If you’re looking for all hope that a fisheye zoom lens will be coming, you’ll need to have hope. That’s not what’s coming today. Instead, Canon is announcing the Canon 10-20mm f4 L IS USM lens. They’re claiming this to be the world’s first full-frame rectilinear autofocus zoom lens that goes this wide. It targets landscape, architectural, and many other types of photographers. And it’s got some really curious things happening, too. For starters, it’s easy to see how Sigma might have made the lens.
The screenshot above is from the assets that Canon sent to us before the announcement of the new Canon 10-20mm f4 L IS USM lens. This is really, really odd — as it’s showing the lens being the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6. That lens is very old, and was originally meant for APS-C DSLR cameras. So a few things could be happening here.
- Sigma made the lens: Canon likes to say that they make all of their own lenses. And for the most part, I believe that. But there are outliers where I don’t necessarily believe Canon on what they’re saying.
- The photographer made a mistake: There’s a chance that someone, when exporting the images, made distortion corrections using the older Sigma lens. That’s quite an odd choice, as that was a lens designed for APS-C.
I’d like to believe either answer. Canon is bound to say that it was a mistake because that’s just how Japanese companies are. They tend to bash each other in meetings, but in reality, they’re all using the same components. In truth, probably no camera companies could be completely self-sufficient except for Canon, Sony, and Panasonic. If this were a decade ago, Samsung could also have been added to that list.
Well, that, and there’s no way that Sigma could make a lens like this and make it this lightweight. At least that’s my belief.
If Sigma made the lens, we’re sure that it’s going to be very clinically perfect. In fact, Canon really seemed to talk about that in their meetings with the press. Regardless, here are the details of the new lens.
Canon 10-20mm f4 L IS USM Tech Specs
- Pairs well with the 24-105mm f4 L IS USM
- The spiritual successor to the 11-24mm f4 L
- 1.25 lbs
- Rectilinear, not a fish eye
- World’s first AF zoom lens with a 10mm focal length
- 9 aperture blades
- SWC and ASC coatings.
- Image stabilization is there to get rid of really minute issues around camera shake
- Leadscrew type STM: which is usually in lower end products. But they’re using it because it’s so small.
- Dust and weather resistance
- Reduces dust and smudges with coatings on front and rear element
- Incorporated lens hood
- Lens function button
- Rear filter holder, which you’d have to cut yourself.
- $2,299
Here are some sample images that Canon provided to us.
We’re confident that this is a lens that’s going to be loved by many photographers out there. While some folks might not like the fact that it’s only an f4 lens, that’s more than enough for landscape photographers. Most of this segment ends up stopping the lens down anyway and focusing to halfway between the scene to get the entire scene in focus.
This lens is also a fascinating choice for Canon. While it generally seems like they’re trying to recreate their DSLR lens lineup, it’s also a bit perplexing that they’re not going after Sony even harder. Sony has a 12-24mm f2.8 and a 16-35mm f2.8 lens option. Why hasn’t Canon tried to do an even wider f2.8 lens option? Well, that’s a curious question. The only photographer I know that owns the Sony G Master 12-24mm f2.8 lens also complains about how large it is. In fact, I don’t think that photographer ever really uses it.
With the new Canon 10-20mm f4 L IS USM being only 1.25 lbs, it sounds like something that you’d want to bring with you everywhere.
We’re waiting for a review unit, so stay tuned.