Introduction

Ease of Use

Weighing in at 1180g and measuring 13cms in length, the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM is a very big lens indeed, almost twice as heavy as the EF 16-35mm f/2.8 lens. While you can use it on a smaller APS-C body for a 16-26mm equivalent angle of view, it won't balance very well at all. As demonstrated by the images below, it's a much better match for a professional-grade, full-frame camera like the 5D Mark III, and even then you'd probably want to fit a battery grip when using it hand-held.

The Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens mounted on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III

The Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens mounted on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III

The Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens mounted on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III

The Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens alongside the Canon EOS 5D Mark III

As you would expect from a lens that costs this much, build quality is excellent, certainly up to the "L" moniker that denotes Canon's premium lenses. The Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM feels very solid in your hand, even if the outer barrel and the filter thread appear to be made from plastic. The focusing ring is generously wide and has a ridged, rubberised grip band. It has no aperture ring, which is no big deal unless you wanted to use it on a very old film body. The lens also features a distance scale.

The side of the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens

The side of the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens

Front of the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens

Rear of the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens

The final control on the lens barrel is a focus mode switch with the usual AF/MF settings. Note that the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM usefully offers full-time manual focusing even when AF is selected.

Side of the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens

Side of the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens

The Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens in-hand

The Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens ships with a non-removable petal-shaped lens hood and a protective drawstring lens case. Given the cost of the lens, we'd have liked to have seen a hard case included.

Focal Range

At the 11mm focal length the angle of view is 117 10' degrees.

Field of view at 11mm

At the 24mm focal length the angle of view is 74 degrees.

 Field of view at 24mm

Focusing

The Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens has a fairly wide focus ring. There are hard stops at both ends of the range, making it easier to set focus at infinity. Polariser users should be pleased that the filter holder doesn't rotate on focus.

When it comes to auto-focusing, the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM zoom is a quick performer, taking about 0.15 seconds to lock onto the subject when mounted on the Canon EOS 5D Mark III that we tested it with.

We didn't experience much "hunting", either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing almost all of the time. It's also a fairly quiet performer, thanks to the built-in USM (Ultra Sonic Motor), which makes this lens quite well-suited to video recording.

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, are impressively well controlled with this lens - the examples below show the worst-case scenario.

Vignetting and Distortion

With the lens wide open at f/4, you can see some very signifcant light fall-off in the corners at both ends of the focal range. Stopping down helps, although to completely get rid of this phenomenon, you will need to use an f-stop of f/8 or smaller.

Barrel distortion is very evident at the 11mm wide-angle focal length, disappearing completely at 24mm.

Vignetting at 11mm

Vignetting at 2mm

Macro

The Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM is not a macro lens. The closest focus point is at 28cm from the film/sensor plane when the focal length is set to 24mm, and Canon quotes a maximum reproduction ratio of 0.16x for the lens. The following example illustrates how close you can get to the subject.

Close-up performance

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp this lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following pages.