0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you a review of a lens that I am excited to see added to the Canon RF lens catalog
0:17
And that is the new Canon RF 100mm F2.8 L macro IS US. And so, again, if you don't know what all of that means, this is an L series, which means it's their luxury or premium line
0:29
It has IS or image stabilization, an optical stabilizer in the lens, and it has a USM focus motor
0:37
In this case, it's actually got a dual nano-USM more on that in just a moment
0:42
This is the RF version of a lens that I personally love a lot, and that is the EF, 100mm, F2.8L, macro-IS, USM
0:52
This lens has the unique distinction that has been in my kit longer than any other lens
0:57
And I bought it new nearly 11 years ago, and I've just never let go of it because it is an excellent lens and it just always gets the job done
1:06
And so I was intrigued, however, to get a native RF mount and to see what they would do with that lens
1:11
So far, Canon has always tried to have some additional innovation over its EF versions as a part of its RF strategy
1:19
That's true in this case, and it takes the form of two new features, one of which I love, the other which I'm very ambiguous about
1:27
More on that in just a moment. First, a word from our sponsor
1:31
Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom Wallet, the minimalist, modern wallet, that
1:36
sets you free from the bulky traditional wallet while also making it easy to access your cards
1:41
and money when you need them, thanks to their unique fanning mechanism. Visit phantom
1:47
wallet.com to check out their unique sizes, styles, and finishes that span from aluminum
1:52
to wood to carbon fiber. You can even customize your wallet with your wallet with your own
1:57
new accessories like a money clip, cash holder, ID display, and even the Jopolo tracking integration
2:05
if you're the kind of person who loses their wallet. Use code Dustin 15 for 15% off when you're
2:13
ready to check out. So as noted, those two features include the one that I love and rather than going
2:19
to just a one-to-one magnification, we now can go up to a 1.4 times magnification. And so you
2:27
can focus a little bit closer, but also less focused breathing achieves a higher rate of
2:32
magnification. So give you an idea of what a 1 to 1 versus a 1.4 to 1 looks like. Here's a comparison
2:39
of those two things. So you can see it is a, you know, it's a significant amount of extra
2:44
magnification. And when you're shooting macro, more magnification is always welcome. The other thing
2:50
new feature that I'm much more ambiguous about. And that is, there is this new thing called
2:55
SA control. And a third ring that is on this lens refers to spherical aberration control
3:01
And basically it is playing a few little optical tricks that, you know, allow you to change the
3:06
look of the bouquet and also the focus on the subject. To me, as I'll detail, I think it's
3:12
going to be much more of a gimmick. And we'll cover that both as a part of the build part
3:16
also as a part of the image quality section. There may be people that love this and love some
3:21
artistic creativity that comes with it. For me personally, it kind of just
3:25
gets in the way. So I don't love that part about it, but overall, I really do love this lens
3:31
And we'll detail why in this definitive review, if you want a quicker more to the point review
3:35
you can check out my standard review instead. But let's start by diving in and taking a closer
3:40
look at this lens, what change, you know, compared to the EF version and what hasn't
3:45
The first thing that stood out to me is the fact that this is a lens that has definitely
3:49
grown in size relative to the EF version. And that's certainly true
3:55
when it comes to the raw numbers. This new lens is 148 millimeters in length
4:01
and that compares to 123 millimeters for the older lens, which means that this lens is actually very close in length
4:07
to what, say, the Tamron 70 to 180 millimeter F2.8 zoom is
4:12
So it's significant in size. It is 81.5 millimeters in diameter, and it is also gained weight relative to the old lens
4:20
at 730 grams versus 625 grams. Now, the overall dimensions in terms of diameter hasn't changed much, and as a byproduct of that
4:29
means that you also get the same 67mm filter thread that we saw in the past, and so that's all nice and simple
4:38
One thing I will point out is there is a tremendous difference in the size of the lens hoods
4:42
And so actually, if you attach the lens hood to the two lenses, and then you compare the lenses
4:48
the new RF lens is actually the shorter one. And I will point out that if you're actually on a mirrorless platform
4:55
it means you're also having to throw the adapter into the mix. And so that does help to equalize things
5:01
even if you remove the lens hoods and take that out of the equation
5:05
