Canon EF-S 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM review - Vignetting

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Canon EF-S 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

21 September 2015

Arkadiusz Olech

8. Vignetting

In order to assess property how the Canon 18-135 mm STM deals with the vignetting while cooperating with the sensor of the Canon 50D let’s look at thumbnails below.

Canon 50D, 18 mm, f/3.5	Canon 50D, 18 mm, f/5.6

Canon 50D, 35 mm, f/4.5	Canon 50D, 35 mm, f/5.6

Canon 50D, 70 mm, f/5.0	Canon 50D, 70 mm, f/5.6

Canon 50D, 135 mm, f/5.6	Canon 50D, 135 mm, f/8.0

At the combination of 18 mm and f/3.5 aperture the vignetting level is high, amounting to 42% (−1.58 EV). It is a slightly better result than that of the tested lens’s predecessor but still it remains worse than that of the Nikkor AF-S DX 18–140 mm f/3.5–5.6G ED VR, which had 37% of vignetting. By f/4.0 the vignetting drops to a value of 34% (−1.21 EV), and by f/5.6 it decreases further to 18% (−0.57 EV). By f/8 and f/11 apertures that aberration diminishes to 13% (−0.39 EV).

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A distinct decrease of vignetting can be observed at the 35 mm focal length where, at the maximum relative aperture, it reaches 27% (−0.91 EV) and then by f/5.6 it decreases to a very slight value of 13% (−0.40 EV). By f/8.0 that aberration becomes already imperceptible reaching only 8% (−0.23 EV).

A similar situation you see at the 70 mm focal length where, at the maximum relative aperture, the brightness loss in the frame corners is 26% (−0.87 EV), decreasing to 19% (−0.62 EV) by f/5.6. Once again by f/8.0 that aberration stops being perceptible as its level decreases to 9% (−0.28 EV).

The vignetting increases a bit once more at 135 mm where, by f/5.6 it reaches 33% (-1.15 EV) and by f/8.0 it gets near 16% (−0.52 EV). By f/11 those problems end because the value measured by us at that point amounted to 9% (−0.29 EV).