Trying to track down the best wide angle lens for Canon 700D cameras is a little more challenging than most people think – not because there are so few great options to pick and choose from, but because there are so many!
Canon is one of the most legendary manufacturers in the camera world today, responsible for some of the best DSLR setups ever created – and that includes the 700D. Folks all over the world are looking to outfit their camera body with the highest quality glass to get the most out of this camera – especially when it comes to wide-angle lenses – and that’s where the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens comes into play.
One of the most impressively designed and feature-rich lenses available without a skyhigh premium price tag attached, Canon engineers have (obviously) really cut no corners when producing a lens designed specifically for use with the 700D that works as well as this one does.
The Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 has a a fantastic reputation for clarity, durability, and usability. The Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens is no exception.
Let’s take a little deeper into everything that it has to offer, shall we?
Performance And Functionality
From a performance and functionality standpoint there’s a lot to really like when it comes to the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens, especially in the world of wide-angle lenses.
Canon has always had a range of inexpensive “general-purpose” and telephoto lens options worth having a closer look at, but they never really got a handle on the wide-angle lens or macro lens world.
Thankfully though, the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens is really designed to change all of that.
Providing a lot of functionality that Canon enthusiasts were hoping for (including a really nice, APS-C ultra wide focal length, zoom capabilities, and more) the folks at Canon themselves advertise this as a professional grade wide-angle lens with an enthusiast price tag – hitting that sweet spot between performance and price that a lot of other companies haven’t been able to nail as well as Canon does.
Even more impressively, though, is the fact that this Canon camera lens also includes Image Stabilization technology built right in.
Now, this isn’t exactly a first in the world of camera lenses – but it is the only lens in its class that currently offers this kind of image stabilization tech built right in (as of right now), and that’s pretty impressive all on its own.
Because this lens is very much and EF-S lens you are only ever going to be able to use it with ASP-C/1.6x FOV CF sensor cameras from the folks at Canon – basically anything in the EOS DSLR lineup.
For the majority of Canon enthusiasts that’s not going to be a problem (since they are running Canon gear to begin with), and while it would have been nice to be able to use this glass on other types of cameras you might have been your collection this shouldn’t be a dealbreaker by any stretch of the imagination.
The 18 mm focal length provides a very impressive field of view when you are taking wide-angle shots, cranking it all the way out to the equivalent of a 28.8 mm focal length if you are using a full frame or 35mm format DSLR.
This isn’t necessarily the most extreme focal length you’ll find in the wide-angle lens world (and some are going to want to push things even further than this), but for most photography this is going to hit that sweet spot folks are looking for.
Performing very well when shooting landscape, architecture, and interior elements – everything that you need a wide-angle lens for – it’s easy to pull in a lot of extra drama and a lot of extra light when you are working with the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens.
You may not necessarily be able to create the super sharp foregrounds and super sharp backgrounds (distant backgrounds, particularly) with this Canon lens, but you’re going to be able to get almost the same results as you would with an ultra wide at about half the price point!
The aperture included with this camera is fantastic, helping you to soak in as much light as possible – even in lowlight conditions – to make this lens highly viable and pretty much any lighting condition aside from pitch dark.
Fast, reliable, and (relatively) wide, you’ll be impressed at the caliber of the photos you’re able to shoot when you are running this attached to your favorite Canon DSLR.
The Image Stabilization (IS) technology we mentioned earlier is on full display with this lens. You won’t necessarily be able to stop motion blur completely when shooting moving objects, but you are going to be able to slow things down significantly so that you get crisper images in a way that would have been tough to pull off without IS tech built right in.
Prepared to see firsthand just how well the Image Stabilization technology works the first time that you shoot moving objects free hand (without a tripod or anything else to firm up your camera foundation). You are going to be blown away by the tech running under the hood of the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens.
User Interface And Control System
Operating similarly to pretty much every other Canon lens that’s been made in the last 10 years, you’re going to get a lot of really cool “creature features” built right into the overall user interface and control scheme of this lens.
The proprietary and still relatively new Stepping Motor (STM) autofocus (AF) technology pioneered by Canon is prominently on display with the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens.
Even though this autofocus system isn’t necessarily the fastest thing on the planet, it is unbelievably quiet and almost unimaginably smooth – really lasering in on the subject of your photos, focusing fantastically, and handling all the heavy lifting automatically so that you don’t have to spin the manual focus ring on the outside of the lens itself.