that they become much more similar in overall length if you're having to include an adapter as a part of the equation
5:11
All of that, of course, doesn't take away from the fact that this is now a larger lens than what the EF version was to begin with
5:18
Now, we continue to have nine-rounded aperture blades, inside I did see that the circular shape there's a little bit of geometric
5:25
deformation towards the edges but as you stop down to F4 and F5.6 things actually
5:29
become more consistently circular across the frame. This is a unique prime
5:34
lens and that we actually have three different rings as a part of the equation
5:38
and so we have got the control ring first. I will say I don't love that that is
5:44
the first ring that you come to in many cases you'd be reaching to to focus and
5:48
that is the first ring you encounter. I would have actually prefer the SA control ring to be closer up towards the front where the standard control ring is
5:57
and so that your first thing that falls to hand is the manual focus ring. Now that manual focus
6:02
ring is a little bit wider, and so it is easy to find. And so, I mean, after a while, you'll get
6:08
accustomed to that, but I certainly reach for the control ring a few times inadvertently. And there's
6:13
another complication that comes with that that I'll detail in just a second. The third ring is the
6:18
standard control ring. It's got the unique diamond pattern on. that. Now, when it comes to the control ring, as noted, if you don't engage this lock
6:26
there is actually a lock down here on the bottom of the right side of the barrel. And so in many
6:32
ways, it looks like a zoom lock. But in this case, it actually locks the SA control ring
6:37
And I'm really glad that that is there because initially I didn't realize it was. And I found that
6:43
there were moments where I had inadvertently bumped the SA control ring. Because while there is a
6:48
shallow detent at the zero position where there's none of that. It's not being biased in either
6:54
direction. It's not a strong detent and so it's pretty easy to move it off. And as we're going
6:59
to see that definitely affects the amount of sharpness and the way that the image quality actually reacts And so this lock only locks at the zero position And I suspect that for many people who aren going to end up using the SA control
7:14
which I'm going to guess is a high percentage of people that will own this lens, you can lock it and then just forget about using it ever again, essentially
7:22
So that SA control, it does give you about four different stops in either direction
7:28
towards minus, towards plus. As you can see from these photos, it does really change the nature
7:34
of the look of images. And so it changes the look of the bouquet quality
7:39
towards the plus. It gives you more of an outlining, like a bubble bocha kind of look
7:44
and a little bit of a softer look on the, particularly in the foreground boca
7:48
towards the minus sides. But, you know, there's also the serious impact
7:55
to your image sharpness. And so you get that kind of like soft focus look
8:00
that was popular back in the 80s and so you have blooming highlights
8:04
I'm just not a fan of any of the applications I tried different
8:08
things to make it something that I liked the look of I just didn't love
8:12
it so like I said I think for many people that's going to be a gimmick the manual focus ring here works
8:18
pretty well focused by wire as with all these mirrorless lenses but I feel like the damping
8:22
is pretty good and the thing that I will most say about manual focus
8:26
is that I basically forgot about it while I was doing macro work with manual focus, which I almost always do. And so, you know, no issue there
8:34
There's a bank of three switches here. And so that gives you a focus limiter, which can be really
8:40
important in using in a macro lens, an AFMF switch, and then also an on and off for the stabilizer
8:47
The stabilizer is rated up to five stops or up to eight in conjunction with a body like the EOSR5
8:53
Now, that would suggest that you could get as low as hand-holding a two-second exposure
9:00
a little bit more than that. That's just not going to happen, at least in my experience
9:04
However, I was able to get pretty low down to about one-fourth of a second, reasonably successful
9:10
And so it's a very good stabilizer. I just find that some of these claims are, they're unsubstantiated in my actual experience
9:18
And so, anyway, the five stops of the actual lens stabilization, I'm willing to accept
9:23
that the higher claim with, you know, connection with the in-body and mid-stabilization
9:28
eh, I'm a little more, you know, skeptical when it comes to that kind of claim. What I'm not skeptical about is a great build quality that starts with a gasket here at the
9:36
lens mount, flooring coating on the rear and the foremost elements, and then about 12 different
9:42
