What is The Canon 10-18MM Lens Good For
The Pluses and Minuses of this lens

I use my Canon 10-18 lens for shooting YouTube videos with my Canon 90D

There are several good reasons to consider getting yourself a Canon EF-S 10-18mm Lens. There are few reasons not to get one.

I purchased my 10-18m lens in 2015, so I figured I'd share my thoughts to help you figure if this lens is a good fit for you. This post explores what's the Canon 10-18mm good for shooting, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using this lens.

What kind of photos can you shoot with the Canon 10-18mm Lens

The Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens is a versatile lens, good for shooting a large variety of subjects. Here is a list of how you can use the 10-18mm lens.

1. LANDSCAPES. The number one reason to get a 10-18mm lens is to shoot beautiful landscape photographs. It's easier to have near and far objects within your composition in good sharp focus when you use the Canon 10-18mm lens.

"Triple Bridge" Carriage Road
Mount Desert Island, Acadia National Park, Maine.

2. LARGE GROUP PORTRAITS. The 10-18mm focal length can be a lifesaver particularly useful when you're photographing large groups of people indoors.

Wide angle reunion group pose of 57 classmates

3. ARCHITECTURE. Super wide lenses are needed to enable you to photograph buildings from a close-up vantage point. Of course, if you tilt your camera upwards, you'll get vertical lines that will converge inward due to parallax. You can adjust in software after the fact or you can invest heavily and get a pro tilt-shift lens like the Canon 17mm TS-E f/4.0 L.

Wide angle lens needed for this view of the entrance.

4. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY. The compact design of the 10-18mm lens means it's less conspicuous and will draw less attention to you.

5. SELFIES AND VLOGGING VIDEOS. Using a cell phone is lighter, but the 10-18 weighs only about 8 ounces, so you can use it on the end of a selfie stick. You also can get a nice wide view of the environment behind you when you're shooting in a video of yourself, even when you're holding your camera at arm's length.

The Canon EF-S 10-18 is the lens I use more than any other on my Canon 90D for vlogging. I've been using it since September of 2015.

This lens also has smooth quiet focusing. You can read other buyer reviews of the super wide Canon lenses on Amazon:

As an Amazon affiliate Canon Camera Geek receives a small commission from qualifying purchases, at NO added cost to you.

6.TRAVEL PHOTOS. The compact size of the 10-18mm lens makes it easy to pack on trips. The wide angle of view gives you the ability to fit large subjects into your composition.

Dublin, Ireland Cathedral
Shutter speed: 1/400 second at ISO 320
Canon 10-18mm lens set at f/9 and 11mm focal length.

The photo of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin was taken in 2017, two years after I purchased my EF-S 10-18 lens. The wide angle allows you to get in close and still capture the entire scene.

7. EXAGERATED PERSPECTIVES. Wide angle lenses strengthen the perspective effect. You can stretch your creativity easily by using strong perspective's of a super wide angle lens like the 10-18.

Strong perspective photo of toy fire truck.

With strong perspective photography using wide angle lenses objects that are clse to the camera are disproportionally larger. 

8. INTERIORS.  The 10-18mm zoom range makes it an excellent choice for shooting interiors. I needed the wide angle of 104 degrees to get this interior for a client.

I needed a 104 degree angle of view for this interior.

Is the Canon 10-18mm lens Wide Angle Any Good?

Canon EF-S
10-18mm IS USM Lens

The Canon EF-S 10-18mm IS STM lens gives you a very wide view of your subject. For landscape views, at 10mm the lens has a diagonal angle of view of 107 degrees and at 18mm the angle of view is still very wide at 75 degrees.

Even with the 1.6X cropping on an APS-C camera, you will be able to fit a wide view of any subject into your camera frame. The equivalent view of the 10-18mm lens is 16-29mm lens on a full frame camera.

Will The Canon 10-18mm Lens Fit on Full Frame cameras

The Canon EF-S 10-18mm lens will not fit on a full frame 5D Mark III camera body. The image circle from the 10-18 is not large enough to cover the full surface area of  the sensor of a full frame camera.

Canon 10-18mm lens will not fit a full frame 5D Mark III

The Canon 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens is an EF-S lens. That means it's smaller and will not fit on the larger full frame Canon cameras. The larger Canon EF lenses are large enough to fit on full frame sensor cameras as well as the smaller Canon DSLRs.

The video below will help you understand how the 10-18 and other EF-S lenses are compatible with the different sized Canon cameras.

Disadvantages of using the Canon 10-18 lens

• It won't fit on full frame sensor cameras. It only will work on APS-C "crop" cameras.
• Although it's high quality, the Canon 10-18 is made of plastic. It isn't as tough as a metal lens.
• It's not particularly fast. It has a maximum aperture of f/4.5. That makes this lens less than ideal for shooting nighttime and astrophotography.

advantages of using the Canon 10-18 lens

• The Canon 10-18mm lens is affordable. It's much more affordable than the 10-22mm super wide angle.
• It has image stabilization. That's unusual for a super wide angle zoom lens. You can get sharp hand-held photos even with slow shutter speeds.
• It has a super wide angle of view of your subject, especially when zoomed out to the 10mm focal length. That make it great for photographing beautiful landscapes.
• The 10-18 lens has a STM focusing motor. That makes it super quiet for shooting video.

Wide angle lenses inherently give you a greater depth of field. The range of things from close to far from the camera lens that are in focus is greater with super wide angle lenses like the Canon EF 10-18mm f/4.0 IS lens.

Close and distant objects are in focus.

Parting thoughts on the Canon EF-S 10-18 Lens

Although it doesn't have a huge zoom range, the Canon EF-S 10-18mm IS STM lens is versatile. Pair it up with my favorite all purpose lens, the Canon 18-135mm and you've got a full range of zoom abilities. That covers a lot of photography subjects.

I've been using the 10-18mm lens for more than 6 years now......and I haven't sold it yet.

I hope you found this article helpful. For related posts, see the links below my signature. For other Canon topics on this website use the search box below.

As an Amazon affiliate Canon Camera Geek receives a small commission from qualifying purchases, at NO added cost to you.

Have a blast. Shoot a Canon!

Bruce Lovelace is the publisher of Canon Camera Geek. Read more about him on the About Page. He also publishes how to articles and camera gear reviews at the Photography Tips website.

View some of Bruce's photos on Instagram  and Flickr.   Join the tribe of followers on YouTube. Bruce also runs photo workshops and provides 1 on 1 digital photography coaching.

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This post contains affiliate links and the publisher may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links, at no cost to you.


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CANON LENSES

• Canon 10-18
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Canon 10-18 lens Sample Image

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