Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM Review

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM Performance

For a lens that will be bundled with Canon's entry level cameras, the sharpness delivered is quite impressive. At 18mm sharpness is already excellent across the frame at maximum aperture and remains so until the lens is stopped down beyond f/8.

With the lens zoomed to 35mm, sharpness in the centre of the frame remains very high at maximum aperture and although clarity towards the edges of the frame is reduced, it is still very good. Peak sharpness across the frame is achieved between f/5.6 and f/8. Here sharpness is excellent across the frame.

Finally, with the lens zoomed to 55mm, overall sharpness is reduced, but clarity is still excellent in the centre of the frame at maximum aperture and still very good towards the edges of the frame. This pattern remains constant until the aperture is stopped down beyond f/11.

Resolution @ 18mm

Resolution @ 35mm

Resolution @ 55mm

How to read our charts The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Canon EOS 600D using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are a little on the high side, especially towards the edges of the frame at 35mm, where one pixel width is exceeded at apertures faster than f/5.6 and when stopped down to f/16 or beyond. This level of fringing shouldn't pose too many issues, but may start to become visible along high contrast regions towards the edges of the frame.

Chromatic aberration @ 18mm

Chromatic aberration @ 35mm

Chromatic aberration @ 55mm

How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc. to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on Canon EOS 600D using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is reasonably well controlled. At 18mm the corners are 1.67 stops darker than the image centre at maximum aperture and visually uniform illumination is achieved with the aperture stopped down to f/5.6 and beyond. At 55mm the corners are 0.75 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination is achieved at f/8 and beyond.

Distortion is fairly typical for a lens of this type, with Imatest detecting 3.12% barrel at 18mm at 0.163% pincushion at 55mm. This level of distortion should pose few issues for many, but may be too much for discerning photographers. If straight lines are of the utmost importance, then you'll be glad to hear that the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, which should make corrections relatively simple to apply in image editing software afterwards.

No issues with flare were encountered during testing, with only a slight loss on contrast being noticeable when shooting directly into the light. No lens hood is supplied as standard, so if you require one for peace of mind, then the EW-63C petal-shaped hood can set you back up to £23, which seems a lot for a shaped piece of plastic.

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