but not dreadful chromatic aberrations in the corners in subjects with strong contrast e.g. winter trees against a bright sky. At these kind of focal lengths, this is almost unavoidable on a zoom lens and I’ve seen far worse.
– The relatively slow maximum aperture (f/4) means you won’t be able to get very shallow dof with this lens, especially at the wider end of the zoom range, but if it was much faster it would be a lot more expensive
Bad things:
– This isn’t a comment on the lens itself, just a warning about Canon’s quality control: I had to send back two copies of this lens due to near-identical problems with softness at the sides. Given that this was quite obvious on an APSC camera, I dread to think what those copies would have been like on a full-frame one – the problem was quite pronounced on landscape shots right across the zoom range. So do take a close look at the sides of the first images you take on this lens, especially focused at or near infinity, and if in doubt, send it back – this lens should be pretty sharp right into the corners and I had no problems whatsoever getting a refund from Amazon, even the second time.
Overall:
This is a fantastically versatile lens on APSC cameras and for many purposes you can leave your others at home. It’s also excellent value for money. Docked a point for the quality control but once you’ve got a good one it’s definitely a 5 star product.
Upgraded from 17-40L, love this lens – IS really useful for video (USM less so but I have a 6D so video is manual focus anyway), perfect for landscape photos, but also ultrawides of my toddler!! Is now my standard on camera lens..
I was dubious whether to purchase the Canon 16-35mm f4 L as I everyone could do with a spare 700 and I already was able to shoot wide with my Canon 24-105 f4 L, however the promise of corner to corner sharpness at f4 at 16mm, 4 stop image stabilization and improved resistance to CA proved to hard to resist. After shooting with it for two weeks I can confirm that the purchase was well worth it. Canon really have crafted the ideal landscape photography lens, the reasons are as follows:
– High image quality. Good sharpness and contrast throughout the aperture range. (Maximum IQ between at f9 IMOO)
– Construction. The lens feels robust, solid but also relatively lightweight. Feels just right on my 5D3.
– Weather sealing. Works well, I have experienced no ingress of water / dust and have recently photographed waterfalls where lots of drips and mist fell on lens with no issues. (Please note weather sealing is completed only 77mm filter is added onto the front. I recommend a very slim filter to avoid vignette at 16-17mm)
– Auto Focus. Works quickly and silently. Definitely lives up to the Canon USM that we’ve come to expect on L glass.
– Image stabilizer. Works well for situations with low light and no tripod and is completely silent. My test show about 2-3 stops on 5D3, Potentially more on 1DX (always remember to turn off when using a tripod!)
– Usability. The location of the lenses switches, focus / zoom rings are just right and in gerneral the lens feels good in the hand. The lens does not extend further than the filter ring which allows for good use of Polarising filters.
– Improved lens hood. Lens hood is much smaller and more effective than hoods for 16-35mm f2.8 mkII and 17-40mm f4.
The only issue I have had to date is using my Cokin filter holder at 16-19mm I experience severe vignette, however this is to be expected on such a WA lens and is completely gone by 20-21mm.
When you get images of camera and into photoshop / lightroom this lens will continue to impress! 😉 I know will enjoy this lens and the images it allows me to capture for years to come. Highly recommended. Thanks Canon!
Sell, scrimp and save to get this lens. you will not be disappointed.
Kind regards,
Adam Handley
Pleased with the price of this lens. As with all Canon camera products it is of good quality and is well made. Am happy with the results
I achieve with this lens.
My new favourite lens and a very worthy buy.
I am really happy with this lens . It is so sharpe in the centre . It is lighter than I was expecting . I got at a great price from amazon and the 80 cash back from canon .
However the second copy is much better and is sharper than my 17-40L in the corners, although there’s nothing in it in the centre. Conttrast is much the same
The image stabilisation is excellent and handholding at slow shutter speeds is very possible.
I wouldn’t have recommended the lens at the initial asking price, it’s just not THAT much better than the 17-40L but the deal I got from Amazon, plus a Canon cashback means I’m pretty happy.
Shame about the Canon quality control and Amazon’s very poor courier, which isn’t like them but overall, pretty good
This new wide angle zoom by Canon also addresses the issues found on the MKI & MKII f/2.8 16-35 such as softening at the edges at wider apertures and a lack of contrast and punch to the images.
I am finding that I am doing less correction and adjustment in Lightroom 5 than with the f/2.8 and I this new f/4 finally completes, at last, my Holy Trinity, with the 24-70 MKII and the 70-200 MKII an astoundingly good trio of “L” glassware, which should see me out to my coffin!
Excellent lens, now at a superb, new low price!
Buy it!
Focus speed and accuracy is extremely good, no hunting here! I’m yet to try proper tracking but I have complete confidence that it will perform very well.
build quality is also extremely good. This is quite a light lens (compared to the rest of my kit) It weighs 615g so it feels very light sand nimble. In comparison my other lenses are 815g and 1.5kg. The AF/MF and IS on/off switches operate nicely and feel well built. Zooming is quite a damped and stiff affair, something I quite like.
The hood isnt a simple twist lock either, its button release, mildly irritating if you’re used to just twisting the hoods off and you must make sure not to just try and tear the thing off.. Still those twist locks wear and get sloppy, this button lock (which works like a latch) will mean that the hood will never really wear out.
I’m very pleased with this lens!