seal points inside. You can tell that this is a well-made lens, even though, yes, it's engineered
9:47
plastics, which Canon L-series typically are, but you can just tell it's a good quality of build
9:52
it's a near matte finish on these lenses these days that seems very resistant to scratching and
9:58
fingerprints. I suspect that it's going to be a very durable finish. And I will note that on my
10:03
older EF lens, I've been using this lens for over a decade personally. I bought it new nearly 11 years
10:10
ago and it looks pretty much like the day I purchased it, maybe just a little bit of wear on the
10:17
actual focus ring, but outside of that, it's pretty much flawless. I expect nothing less from
10:22
This particular lens, I think it'll hold up really, really well. Now, obviously, being able to get closer than before, before you could get down to 30 centimeters
10:32
minimum focus distance is now 26 centimeters, and so that allows you to get very close
10:38
which obviously helps to contribute to the very high degree of magnification, also less focused breathing
10:43
and so you get to that 1.4 times magnification, which is kind of the headline of this particular lens
10:50
So one thing that I didn't cover in there that some people have some questions about is when it comes to actually having a tripod collar
10:58
Obviously, the EF version back in the day, it did not ship with a tripod collar either
11:03
I've been using it for over a decade and personally I've never missed it. But I know that there are some of you that that is a huge factor
11:09
So like the EF version, it will allow you, the new RF version will allow you to use a tripod collar
11:15
However, it's a little bit of an adapt situation. It is not included
11:19
and it'll set you back about 150 bucks if you go for the official cannon version
11:24
And so, you know, that may be a bit of a fly in the ointment when you consider that the price has already climbed significantly to about 1,400 US
11:32
for this particular lens. And so that's a factor that will bug some people
11:37
but, you know, as you can see, I've got on a little table tripod here, and I have no problem with stability
11:42
I've, in fact, you use this for a lot of macro work and not had any kind of issues
11:46
So I don't think the lens is heavy enough for that. to be a factor, but I know that some of you really prefer the balance that comes with a tripod collar
11:54
So you're going to have to be a little bit creative and either go with a first party, additional purchase, or find something on the third party market
12:01
Let's talk about autofocus. As I noted in the introduction, Canon has utilized a dual-nano-USM focus motor here
12:09
Now, when it comes to macro lenses, macro lenses have a huge amount of focus possibilities
12:14
because you have all of those additional close-focus options that a typical lens
12:19
doesn't have. As a byproduct of that, if you've ever used, for example, like a Zice
12:24
you know, one that's truly designed for manual focus, a Zice manual focus macro lens, it seems like
12:29
you rotate and you rotate and rotate because there are so many focus possibilities
12:34
What that means for autofocus is that the auto focus system, if there's going to be any kind
12:38
of focus speed, has to be a really robust one. And I have reviewed some macro lenses that
12:45
like the Sigma 70mm, F2.8, that were fairly painfully. slow. And of course, I really docked the Canon RF 85mm F2, you know, one to two macro because of the
12:56
autofocus system there, which was slow and loud and just really not all that great. Fortunately
13:02
nano-USM is my favorite of Canon's focus systems and this dual application means that Canon has
13:08
loaded the 100 millimeter with additional torque to make sure that it is fast and snappy in all
13:14
focus situations. And fortunately, that is in fact the case. There are a few, uh
13:19
flies in the ointment that will detail here, but overall, in general, focus quality is very good
13:24
You can see when I'm doing focus pools for video that they are smooth and confident. There's no
13:30
settling or pulsing. It just gets there, locks right on. Also, as I approach the camera in my
13:37
work clothes, I was heading to the construction site, so I look a little bit rough, but you can see that it does a
13:41
good job of tracking my roughness and making sure that everything is properly focused. So all of that is good. I
13:49
excellent focus results when doing a portrait series. In fact, I found back when I owned both this lens and the 135 millimeter F2 point
13:57
or F2L, which is an amazing portrait lens, I still ended up reaching for this lens in a lot of situations
14:03
for a couple of reasons. First of all the image stabilization which was a factor And then also just the focal length is a really fantastic one It was sharp had great bouquet That even more so here It a really good portrait results and no problem at
14:17
