There are not that many (better) alternatives to Canon's EF 20mm f/2.8 USM that fall within the same price range and at the same time deliver superior performance. That might be the reason to seriously consider this lens for your ultra wide photographic needs, despite somewhat lackluster performance...

The Canon 20mm f/2.8 USM lens often catches a bad rap for being soft in the corners, having horrendous vignetting wide open, and being plagued with an overall lack of contrast. I’m here to tell you why absolutely none of that matters.

Is the Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM Lens right for you? Learn all you need to know about the Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM Lens in The-Digital-Picture.com's review!

As a wide-angle lens for cropped sensors, this lens falls a little short, with virtually all of the standard zooms giving a wider angle of view. However, on the full frame sensors that Canon are now producing, this lens still warrants its place in their line-up.

• +

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

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  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

This lens is great as a wide and with an aperture going as low as 2.8 is amazing, however, when in low light and shooting at that low of an aperture, there will be a vignetting around your photos. Please be aware of that feature.

• +

  Durable, Easily Interchangeable, Fast / accurate auto-focus, Lightweight

• -

  Poor in Low Light

Short and simple. This lens is does exactly what I expected it to do - take great photos. One can get a balanced impression and make a judgment about this lens by reading all the reviews. It is made for the serious amateur, maybe not for the pro.

• +

  Superior build quality

I did some test with this lens & it does what they said it will do.it's very sharp,& i got no vignetting whatsoever with my 5Dm3 body.

• +

  Easily Interchangeable, Fast / accurate auto-focus, Lightweight, Nice Bokeh

I played around with wide and ultra-wide lenses over the years. The best lens for a full frame camera that I have found is this 20mm lens. It seems to be wide without exhibiting extreme distortion. The nice part if the field curvature works well taking photos of small rooms.

I played around with wide and ultra-wide lenses over the years. The best lens for a full frame camera that I have found is this 20mm lens. It seems to be wide without exhibiting extreme distortion. The nice part if the field curvature works well taking photos of small rooms.

Really good lens. One of my favorites. Haven't really been bothered by vignetting. For someone with not too much money to spend, this is a good buy.

Agree with the other reviewer RE crops. I'm using this on a trip and with a 7D @ 18MP I get fantastic 100% crops. This is a great landscape lens and I think a great buy if you can deal with primes.

• +

  Sharpness, fast AF, color, contrast

• -

  None

I bought this lens to get a bit wider than The 28-135mm IS which was my first lens for the new 10D. I liked the reasonable size and that I could share the 72mm filters with the 28-135IS. I am not happy with the sharpness of this lens at any f/stop and will not use it at all wide open.

• +

  Low used price. I like the size and weight. I can share filters with my 28-135mm IS. I like the focal length.

• -

  This lens is not as sharp as I expect from a prime and is not as sharp as the 17-40L that I replaced it with.