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Sample ImagesAll sample images kindly provided by Jerry Kooyman. Click on a thumbnail to view the original file (opens in a separate window). Please note that the originals are FULL SIZE samples (=several megabytes) thus requiring a significant amount of bandwidth so please take care of the limited resources here. When you consider its field of view, the lens is pretty compact. It measures just 2.8 by 3.1 inches (HD) and adds 14.3 ounces of weight to your gear bag. It can focus as close as 0.8-foot, which allows you to get some interesting shots with a shallow depth of field, but when shooting wider scenes the lens will keep everything in focus, as racking it to infinity will put every object more than three feet from the lens in sharp focus. The front element is slightly curved, but you can still use a screw-in filter with the lens—you'll just have to invest in one with a rather large 72mm diameter. As is the case with almost every prime lens, the front element doesn't rotate when focusing, so using a polarizer is possible. The lens hood is not included, although adding one is probably a good idea as wide-angle lenses are often prone to flare and a hood will help to compensate for that. Imatest shows that the lens is a little soft at f/2.8, but sharpens nicely from f/4 onwards. At its widest aperture it records 1,689 lines per picture height, just a bit shy of the 1,800 lines that are required for an image to be considered sharp. It hits 1,963 lines at f/4, increases to 2,245 lines at f/5.6, and peaks at 2,374 lines at f/8. The lens shows only 0.2 percent pincushion distortion when paired with the full-frame Canon EOS 6D, an impressive result. There is some evidence of color fringing in high-contrast scenes, especially tree branches against a bright sky. This can be corrected in Lightroom with a few adjustments. We didn't notice fringing when we shot with Canon's EF 17-40mm f/4L USM zoom lens on the EOS 5D Mark III. That lens is also quite sharp and has zoom capability, but is a bit more expensive and shows much more distortion at wide angles. If you're in the market for a wide prime lens for your Canon camera, the EF 20mm f/2.8 USM is a solid choice. It has a moderately fast aperture, and sharpens quickly as you narrow its iris. The price is quite reasonable, and it can be used with both full-frame and APS-C cameras. On the former it captures a truly wide field of view, and on the latter serves as a very useful moderate wide-angle optic. More Digital Camera Reviews:
The Canon EF 20mm F2.8 USM was one of the first wide angle prime lenses created for Canon's EOS system back in the early 90s. Despite its age, it remains a popular lens among full-frame Canon shooters for its compact and lightweight build, and relatively low cost. Optically, there are better primes available in Canon's current lineup, but fitting in the gap between 14mm and 24m, there is no direct sucessor to this venerable lens at the time of writing. The focal length of this prime lens from Canon is on the edge of ultra wide angle when used on a full frame sensor or the 35mm film it was originally designed for. Even on a cropped sensor, it provides a good angle of coverage. We take a look at how it performs. 
Build and handling As with all of Canon’s prime lenses, the build quality is commendable. The construction ( from the users point of view) is simple with the only control being the AF/MF switch situated to the left of the distance window just forward of the mount. This window is marked in both metres and feet and includes a very usable depth-of-field scale. Forward of this is the manual focus ring, and at 18mm wide there is plenty of room for most fingers. Autofocus is carried out by Canon’s USM motor, which is silent and quick in operation. However, the manual override that the system allows did, on this example, feel a little stiff and not quite as smooth as we are used to. It is one of those qualities that employs ‘feel’ more than others and may well be satisfactory to many although my personal reaction was, ‘This is a stiff one’! The finish is the usual, hard wearing semi-gloss black and the lens has provision for a bayonet style hood, number EW-75II but this is again an optional extra. The lens is a compact design that belies the internal workings that operate the focussing without either extending the lens, or rotating any part of it during use. This bodes well for anyone using filters, something that is highly likely given the uses this lens could be put to. Optical Quality Wide-angle lenses are known for distorting things and this lens produced a barrel effect of –2.13%. Although we have seen much better figures from more recently designed optics, with modern software this is easily corrected and is not too disastrous. That is the bad news, because all of the other parameters came up to scratch. We have seen often, that lenses designed for full frame cameras can achieve performances at the edge, when tested on cropped sensors, that better the results given for the centre and this is the case with this lens. It is a plus point that augers well for use on FF cameras. It is also relatively consistent throughout the aperture range, another plus point that makes for a useable piece of kit. Chromatic aberration, although not a concern as it managed to stay below the threshold where it may become noticeable, did show a little anomaly, in that the figures were worse in the vertical plane when the lens was set to wider apertures. This is on measured test results and cannot be seen with the naked eye! Contrast, along with colour rendition are up to Canon’s usual standards producing an excellent, slightly warm image. Click on each comparision photo below to view full size versions Below is our lens test data. To find out how to use these graphs look at this article: How we test lenses Verdict As a wide-angle lens for cropped sensors, this lens falls a little short, with virtually all of the standard zooms giving a wider angle of view. However, on the full frame sensors that Canon are now producing, this lens still warrants its place in their line-up. Nice results combined with ease of use will ensure it will stay there for some time to come. In summary, the positive points of the EF 20mm f/2.8 USM are: The negative points are: Check the latest price of the Test by Ian Andrews www.wildaboutkent.co.uk By: keekimaru 4175 days ago I've used this lens both on 1.6x crop (Digital Rebel XT) and full frame (5D and EOS 3) cameras. On the 1.6x crop, the 20mm focal length looks like 32mm. I personally find that to be a wonderful focal length for general purpose use, and the f2.8 is acceptably fast for some indoor / low-light situations. On full-frame, the lens is amazingly wide, and can be challenging to frame an interesting picture. Nevertheless, sometimes you need the lens to be that wide, so it's great to have. On the downside, the lens loses sharpness toward the edges, and is more evident on full-frame cameras than on 1.6 crop cameras. This lack of sharpness is not always a big deal, as the edges of a photo are usually not the focal point. I'm overall happy with it, and when I want wide, I usually grab my 20mm over my 17-40mm zoom. More Detail : http://webcamerawebcamera.com/detail.php?id_detail=Canon-EF-20mm-f-2-8-USM-Wide-Angle-Lens-for-Canon-SLR-Cameras-id66a&template=2 |