all with that. What I did find as far as the negatives is that when you stop down, unfortunately
14:24
this lens has a bit of focus shift. So for example, in this shot of Loki, I detect worked just
14:31
fine, but I was shooting at F5.6, and you'll see that the focus is actually shifted to where
14:36
the eye is not perfectly focused. I noted that more in my test charts when I was doing my testing
14:41
for sharpness. And so I went back out and kind of, you know, tried to confirm that. And I see that
14:46
Brian Carnathon and his review, he actually found a similar kind of result and actually confirmed it
14:53
with Canon's engineers. So that is an unfortunate reality that there are going to be some
14:57
situations where you're going to end up with autofocus having a little bit of a focus shift
15:02
which certainly is a problem. The other problem that I encountered, which unfortunately is a fairly
15:06
common one on, you know, Canon's current bodies, is that there's some situations where I had a
15:11
closer subject, and the lens just didn't want to focus closer. And so, you know, I had to, you know
15:17
resort to some tricks, either finding a really high contrast subject, you know, nearby and getting
15:22
focused to roughly the dimension I wanted, or resorting to some manual focus to get into the
15:27
the correct zone, then I could reengage auto focus. And so, you know, I got that focus result
15:33
before when I wanted to get this focus result. And so that was a bit of a liability. I don't know
15:37
that it's lens specific. I think it's more Canon focus system specific. And so anyway, just something
15:44
to watch out for there as well. But overall, even if I was working up close, I found that autofocus
15:51
worked just fine. And when I manually focused, like for most of my macro work, you know
15:57
you don't end up with the focus shift situation then because you're doing kind of like a real world
16:01
monitoring of where you're focused at. And so I got the results that I wanted. But anyway, you're
16:07
you know, you may find that your mileage varies a little bit with that. So just watch out for that
16:12
Focus speed is good though. Focus accuracy in most situations is good. Just be aware of that focus shift
16:17
issues and, you know, make sure that you're getting the focus results that you want. But as far as
16:23
improved speed. It's faster, it's quieter in operation than what the EF lens was and certainly
16:29
better for video capture in that regard. So a lot of good and a little bit of negative as a side
16:36
part of that. There's basically all good, however, to talk about when we discuss the image
16:41
quality performance. I had a quick look at the MTFs from Canon and found that the lens is
16:47
roughly equal to the EF lens in the center of the frame, which is to say excellent macro lenses
16:53
and to be very strong, about a 90% resolution at the 30 lines pair per millimeter
16:58
But in this case, there's much less of a drop as you go across the frame
17:02
and ending up at just right below 80%, even in the extreme corner
17:07
And so that best, the EF lens by a good bit, which, as we're going to see, agrees with what I saw
17:12
in my own real-world testing. So let's dive in and let's take a closer look at the image quality results from this lens
17:19
So first of all, let's take a look at Vignette and Distortion, fortunately of which neither is a
17:23
big deal. There is a minor amount of pincushion distortion, about a minus two, not enough, as you
17:29
can see, to really ruin any lines, and just enough to make it slightly more flattering for
17:33
portraiture. And also, you can see the vignette is not terrible, which is probably the most
17:38
surprising thing, since RF lenses have tended to be really heavy on that, but I only needed a
17:43
plus 42 to correct for vignette, so positive things there. Now, lateral chromatic aberrations
17:48
typically show up along the edges of the frame as some fringing on either side of high, and
17:53
high contrast lines. You can see in this real world shot and those transition areas near the edge of the
17:58
frame, very well controlled. No problem there. Now, in this very high contrast situation, you can see
18:04
some longitudinal chromatic aberration on either side of the plane of focus. So you can see a little bit
18:10
of green fringing after the plane of focus and a little bit of green fringing around some of these
18:14
bouquet circles in that early transition area. But as you move further out, obviously a non-issue
18:20
And frankly, you know, this is at a very, very high magnification level, 45 megapixels
18:26
It's not really a huge issue. You can see in this F5.6 version that most of those chromatic aberrations are now gone
18:34
There's just the tiniest bit of fringing that remains. And so in many cases, when you're shooting macro work, probably going to be stopped down a bit anyway
18:41
