Tamron 11-18 Vs Canon 10 - 22 Super wide lens Shoot out **Review**

[Rebel]

You need a wide angle lens for your Canon EOS 350D or 20D, what do you choose?

Since I was in the market for a super wide angle lens to use with my Canon EOS 20D, I started searching for some user reviews to help me choose which lens to buy. Unfortunately I could not find any reviews that could help me. I therefore decided the time was right to try and compile a review of the three lenses that fall into this category myself.

There are other lenses that might be suitable, but they were designed for non digital full frame cameras, and as such I have excluded them from this review.

Fortunately I was in the position to be able to borrow two of these three lenses, the Tamron SP 11-18 f/4.5-5.6 Di II LD and the Canon EF-S 10 - 22 f/3.5-4.5 USM.

I could not include the Sigma 10 - 20 here, since Sigma were not able to loan me a lens for this test.


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The Canon EF-S 10 - 22 : 3.5-4.5 USM
It has to be pointed out right here that since this lens is an EF-S series lens it is ONLY suitable for use with the Canon EOS 300D (Rebel) 350D (Rebel XT) and 20D NOT the EOS 10D or any of Canon's 35mm range.

On receipt of the Canon lens, I found it was not supplied with a lens cap, however when I asked Canon about the lens cap and hood, they assured me the lens was supplied with a lens cap as standard although the hood was an optional extra that had to be purchased separately so you need to take this into account before spending your money!

This can be quite an important point since some lens hoods can be very expensive.

I started with the Canon lens, and have to say I found it quite impressive, it was quick to focus, and locked on to the subject in some very difficult lighting conditions.

Since we had some snow whilst I had the lens, it was an ideal opportunity to check for any Chromatic aberrations as well, the results speak for themselves, CA was virtually non existent.

This is possibly due at least in part to the construction of the lens itself, it is NOT built as a low end consumer lens, but instead as a high quality well built with multiple aspheric elements plus single super Ultra Dispersion glass element lens!

The Canon lens was faster the Tamron in terms of aperture and this helped the lens in every way, especially in focus lock.

The colour reproduction from the Canon was extremely good, and the overall impression of build quality as well as optical quality was every bit as impressive as the pictures it enabled me to capture.

My one concern was the apparent darkening (Vignetting) in the corners of all the photographs I took with the lens at its widest angle setting.


*Features
Super wide angle zoom for all EF-S mount bodies
Superb image quality
Lightweight and compact
Focusing distance of just 24cm.
Fast near-silent USM AF
Super Spectra coatings
Circular aperture
Optional exclusive lens hood

Product Overview.

With its effective focal length range of approximately 16-35mm in 35mm format, the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM is a remarkable lens with outstanding image quality that will take your photography into new dimensions and areas of dramatic expression.

Beyond human perspective
The super-wide zoom not only gives you the freedom to get exactly what you want in the shot, it dramatically alters perspective to allow for dynamic expression. The lens allows you to get extremely close to subjects, exaggerating the difference in size between a near object and its background. Creative photographers can use this phenomenon to create excellent separation between subject and background for a strong sense of presence, or for a pan-focus effect with everything from foreground to background sharply in focus.

Since I was in the fortunate position of having both lenses during a time we had some snow, I took a picture of our local church with each lens to give a comparison in real life terms.

This is not a scientific test, merely an illustration of what each lens will do under virtually identical conditions with similar apertures and focal length.

Neither image has been altered other than a simple resize. The camera was tripod mounted for both images to prevent any possibility of camera shake etc.

Canon lens @ 20mm F:13 1/250sec ISO:400


Tamron lens @ 18mm F:14 1/250sec ISO:400


There are more images to follow, but due to the effect of snow and the prevailing weather conditions creating high contrast images giving the possibility of the problem of Chromatic Aaberration, I felt these images might be useful.

[Rebel]

The Tamron SP 11-18 f/4.5-5.6 Di II LD
Unlike the Canon lens, the Tamron XR-Di is suitable for use with the earlier Digital cameras with a 1.6 crop factor such as the EOS 10D, D60 and D30. In fact, it will fit on a full frame film or DSLR but the image circle is insufficient to cover the full field.

When I received this lens it was supplied with both a Lens hood and lens cap, the build quality was every bit as good as we have come to expect from Tamron, and like the Canon lens, the Tamron lens was quick and responsive.

Although the Tamron was not as fast as the Canon in aperture terms, and the zoom range of the lens was not as wide as the Canon, I did not find either of these factors limited my ability to capture the image I wanted.

While the Canon is an f/3.5-4.5 lens, the Tamron is an f/4.5-5.6, this making it a half stop to a full stop slower than the Canon. The advantage is, this makes it smaller and lighter in terms of weight than the Canon.

Another point to note is the Tamron focusing and zoom direction is the reverse of the Canon, and this may take a little getting used to especially if you are already used to one system or the other.

