Canon has recently introduced its new ultra-wide angle, 11-24mm f/4L USM lens to the world, and even at first glance, you can tell it’s a monster. The first thing that might strike you is the resemblance to its Nikkor counterpart, the 14-24mm f/2.8 AF-S G. Just like the Nikkor, Canon’s new ultra wide is huge and it has a massive front element that looks like it wants to jump out of the lens barrel. The build quality is obviously there and you can feel it no matter how you hold the lens. The built-in lens hood isn't made of metal like the Nikkor's, but it’s still very high quality material. You can't put a filter on it and that’s one of the few downsides to this lens. At the price, you should at least be able to fully weather seal it, but I guess it’s a normal design limitation.
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Moving on to what really matters, the field of view is absolutely insane. If you thought 14mm was ultra-wide, think again. Have a look through this lens at 11mm and you’ll almost see the people behind you. It’s crazy wide and a pleasure to use. Even with all the distortion and exaggeration, straight lines are still straight, which makes a difference between this and fisheye lenses.
Image quality is simply astonishing. Color contrast and incredible detail are all there, and it even makes classic landmark lenses like the 24-70mm f/2.8L look bad in a side-by-side comparison.
There’s really nothing bad you can say about this lens and it’s just one of those pieces of equipment that are born as legends. Yes, the almost $3,400 price tag is not an insignificant figure, but you do get what you pay for.
Check out how it performs in the field in this video review made by DigitalRev.
See the full specs of the 11-14mm f/4L USM lens here