Group picture with 4 lenses

Post update on 02.Jan.2018

Group picture with 4 lenses is an attempt to judge optical performance of different UWA zoom lenses.

I already [post id=1015]compared[/post] the Canon  16-35/4.0 IS L with the  17-40/4.0 L , where the  16-35/4.0 L IS made the first place, not really a surprise. In a older [post id=634]article[/post], where the EF-S 10-18mm did a good job, at least in terms of optical performance. Usage is very good, except you don’t have a distance scale any more.

Group picture with 4 lenses
Olympus 9-18/4.0-5.6 EF-S 10-18/4.5-5.6 17-40/4.0 L 16-35/4.0 L IS

My  [post id=813]mFt equipment[/post] was completed by a UWA lens, the Olympus  9-18/4.0-5.6 which is very compact and not expesnive as the Panasonic 7-14mm.

As long as i owned the Canon 17-40/4.0 i just wanted to know how the Olympus and the very priced EF-S 10-18mm compare and if they can reach the optical performance of the 17-40 or maybe the 16-35mm.

Talking about prices it looks like this at the moment (i didn’t calculate Canon Cash Back)

ObjektivPreis
Canon EF-S 10-18mm/4.5-5.6230,-- €
Olympus 9-18mm/4.0-5.6490,-- €
Canon 17-40mm/4.0650,-- €
Canon 16-35/4.0 L IS900,-- €

To make sure this comparism (and i don’t talk about a test) does a real comparism, i took the images under the same conditions like i did for the [post id=1015]17-40/16-35[/post] article and made additional picture with the Olympus and  the EF-S 10-18mm lens.

Lets start with the cheapest lens, the  EF-S 10-18mm/4.5-5.6 at 10mm  (i made 5 images even though the difference between f 4.5 and 5.6 is insignificant)

Group picture with 4 lenses
Canon EF-S 10-18mm/4.5-5.6 @ 10mm

And now at  18mm:

Group picture with 4 lenses
Canon EF-S 10-18mm/4.5-5.6 @ 18mm

The situation is comparable to the 17-40/4.0, the center is pretty sharp, while the corners are weak at least at 10mm. Closing the aparture helps a little bit. The difference is smaller at 18mm, probably due to the longer focal lenght and the maximum aparture of 5.6 only.

And now we’ll take a look at the Olympus lens, first at 9mm (equals to 18mm on full frame)

Group picture with 4 lenses
Olympus 9-18mm/4.0-5.6 @ 9mm

And at the maximum focal length 18 mm (equals to 36mm on full frame)

Group picture with 4 lenses
Olympus 9-18mm/4.0-5.6 @ 18mm

Comparing these results the Olympus seems to be a bit sharper than the EF-S 10-18mm, and comparing the corners are defitnitly better, so the Olympus wins this comparism.

Taking the results of the comaprism between the 17-40/4.0 and the  16-35/4.0 into consideration this gives the following ranking:

  1. Canon 16-35mm/4.0 L IS
  2. Olympus 9-18mm/4.0-5.6
  3. Canon 17-40/4.0 L
  4. Canon EF-S 10-18mm/4.5-5-6

Even though the  EF-S 10-18mm is on rank 4 it still a beautiful lens for APS-C cameras with a almost perfect price/performance ratio and i’ll keep it for sure. Compared to the 16-35/4.0 L IS we are talking about a lens with a price tag almost 4 times a high. And even the 17-40/4.0 L still is a good lens, especially if you try a good used lens, which should cost only arround 400,– €. I owned it 4 years and over this times it produced very nice architecture and landscape images.

Do you agree with my results? Just leave me a comment and i would be happy to get questions from you.

ciao tuxoche

 

 

 

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