Obviously depending upon the other lenses in your own lens collection, you may find quite a gap in terms of focal length with the Tamron, for example, I currently use a 28 - 300mm as my "walkaround lens" so the gap between the telephoto end of the Tamron 11 - 18 XR-Di at 18mm and the widest my "walkaround lens" will reach at 28mm can leave a 10mm gap in terms of focal length, I have to say I have not found this to be a problem, but it is something you need to be aware of as it may be a problem for you.

The gap in focal length if you chose the Canon lens would only be 6mm which may be sufficient to overcome this issue if you were affected by this.

Whilst the colours on the Tamron were not quite as vibrant as the colours I obtained with the Canon in the same conditions, the Tamron lens appeared to be much sharper, and the Canon lens needed the application of unsharp mask to counter the softness the images obtained with it would otherwise have suffered from.

Another of the Tamron's strengths appears to be the lack of apparent vignetting, especially when compared to the Canon lens at wider settings. If you have a Canon D30, D60 or 10D, and therefore unable to use the Canon 10-22mm lens without warranty destroying surgery, the Tamron provides an attraction alternative.

*Product Overview

Di II: Lenses are designed for exclusive use on digital cameras with smaller-size imagers and inherit all of the benefits of our Di products. These lenses are not designed for 35mm film cameras and digital cameras with image sensors larger than 24mm x 16mm.

This new super wide-angle zoom lens, designed for exclusive use with digital SLR cameras using a sensor smaller than full frame, provides the extended focal length covering 17mm (when converted to 35mm format) that is desired by today's advanced and pro photographers using digital SLR's. The lens features an entirely new optical system designed for optimal performance with digital SLR cameras.

Optical/Mechanical Feature Key

Lens Construction (Groups/Elements) 12/15
Angle of View 103°-75°
Type of Zooming Rotation
Diaphragm Blade Number 7
Maximum Aperture F/4.5-5.6
Minimum Focus 0.25m (9.8")
Macro Mag. Ratio 1:8
Filter Diameter ø77
Weight 355g (12.5oz.)
Diameter x Length ø83.2mm x 78.6mm

(3.3in x 3.1in)

Accessory Flower shaped lens hood
Mount Canon-D, Minolta-D, Nikon-D

* & blue colour = press release from manufacturer
In the next images you will see slightly better colouring from the Canon lenses well as a brighter image, however there was significant vignetting at the image corners with the Canon lens at its widest setting (10mm), there was far less of this with the Tamron (11mm) although the colours were slightly more subdued. It also seemed the Tamron lens was slightly sharper, but this was very minor and only needs a touch of unsharp mask to rectify.

Canon EF-S 10 - 22 @ 10mm f:3.5 Tripod mounted



Tamron 11-18 XR Di-11 @ 11mm f:4.5 Tripod mounted

[Rebel]

My conclusions

This is where it gets really hard, The Tamron lens has some advantages over the Canon lens, and vice versa.

The image quality is equally difficult to separate, whilst the Canon lens has better colour definition, the Tamron lens seems sharper, at least in my tests. The Canon lens is faster, and the manual focus is smoother and it has a wider zoom range, but the Tamron images are crisper, and do not have the same level of vignetting when used wide open as the Canon does.

Since the Tamron lens can be used on non EF-s cameras like the EOS 10D D60 and the D30 as well as the full frame cameras such as the EOS 5D albeit with lens vignetting up to the 14-15 mm point it is more versatile than the Canon lens. but the Tamron does not have the same focal range the Canon does.

Neither of these two lenses will dissapoint, they both have their strengths and weaknesses, whilst it would have been nice to include the third member of this famly of superwide zoom lenses, unfortunately that wasn't meant to be.

We do at least have some information to work from with the completion of my subjective tests.

If you have a 10D D60 or D30 the choice is simple, your choice has to be the Tamron, since the Canon will not physically fit these camera bodies without surgery. (Which means the warranty is void) If you have more than one camera body, such as the 20D and the 5D (a number of pro photographers use a 20D as a back up camera), again, the choice must be the Tamron since once again the Canon can not be used with the 5D, whilst, allbeit in a limited capacity the Tamron can.

If however you have a 350D or a 20D and DO NOT envisage changing camera bodies the line is not so clear.

The additional range at both the telephoto and wide angle range of the Canon lens could be a deciding factor for you, the improved colour reproduction could be enough to sway your decision towards the Canon and of course the smoother manual focus operation will also help.

The Tamron lens comes with a lens hood whilst you have to buy that separately with the Canon lens and even this may be enough to sway you towards the Tamron, it really is that close!

Decisions decisions.... if cost were not a factor, then it would be an extremely difficult decision for me, as it is I would actually be very happy with either of these lenses, since they are both extremely high quality and capable of superb results, however, cost is a factor I have to take into account and in my particular circumstances the lack of a lens hood with the Canon and the initial higher cost are just enough to sway me towards the Tamron even though the extra focal range of the Canon is tempting.

It must be said though, YOUR needs may not be the same as mine, and I strongly recommend you consider BOTH of these lenses before making your decision. The only thing I can be sure of is, whichever lens you choose, you will not be dissapointed!

To try and help you make your decision, here are some more images captured with these lenses during this comparison.