and you can see that it holds up nicely in that situation. So here's a look at our test chart
18:46
We're using the Canon EOS R5, so 45 megapixels. So let's take a look. This is a 200% magnification to really show off any flaws
18:55
And so in the center of the frame, nice crisp detail, very good performance, moving towards the midframe
19:01
Midframe looks excellent, really, really crisp. Right down into the corner, we can see that there's also a very good result
19:09
Criss detail right down to the corner, even as we go past the bill into this area
19:13
Everything is very high contrast in transition, an excellent wide open result, very even across the frame
19:20
Now, if we put the EF version side by side here, a few things will observe
19:25
Again, at 200% magnification. The one thing that I will say that does favor the EF version is that I think that light
19:31
transmission is a little bit better. There are a couple of more elements in the RF version, and so that might limit it
19:36
In the center of the frame, they both look basically equally good. Moving to the midframe, however, you start to see the advantage for the RF lens
19:45
It's just higher contrast, more crisp textures, moving down towards the bottom
19:50
bottom of the frame. You can see that while the light transmission does favor the EF version
19:56
you can see if you look at the text and the details here right off towards the edge of the frame
20:00
that the RF version is much higher. I mean, just look in this area right here, comparing
20:05
the two, a much stronger, more consistent result for the RF version. So to give you some ideas
20:11
of how F2.8 looks out in the real world, this is a portrait shot F2.8. You can see great contrast
20:18
great detail looks really exceptionally good. Another portrait shot, this full length, but you can see if you zoom into a pixel level
20:26
Also very crisp, you know, very strong result. Finally here, looking at this, a monochrome, but you can see just a tremendous amount of detail
20:36
very high contrast, even at F2.8. Now, if you can compare F2.8 to F4, we can see in the middle of the frame
20:45
there's not really a tremendous amount of difference. There may be a tiny bit more contrast here
20:51
but it's not particularly obvious. At the mid frame, again, very, very slightly more contrast
20:57
and a little bit better acuity. Mostly down here in the corner, I would say it's a little bit more consistently bright
21:03
across the frame and looks like a little bit higher contrast at F4 in the corner
21:08
So stopping down from F4 to F5.6, we see that focus shift that I referred to that the result at F5 actually looks a little bit less sharp in the center of the frame and it looks no sharper in the midframe However you know the corner looks a
21:24
little bit sharper. You can just tell that focus is a little less consistent here, and that's
21:30
just a factor that others have observed here that the lens does exhibit some focus shift as you
21:37
stop it down. You can see that here to F5.6 to F8 that both of them they just look a little bit
21:44
softer in the center of the frame the mid frame you know not a significant advantage and then
21:50
off into the corners you know the corners look really really great and that's just part of that
21:55
focus shift issue there now I observed it a little less in some of like the real world shots and so
22:01
here we have F5.6 versus F2.8 and so you can see here
22:07
that I would say that the F5.6 result looks a little bit sharper in this kind of situation
22:13
Not by a big margin. I can just see a little bit better contrast. And as we pan off looking
22:18
towards the distance, I think the F5.6 version looks just a little bit sharper. And so I don't see
22:24
it softening that kind of situation. And also my macro shots were nice and sharp. So our minimum
22:29
focus here is F32, very small, as tends to be the case with macro. The only problem, though, is that
22:36
diffraction on a 45 megapixel body set in a long time ago. So you can see some serious
22:41
softening of image due to diffraction and the way that that limits it. So as always, I typically
22:48
say about F11. If you're using a high resolution body, use F11 as a practical limit. Anything
22:54
beyond there, it's kind of a law of diminishing returns and I suspect you'll lose more than you
22:58
gain. So here we can see the higher degree of magnification that is possible with the RF lens versus
23:04
is the EF lens. And you can see that just looking at the contrast level
23:09
the RF lens is at least every bit as good, if not a bit more. And it's also doing that at a higher degree of magnification
23:16
Now, a typical strength for Canon lenses is some beautiful color rendition
23:20
This is basically right out of camera. And you can see that the color is really, really nice
23:25
in this shot as well. You can just see great detail and contrast
23:30
