Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS Review (Photozone)

The new Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS is in stock and ready to ship at Adorama | B&H Photo | DigitalRev.

Specifications (taken from Adorama‘s product page)

• High performance L-series ultra-wide zoom lens in a compact design and Optical Image Stabilizer for up to four stops of correction
• Three aspheric lens elements, including a large-diameter aspheric lens, help correct aberration.
• Two UD lens elements help reduce chromatic aberration from the center to the periphery throughout the entire zoom range for excellent image quality with high resolution and contrast.
• Fluorine coating on front and rear lens surfaces are optimized to help minimize ghosting.
• Highly resistant to dust and water intrusion, enabling shooting even in harsh conditions.
• Inner focusing and ring USM for silent, fast and accurate autofocusing
• Circular aperture (9 blades) delivers beautiful, soft backgrounds.
• Minimum focusing distance of 0.92 ft/0.28m across entire zoom range.
• Full-time manual focus allows manual focus adjustment while in AF Mode.

Photozone tested and reviewed Canon’s new EF 16-35mm f/4L IS lens. In the verdict they write:

The Canon EF 16-35mm f/4 USM L IS is definitely a step forward for Canon. The lens is capable of delivering an impressive performance throughout most of the range but especially between 16-24mm. The center quality is stellar here and the borders and even corners are sharp. It can’t really reach the same level of peak performance at 35mm but it’s no slouch either here. Canon has mastered the handling of lateral CAs – while not completely absent, they are low unless the contrast change is really extreme. The vignetting is typical for a lens in this class so you have to live with visible light falloff at f/4 especially at 16mm. Image distortions can be disturbing at 16mm but if needed you can apply auto-correction in the more popular RAW converters.

Performance appears to be noticeable improved in the 16-20mm range, Photozone recommends the EF 16-35mm f/4L IS over both the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM and the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM.

The review comes with plenty of graphs and lab measures, be sure not to miss it.

[via Photozone]