REVIEW: Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM

The focal length of this prime lens from Canon is on the edge of ultra wide angle when used on a full frame sensor or the 35mm film it was originally designed for. Even on a cropped sensor, it provides a good angle of coverage. We take a look at how it performs.

Good build and finish; Nice focal length on Full Frame cameras; Silent and fast autofocus; Good image quality

Not that useful on cropped sensors; Stiff manual focus ring (on example tested; Distortion worse than on modern designs (minor point; Hood not included with lens

Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM Lens Review

Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM is one of the oldest lenses in Canon's EF lineup, originally released in early 1992. And up until recently, this was the widest, non-fish-eye lens in Canon's arsenal (the company recently released an even wider lens - EF 14mm f/2.8L USM).

Canon EF 20 mm f/2.8 USM

In the era of APS-C sensors a 20 mm instrument became an equivalent of a classic 35 mm lens. On the one hand a shorter focal length might suggest more problems with the image quality at the frame edge, especially when it comes to distortion and vignetting.

solid casing; excellent resolution in the frame centre; very well corrected astigmatism; decently controlled coma; silent; quick and accurate autofocus

average image quality at the frame edge; a bit too high chromatic aberration; huge vignetting even on an APS-C sensor; weak work against bright light