beautiful color, nice bouquet. This is a lens that's really nice. optically. In this case, you know, very narrow plane of focus, but you can see some nice
23:40
bouquet rendering, nice highlights there. This was one of my favorites here, you know, just a nice
23:46
very close magnification, but then the beautiful bocha beyond there, just made for what I thought was a
23:51
very special looking image. Also note here at F5.6 that again, manually focusing, I had no problem with
23:58
the focus shift. And truth be told, one of my credit cards, and so part of my name is there, I didn't
24:03
even actually know that it's set American Express down along here, but at this high degree of
24:08
magnification on my favorite of my Ridge wallets, you could just see that there's just a lot of
24:15
details that are being revealed there. Here on an old, this is a half dollar, I believe, but you can
24:22
see really high degree of magnification. I love, you know, looking at coins because you can actually
24:28
see all of the grain of the metal, something you just don't really see with the naked eye
24:33
all the little flaws that are there as a part of the process, just makes for a really interesting object
24:40
Here is another American coin. I think this is maybe an American silver dollar
24:46
but you can see there along the tip of the eagle feathers and then up into the F of there
24:53
I just love all of the great detail. This is a fun macro lens
24:57
and as you can see, it delivers really nice-looking bouquet as well. Another thing I thought the lens did better than average
25:03
was its flare resistance. The super spectra coatings are working really well
25:07
because this is very bright sun. I put another lens, a telephoto lens with a similar focal length
25:13
in the same situation. There was lots of ghosting artifacts, whether wide open or stopped down to F11
25:19
Here there are a few artifacts here at F11, but you can see that it's retaining contrast
25:24
really well, even with bright sun in the frame. Here's another image where I let even more of the sun in there
25:29
And basically you're just getting a localized, I think aesthetically pleasing kind of flare impact, but everywhere else contrast and detail looks great
25:38
So overall, a really good optical performance. So at the end of the day, this really is an excellent lens on a lot of levels
25:46
It's got a few quirks. The unfortunate focus shift is the major one of those
25:51
The spherical, you know, aberration control, SA control. To me, that's a bit of a gimmick
25:57
But I love the additional magnification beyond one to one to one point four times
26:02
I like the handling of the lens and I really like the look of images. You know, canning color is
26:06
typically excellent. It's got great pump, great pop, great contrast, and images at any kind of
26:12
focus distance just really looked excellent to me. So it's a lens that's really tempting to me on
26:17
that front. The, you know, the only remaining issue to discuss is the fact that the price, as it
26:23
seems to be the case with all of these new L-Series for RF, has grown. Whereas I paid, you know
26:30
somewhere under a thousand US dollars back in the day for this lens. The new lens retails at about
26:36
1,400 US. Now, an odd thing has happened. I did a long-term review of this lens in early 2020
26:42
At the time when I was reviewing the price point was 899 US. Right now, that price has crept up to
26:49
1,299 US. And so, I don't know if that's due to supply chain issues or if Canada's been creeping up
26:57
the prices on some of these lenses to make the new RF prices not seem so high. I don't know what the
27:02
cause is, but right now there's only $100 difference between these prices, the price of these two
27:07
lenses, but that does seem to be a little bit artificial to me because throughout all the history
27:12
of this lens, it has been much cheaper than that. And so unfortunately, as typical, we're paying a
27:18
price premium for these RF lenses. Fortunately, in this case, you do get some added value. And
27:23
frankly, if you are a macro photography that wants, you know, the best
27:27
or if you are a wedding photographer, this is a really intriguing lens because it produces beautiful images at all focused distances and opens up so many options in the world of macro photography
27:39
And so even at the higher price, I think it is worthy of your consideration
27:44
I'm Dustin Abbott. And if you look in the description down below, you can find linkage to the full text review, also to an image gallery if you want to look at photos
27:51
You can find linkage to our new channel, Let the Light and TV
27:55
I recommend that you go check that out and subscribe. there. There's also linkage there to purchase my merchandise, to follow Craig or I on social
28:03
media, to become a patron. And of course, if you haven't already, please click the subscribe
28:08
button right here on YouTube. Thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the light in