Canon EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 II review - Vignetting

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Canon EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 II

16 October 2007

Arkadiusz Olech

8. Vignetting

The situation is, unfortunately, similar to the situation with chromatic aberration: the shorter the focal length, the worse. At 18 mm focal length and open aperture the light fall off in the corners of the frame is as high as 25% (1.2 times the value of the diaphragm). There is very little improvement when we stop down the lens, and at f/8 the light fall off is still as high as 16% (0.52 the value of the diaphragm).

Canon EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 II - Vignetting

The situation is a bit better at the 30 mm focal length. The maximum light fall off in the corners of the frame is 24% (0.8 values of the frame) and stopping down the lens to f/8 makes the vignetting decrease to an acceptable level of 11% (0.34 times the value of the diaphragm).

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At 55 mm focal length the situation is satisfactory although on the other hand it is thanks to the f/5.6 aperture in this case. Here the vignetting is 19% (0.62 value of a diaphragm) and drops quickly to 12% at f/8 and 8deg at f/11.

There is a rumor that it is possible to get rid of the lens’s bayonet bushing, which makes it possible to mount the lens to all the EF system Canons, even those with a small frame film detector. I wonder how the 18 mm focal length vignetting would look like since it is so high with a small APS-C detector.