Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM: Performance

Wide open at 16mm the sharpness in the centre is already excellent at f/2.8 and improves further as the lens is stopped down as far as f/4, where it's performance in the centre is outstanding. The quality towards the edges lags behind a little, but should still be good enough at wider apertures to please most. Peak quality across the frame is achieved at f/5.6 where the sharpness in the centre is outstanding, and very good towards the edges of the frame.

At 24mm, the lens' performance is much the same as at 16mm, with excellent centre sharpness from wide open and the quality towards the edges improving as the lens is stopped down. At this focal length, peak quality across the frame is achieved at f/8, where the quality approaches excellent levels towards the edges.

Finally at 35mm, the same characteristic of excellent resolution in the centre is repeated, but the quality towards the edges at wide apertures has fallen away a little when compared to shorter focal lengths. As before, the sharpness across the frame improves as the lens is stopped down and peak quality across the frame is now achieved at f/11, where the sharpness in the centre is excellent, and the quality towards the edges is very good.

Chromatic aberrations are kept within acceptable levels. On the EOS 5D MkII used for testing, Imatest detected fringing of 1.19 pixel widths near the edge of the frame, at 16mm which shouldn't pose too many issues. This level should only become apparent in very large prints, or harsh crops taken from the edges of the frame.

Resolution at 16mm	Resolution at 24mm
Resolution at 35mm	How to read our graphs 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 an Canon EOS 5D MkII using Imatest.

For an ultra-wide lens, falloff of illumination towards the corners is well controlled. At 16mm and f/2.8 the corners are 1.92 stops darker than the image centre. Visually uniform illumination is achieve at f/5.6 for this focal length. At 35mm the level of vignetting drops dramatically, with the corners only being 0.738 darker than the image centre at f/2.8 and visually uniform illumination being achieved at f/4.

Chromatic Aberrations at 16mm	Chromatic Aberrations at 24mm
Chromatic Aberrations at 35mm	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 an Canon EOS 5D MkII using Imatest.

Barrel distortion can be quite pronounced at 16mm with a level of 7.41% being detected by Imatest. At 35mm the barrelling is replace by very mild pincushion distortion of 0.337%. Luckily the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame throughout the zoom range, which should make it straightforward to correct in editing software afterwards.

Canon's Super-Spectra Coating does a decent job of controlling flare with light sources in, or just outside of the frame. Shooting directly into the light will result in a noticeable loss of contrast though, especially at wide apertures. The petal shaped hood that comes supplied does an excellent job of shielding the front element from extraneous light.

Maximum magnification – ISO200, 1/125, f/11, 35mm		Bokeh – ISO100, 1/400, f/4, 35mm
ISO100, 1/400, f/8, 16mm		ISO100, 1/80, f/16, 35mm

DxOMark provides objective, independent, RAW-based image quality performance data for lenses and digital cameras to help you select the best equipment to meet your photographic needs. Visit the DxOMark website for tests performed on the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM.

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