Canon EF Lenses

Executive Summary about Canon Lenses by Jaco Muller

This lens line-up includes Primes, Zooms, Tilt & Shifts, Macros, Wide Lenses, Telephoto Lenses and Super Telephoto Lenses.

Although Canon manufactures many types of lenses, it’s EF lineup is the most popular as these lenses with the EF mount fit all of Canon’s SLR and DSLR cameras. The EF-S lenses can only be used on the APS-C cameras, but these cameras can also use the normal EF Lenses. Every Canon EF lens can be classified in one of the following classes:

Prime (fixed) lenses

• Ultra Wide – Primes usually with a focal length of 20mm or less such as the EF14mm f/2.8L II USM. Used primarily for landscapes.
• Wide – Primes between 20 and 50mm like the EF35mm f/1.4L USM. Used primarily for landscapes.
• Standard & Medium Telephoto – Primes between 50 and 100mm like the brilliant EF85mm F1.2L II USM. Great for portraits.
• Telephoto – Primes between 100 and 300mm like the EF300mm f/2.8L IS USM. Usually used for wildlife and sports photography.
• Super Telephoto – Primes of 400mm and more like the EF600mm f/4L IS USM, Used for Bird, sports & wildlife photography.

Zoom (adjustable) Lenses

• Wide Zoom – Zooms that start between 16 and 22mm of focal length like the EF17-40mm f/4L USM. Useful for landscapes & Weddings.
• Standard Zoom – Zooms that start between 24 and 28mm on the wide end and a reach between 70 and 200mm, like the EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM. Useful for Weddings & Portraits.
• Telephoto Zoom – Zooms that start at 28mm at the wide end with a reach of between 70 and 300mm, like the popular EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. Used for a wide variety of applications such as weddings, wildlife, bird & street photography.

EF-S Lenses
Lenses with a special mount that can only be used with Canon’s APS-C sensor cameras, such as the Rebel series. Cameras with the APS-C sensor has a 1.6x multiplying effect on normal EF lenses, therefore the need for lenses like the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM which is useful for landscape photography with the Rebel series.

Macro Lenses
Lenses used for macro photography, such as the EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM.

Tilt & Shift Lenses
Lenses like the TS-E24mm f/3.5L are primarily used for architecture photography.In each of the classes listed above, except for the EF-S class, special high quality “L” lenses can be found. These lenses are made of special materials, are usually weather proof, heavy and produce images of stunning sharpness and quality.

Related posts:

1. Digital Camera Lenses
2. Nikon Lenses
3. Canon EOS digital cameras
4. Canon Lens