Preview based on a pre-production Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM
It’s now almost a year since Canon unveiled its first foray into the mirrorless camera sector, the EOS M. The camera was launched with two lenses, the EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM kit zoom and the EF-M 22mm f/2 STM ‘pancake’ prime. But while most other manufactures have gone out of their way to provide ‘roadmaps’ of upcoming lens releases in an attempt to convince potential buyers of their commitment to these new systems, Canon has remained stubbornly quiet. But now EOS M owners have a new lens to consider: the EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM wideangle zoom.
The lens offers a zoom range equivalent to 18-36mm on full frame, which is a little less ambitious than its closest competitor, the Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS (15-24mm equiv). To an extent this is a trade-off for its relatively compact design; it uses a retracting barrel reminiscent of the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm 1:4.0-5.6, and is about the same size as the 18-55mm kit zoom. This means it’s much smaller than Canon’s EF-S 10-22mm f/4-5.6 USM wideangle zoom for its APS-C SLRs. One oddity is a 55mm filter size that’s not shared with any of Canon’s other current lenses.
The 11-22mm is Canon’s first wide zoom with image stabilisation, which the company claims will allow shooting at shutter speeds three stops slower than usual without the image being degraded by blurring from camera shake. It also includes Canon’s ‘Dynamic IS’, which offers a wider range of correction during movie shooting. Focusing – both auto and manual – is handled by a linear stepper motor, which promises silent operation during movie recording.
Canon is making grand claims for the 11-22mm’s optical quality, and saying that its 12 element / 9 group design will offer significantly better image quality than the (already well-regarded) EF-S 10-22mm. The lens we used to prepare this preview wasn’t sufficiently finalised for Canon to allow us to shoot sample images, but we’ll look at how well it performs just as soon as we can. Until then, read on to find out more about the lens’s design and operation.
Headline features
- 11-22mm focal length range (18-35mm equivalent)
- F4-5.6 maximum aperture
- Optical IS – 3 stops claimed benefit
- Stepper motor for silent focusing in video
- Collapsible barrel design
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