The Canon RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM is a cheap and lightweight kit lens for the Canon EOS R10, R50, R100, and future budget mirrorless cameras. It follows in the trend set by the similar EF-M 15-45mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM (now discontinued), though that lens had a slightly advantage in focal length (15mm vs 18mm on the wide end) and a slightly faster maximum aperture of F3.5 vs F4.5 on the wide end. The new RF lens also has a few improvements, however, like better autofocus and better image stabilization. MSRP is $299 for the lens alone or just $120 in kit. The RF-S 18-45mm has a few optical flaws, but also provides good autofocus, good sharpness, and has an image stabilizer for those cameras that lack IBIS (in body image stabilization) like the EOS R50 that I tested it on. Is it worth getting? You can get my findings in the video review below or by reading the text review here…or just enjoy the photos below.

Canon RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Review | Should You Buy the Kit?

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Thanks to Camera Canada for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. *I have done the majority of these tests on the 24MP Canon EOS R50.

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Kit lenses need to be jack-of-all-trades, as they will sometimes be the only lens that a person owns. They will typically cover moderately wide (18mm here, or the full frame equivalent of 29mm due to Canon’s 1.6x crop factor) to telephoto (45mm, or the full frame equivalent of 72mm). The RF-S 18-45mm has lens based stabilization (IS), which is important considering that the EOS R50 that I tested it on doesn’t have camera based stabilization. That helps considerably when shooting handheld video and moderately helps to make up for the very slow maximum aperture values available here.

18-21mm = F4.5
22-30mm = F5
31-36mm = F5.6
37-45mm = F6.3

If you don’t understand what all of this aperture talk means, just know that this is a lens that is going to do best when there is plenty of light. You might want to supplement this lens with a prime lens with a faster maximum aperture. In decent lighting conditions this lens can make beautiful images.

Images of the Canon RF-S 18-45mm IS

Images Taken with the Canon RF-S 18-45mm IS

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the Canon RF-S 18-45mm IS @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Canon EOS R50 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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