Canon 16-35mm Camera Lenses

Canon 16-35mm Camera Lenses

Wide-angle zoom lenses such as Canon’s 16-35mm options are extremely useful for certain types of photography, particularly landscapes. A good wide-angle zoom won’t necessarily be the first lens that every photographer buys, but no full set of lenses is complete without one.

Canon 16-35mm SLR camera lenses are wide-angle zoom lenses. Wide angle zoom lenses are those that have a focal length that is both short and variable. Typically, any camera lens with a focal length of 35mm or less is called wide-angle, with anything below 24mm counting as ultra-wide angle. A 16-35mm wide-angle zoom lens, then, provides both wide and ultra-wide options in a single piece of kit. Wide and ultra-wide lenses pose unique challenges for lens manufacturers, as they have to bend light significantly while rendering straight lines as straight in the final image and are therefore prone to distortion. The higher the quality of the lens, the less distortion it produces.

Wide-angle lenses require some specialised technique, but they can take images that lenses with longer focal lengths can never match. One obvious use for wide-angle lenses is landscape photography. The wide field of view makes for more panoramic images, but they also provide greater depth of field than other lenses for increased sharpness across the entire image. Wide-angle lenses also have uses in portrait photography, as they allow the photographer to capture more of the subject’s environment, and can also be used to great effect in enclosed spaces in which the photographer cannot back up far enough to use a longer lens.

The current range of Canon EF 16-35mm camera lenses includes three designs, two with an aperture of f/2.8 and one f/4. All three are L-series lenses, Canon’s finest, and are intended for high-performance photography. Canon also sells other sizes of wide-angle zoom lens, including the EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM for smaller cameras and the EF-M 11-22 f/4-5.6 IS STM for mirrorless cameras.

As well as wide-angle zoom lenses, Canon also manufactures wide-angle prime lenses with focal lengths ranging from 14 to 28mm. The selection includes models for Canon cameras with EF and EF-S mounts. Prime lenses do not offer the versatility provided by variable focal length, but they are often faster and lighter. Prime lenses also typically offer greater image quality at a given price point.