It is with great pleasure that I was asked by Nakita from
Avantech to try out the new lens from Canon which everyone is talking about.
The Canon 11-24mm f/4L lens. Yes, you heard right…11mm!!! WOW! This is the
world’s widest angle rectilinear lens. This is an ultra-wide lens, wider than a
fish-eye lens (Canon’s fish eye is 15mm and is a lens I proudly own), but as
opposed to the fish-eye lenses, these lenses have corrected the barrel or
pincushion distortion inherited by the fish-eye lenses.
So, one can imagine the advantage to landscape photography
this lens brings. And it certainly did not let me down.
The angle of view is a full 126° - and the elimination of the curvilinear effect is by means
of the 3 front aspherical elements. Physically the lens looks special, with its
outer domed element and all.
Attach it to the camera and the
effect is immediate. You can get very very close to a subject and it’s all
there. In fact, the advantage with this lens is that you increase the depth of
the composition and that in fact very close objects become very important
compositional elements. The perspective, the angle of view and the absolute
sharpness of it all is unique and bewildering. There is nothing like it. In
fact, I would suggest that one should wear scene-complementary shoes when using
this lens – or dare I say, scene-complementary pants too!
Naturally, this applies to a
full-frame sensor, but the advantage is immediately noticeable. However, once
the initial excitement dies down, one really still has to think about how best
to take advantage of this advantage, as a challenge remains. As with all
rectilinear lenses, but especially with this at 11mm, it is not easy or
straight-forward to create compelling compositions at these wide angles.
Therefore this lens will immediately add another dimension or thought process
to your photography, and failure to master this will result more often than not
as mere snapshots. With ultra-wide lens it is therefore absolutely necessary to
have an interesting foreground matched with a complimentary background.
So, this is a great lens for
landscape photography. Horizons remain as flat as you hope them to be and a lot
of time would be saved in correcting lines etc.
The sharpness is also incredible, and I will elaborate more on this a
bit further on. It is also tremendous for architecture. Interiors are just
never the same again. It is tremendous also in dramatizing the subject / action.
All this comes at a very useable constant (over its focal lengths) maximum aperature of f/4. With a lens like
this, f/4 is sharp and really a wider maximum aperature will not diminish the
sharpness by that far. So it is very useable in an event, and it gives perhaps
another outlook.
I tried it out on another love of
mine – street photography. I reckoned that with that inherit sharpness it will
make my image-making easier. However no. It is just too bulky and too
noticeable for street photography, and while street photography lends itself to
wide lenses, this is just too wide. My trusty 50mm f/1.4 or 35mm f/1.4 L is the
better choice here.
One disadvantage though,
especially for landscape photography….with the bulbous front end, it is
impossible to screw on or make use, in any way, of any filters. Neutral density
and polarizers are important in landscapes, so one needs to then resort to
exposure bracketing and other post-processing techniques to counter act this
effect. In truth, Canon as created a slot just at the bayonet side of the lens,
but this involves special filters, which are not so readily available.
 |
| At 24mm |
 |
| At 11mm |
But even at f/4 the detail in the
corners of the image are amazing. I must admit that possibly I must have never
touched a sharper lens. The achievement is greater when one considers that this
is not a prime lens either. A good lens must be able to resolve enough detail
while having reasonable amount of contrast to distinguish those details. This
lens does not disappoint. It’s in the resolution that it excels. This lens is
able to resolve fine details, with no or hardly noticeable chromatic
aberration. This is what’s great as, unlike its acutance, these details cannot
be acquired by post-processing.
This fact led me to enquire
further in the Canon website in order to examine the Modulation Transfer
Function (MTF) of the lens as declaired by the manufacturer, and compare it
with other lenses. The 11-24mm is impressively sharp right in the sensor at all
focal lengths and aperature setting of f/4. As seen in the chart, the corner
performance is in fact a MATCH for centre performance. The drop-off is minimal and better than the
centre performances of other lenses. Very impressive.
I did try out another of my styles
– that of shooting against the light, expecting considerable flare. But no, to
my surprise even this was minimal, thanks in no little way, I later got to
know, to the special lens coatings which are amongst the newest
technologies in lenses today.
Which brings to the price. At
above €3000, this is not an inexpensive lens. It is 2.5 times the price of
the 16-35mm f/4 L IS lens, itself a marvelous lens. Yes it is weather sealed,
it is a L lens and it is a rectilinear lens and rectilinear lenses cost. But at
what it offers….it might just be worth it…
But the truth of the matter is….do
I want one? The answer to that is…MOST DEFINITELY. The world seems a lesser
place without it.
Ruben Buhagiar
