AF, IS, USM, ED, VR, L, TS-E... Say what?? Canon and Nikon use different acronyms and abbreviations when describing their lenses. We get questions about what they mean all of the time, and with good reason. It can look really confusing. Below briefly explains the terminology that Canon uses. Canon Focus/Mount types

• EF- Canon uses this designation for its standard lens mount. All EF lenses will fit on all EOS bodies
• EF-S- Lenses designed for Canon digital cameras with APS-C sensors. These lenses can only be mounted on bodies with an EF-S compatible lens mount.

The Canon 14mm EF f/2.8L II USM is an example of an EF lens. This lens will fit on all EOS bodies.


The Canon 10-22mm EF-S f/3.5-4.5 USM is an example of an EF-S lens. This lens will only mount to EF-S compatible bodies.

Technology and Lens Class

• L- Stands for 'luxury.' These are the professional grade, high-end lenses, with high quality and complex glass elements. They all have a red ring around the front end.
• USM- This means the lens has the UltraSonic Motor. It's used in most Canon lenses from the inexpensive primes to the L-class lenses.
• STM- stands for 'stepper motor' and are designed to eliminate (auditory) noise during video recording.
• IS- Image stabilization or image stabilizer. Moves some of the lens' optical elements to counter shake and provide sharper results when slow shutter speed is used for static subject capture.
• Mark I, II, III- Noting different or updated versions, the higher the Roman numeral, the more recent the version of the lens or camera. (May not have the work 'Mark' in front of the number).

The Canon 70-200mm EF f/2.8L IS USM II is an L series lens, with image stabilization and an ultrasonic focusing motor. This is the updated version, or version II, of this lens.

The Canon 18-135mm EF-S f/3.5-5.6 IS STM has a stepper motor that will eliminate auditory noise while shooting video.

Specialized lens abbreviations

• Macro- A lens that focuses down to short distances and provided 1:1 magnification.
• MP-E- Very high magnification optics. Can achieve magnification from 1:1-5:1. The Canon 65mm MP-E f/2.8 1-5x Macro is manual focus only and doesn't focus at infinity.
• TS- Tilt shift
  • TS-E- Tilt-shift, Electronic aperture control- EF lenses that can be shifted and tilted to control the plane of focus and correct perspective distortion. Manual focus only.

• DO-Diffractive optics lenses. The glass elements in lenses with DO in the name bend light more than regular glass.

The Canon 65mm MP-E f/2.8 1-5x Macro can achieve magnification from 1:1-5:1. At its maximum magnification, you can fill a 35mm frame with a grain of rice.

This is the Canon 45mm f/2.8 TS-E Tilt-Shift. It is an EF lenses that can be shifted and tilted to control the plane of focus and correct perspective distortion.

Now that we understand what all of that photo jargon means, it's a lot easier to read and understand the lens.
Lets take the Canon 24-105mm EF f/4L IS USM as an example.

Canon 24-105mm EF f/4L IS USM
We can tell that this is an expensive and professional-grade lens (L-series). It features an advanced optical formula with ED and Fluorite glass elements (L). It can be mounted on full or cropped frame cameras (EF). The lens has Canon's Image Stabilizer technology (IS). Autofocus is supported by the Ultra-Sonic Motor. Manual focus is available, while auto-focus will be fast and quiet (USM). Not so complicated anymore! To check out all of the Canon equipment we have for rent, click HERE.

Happy Shooting!