This STM AF technology in the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens is particularly useful when you are shooting video on the Canon 700D, especially if you are running your DSLR in “Movie Servo” mode. You’ll be able to change focus on the fly in a really sort of cinematic way that never detracts from the overall experience, keeping focus noise eliminated as much as possible.
Obviously, though, you can also flip a switch on the outside of the lens ring itself to going to completely manual focus (MF) mode anytime you like.
This puts you in the pilot seat, controlling every single aspect of the manual focus yourself and giving you far more granular control over how your images are captured.
Some people really love using MF compared to AF (especially old-school photographers that grew up shooting film and using cameras without great AF to begin with), but others like to make the most of the major technological advances in AF companies like Canon have in pioneering over the last 20 years.
You’ll also have the option to flip a switch between using Image Stabilization technology or not. This is a really cool addition in that it gives you an even finer level of control over the “under the hood” technology you choose (or not) to use from Canon. Sometimes photographers want to take total control over every aspect of how they capture imagery and without this switch you be stuck using Image Stabilization technology no matter what.
It’s nice to have the option to go in a different direction if that’s what you are interested in
Like pretty much every other STM AF lens from Canon you’re going to enjoy internal focusing capabilities, 100% non-rotating filter threads, and full-time manual focusing capabilities.
The only wrinkle with using full-time manual focusing is that the shutter release has to be pressed halfway down for this mode to be enabled. But if you’ve been using Canon equipment for any amount of time you’re probably used to this little quirk, and even if you want it won’t take a lot of time to make the adjustment.
The smaller focus ring on the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens is super smooth, with 113° of rotation (some of the longest in the wide-angle class) and has absolutely no play whatsoever. There’s a bit of a more forward location of the ring itself that can make it challenging to find for people that aren’t used to pushing that far out along their lens, but again it doesn’t take much time to get use to moving and manipulating this component if you’re looking to shoot in MF or FMF.
Build Quality And Design
Canon is responsible for some of the most impressive and technologically advanced DSLR options on the planet, and that list includes the Canon 700D.
Folks were a little bit skeptical about whether or not they would be able to get into the lens game at the same level of quality of their cameras when they first started – but no one is worried about that any longer.
Canon makes fantastic lenses (the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens included), and pretty much every one of the EF-S STM IS lens options are universally beloved for their build quality, their design, their durability, their reliability, and the overall performance that they produce.
The Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens has a rock solid build quality made possible through the use of only the highest end construction materials available. The plastic barrels themselves are ruggedized and durable, the glass used inside these lenses is absolutely off the charts when it comes to clarity and quality, and the rubber materials, the smooth motion actions of the lens components, and the underlying Canon technology – like the Image Stabilization and autofocusing technology, for example – is industry-leading across the board.
You will never feel that you are rocking and rolling with a cheap or flimsy lens when you have the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens attached to your 700D.
On top of all this, because of the lightweight plastic materials you aren’t going to feel like you are carrying around a bathtub attached to your camera, either. This is a huge bonus for those that want to do long shoots – including day long shoots – or are going to be carrying around a couple of different lenses to swap out on the fly as each individual shot demands.
When you get right down to it, the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens has the same kind of durability, reliability, and overall build quality that your 700D does. You can trust this lens to perform well no matter what!
Final Verdict
The introduction of the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens definitely added a neat little wrinkle to the mix when it came to the STM IS camera lens lineup.
Brand-new technology back in 2014 that still performs very well today (six years later), this is still one of the very best ultrawide, ultralight, and ultraportable – not to mention ultra-affordable – lenses you can buy to snap on to your Canon 700D.
Sure, this Canon lens lacks a few of the “bells and whistles” that some of the newer wide-angle – and especially ultra-wide-angle – lenses have to offer.
But at the same time you’re never going to have to worry about the capability or quality of this lens, you’re never going to have to worry about whether or not it works in lowlight situations, and you aren’t ever going to have to worry about how well it’s going to play with your Canon 700D DSLR.
The underlying quality of this lens is immediately recognizable as soon you start to tinker and toy with your shots from each photography session. Don’t be surprised if you are instantly blown away by the clarity and depth of each image you shoot on this wide-angle lens, as well as by the drama that this lens helps you pull into your camera even on the most “standard” of frames.
It doesn’t take a photography wizard to capture something really special when you have the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens attached to your camera. You’re going to be able to enjoy incredible performance out of this wide-angle lens straight out of the box, all without having to pay a premium price tag for the privilege!
