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Canon EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 STM IS - Review / Test |
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Lens Reviews -
Canon EOS (APS-C)
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Page 1 of 2
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2016
Introduction
As of the time of this review, Canon's mirrorless system is solely targeting the budget market and despite
a less then attractive overall system, they seem to be surprisingly successful with this strategy ... if we can
believe their marketeers (...). A very recent addition to the entry-level market is the Canon EF-S 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 STM IS.
While it is primarily sold as a kit zoom lens (currently with the EOS M10), it is also available separately
for about 300US$/EUR. Following the recent trend of pushing miniaturization, Canon implemented a retractable design.
Regarding its length of 45mm (in transport mode) we hesitate to call it a pancake
zoom lens but it comes close at least. It is equivalent to a "24-72mm f/5.6-9.6" on full format
cameras so it's slow, yes, but it's wider than the Canon EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 STM IS so besides its smaller size
it adds a selling point there.
Due to the retractable design, you have to switch the lens from its transport mode (seen to the left below) into the actual
working mode. This is as easy as pulling a dedicated lever and turning the zoom ring.
When zooming throughout the zoom range the inner tube moves a bit back and forth. The mechanical quality is
about average. It's an all-plastic construction down to the mount and you feel the cost-cutting measures.
The inner lens tube wobbles a bit but it doesn't rotate during focusing/zooming. The zoom- and (small) focus-control rings
do their job, of course, but they aren't particularly "nice" to handle. To be fair - this is typical for these budget-level
standard zoom lenses. The positive side of all the plastics is a very light-weight at just 130g. It is available in two
colors - in black and, in some markets, in silver.
Similar to other mirrorless systems, Canon EOS M uses a stepping motor (STM) for focus operations. This works noiselessly and
quite fast as well. Also typical for STM lenses - manual focusing works "by-wire" thus you actually drive the
AF motor by turning the focus ring.
The Canon EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 STM IS is obviously a very slow lens but an image stabilizer compensates
this limitation to some degree. Canon claims an efficiency of up to 3.5 f-stops.
The "Dynamic IS" is also smoothing movements which provides a more pleasing stabilization effect when shooting movies.
| Specifications |
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| Equiv. focal length | "24-72mm" (full format equivalent) |
| Equiv. aperture | "f/5.6-9.6" (full format equivalent in terms of depth-of-field) |
| Optical construction | 10 elements in 9 groups including 3x aspherical elements |
| Number of aperture blades | 7 (rounded) |
| min. focus distance | 0.25m (max. magnification ratio 1:4) |
| Dimensions | 60.9x44.5mm |
| Weight | 130g |
| Filter size | 49mm (non-rotating) |
| Hood | petal-shaped, optional |
| Other features | Retractable, STM, Dynamic IS |
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