Canon RF 28mm F2.8 STM Review

Dustin Abbott

November 4th, 2023

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a Canon RF mount lens. Canon’s closed policy that has limited third party development looks like it will finally be changing at the end of 2023, but to this point it has meant that the only significant lenses for Canon RF mount are from Canon themselves. And I’ll be honest: for me, personally, there haven’t been a lot of home run first party lenses from Canon. Many are either very expensive or have critical flaws…or both. There have been a few exceptional lenses that I either own or would like to own, but if you’re on a tighter budget, the hidden gems have been pretty few and far between. But the Canon RF 28mm F2.8 STM might just be the compact, portable, and affordable prime lens that you’ve been looking for thanks to very good price to performance ratio. You can get my full thoughts by watching the video review below…and just keep reading.

Thanks to Camera Canada for getting me a loaner of the RF 28mm F2.8 STM. If you’re in Canada, check them out for a reliable online retailer. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Canon EOS R5, which I reviewed here.

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The last budget lens from Canon that I reviewed was the interesting Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM, a wide angle prime with both big flaws (huge barrel distortion, heavy vignette) but also big strengths (good autofocus, good sharpness and color). Like that lens, the new RF 28mm F2.8 STM comes to market at a price point of $299 USD, which means that only the RF 50mm F1.8 STM currently has a lower price among the full frame offerings from Canon. That makes this an important lens, as there are many people who have to stretch and save to get a new camera, and often there isn’t a lot left over to purchase lenses with. The RF 28mm is going to make sense both for those on a tight budget and also those who value as small and light of lenses as possible. This is a lens that is so short that from certain angles you can’t even see it around the camera grip.

The spiritual predecessor of this lens was actually the EF 28mm F2.8 IS USM lens, a true hidden gem from Canon released a little over ten years ago. Canon released both the EF 24mm and 28mm IS lenses at the same time, and while their maximum apertures didn’t excite anyone, what made them interesting was that they were the first Canon prime lenses with a focal length less than 100mm to receive Image Stabilization (IS). That made them interesting for video work, and while the 28mm was never a popular lens, it was always a highly rated one for its optical performance. That’s still true, as this tiny little lens can produce some stunningly good images.

Fast forward to 2023 and lens IS has become a little less important for the simple reason that the majority of camera released in the past four years include IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization), including the EOS R5 that I’m doing this review on. I will note that Canon has probably released more cameras without in camera stabilization than most other brands during this time, so there are certainly some of you who will notice the lack of image stabilization in the lens.

The other spiritual successor of this lens was also released in 2012, and it was the Canon EF 40mm F2.8 STM. This was Canon’s first “pancake” lens and also their first lens to receive the new-at-the-time STM or stepping motor. It was the beginning of the transition towards hybrid focus systems good for both video and stills that would become the standard on mirrorless cameras in the future. Like that lens, the RF 28mm F2.8 STM is a “pancake” style lens that is only 1″ (24.7mm) in length. It makes the compact 50mm F1.8 STM look hefty by comparison.

I actually really enjoyed the EF 40mm F2.8 STM and used it for several years, but this new RF 28mm lens is definitely superior in a number of ways and I think could definitely become a “hidden gem” for a lot of people. Will you be one of them?

Canon RF 28mm F2.8 STM Build and Handling

The Canon RF mount is a fairly large one in diameter, so most RF lenses don’t feel particularly small because their diameter is fairly big. But the RF 28mm manages to feel very small despite having a relatively huge diameter compared to the length. The lens is only 24.7mm long (under 1″) but is 69.2mm (2.7″) in diameter, giving it a very unusual lens profile.

The lens is extremely lightweight, weighing only 120g (4.2oz). Despite that very small weight, however, the lens doesn’t feel particularly “cheap” or plasticky. This is far remove from the “plastic fantastic” feel of the EF 50mm F1.8 II. The build is probably most similar to the RF 16mm F2.8 STM, which is similar to but just slightly better than the RF 50mm F1.8 STM. We’ve got a metal lens mount that feels sturdy and then engineered plastics for the barrel. A rear view also shows the 12 communication pins that the RF lens mount has which enables Canon to have more flexibility in lens design.

Almost no one does plastic lens mounts like the “cheap” Canon lenses used to have; it feels like build quality in general has been better on Canon’s RF lenses than was standard on similar EF lenses in the past. That’s the the good news.

The bad news is that Canon persists in the pettiest forms of “nickel and diming” with their consumer grade lenses. They never include a lens hood. The EW-55C lens hood will set you back an additional $45 so I suspect that 90% of purchasers will never bother with a lens hood. I didn’t have one on my test unit, but here’s a look at what one will look like should you purchase it.

The lens hood is a metal alloy, which sounds good, except that some have already noted that it adds a fair bit of weight to the package, which kind of defeats the purpose.

As is the case with all non-L Canon lenses, there is no weather sealing of any kind on the lens or any kind of included case or pouch. There are any number of third party brands producing lenses for other platforms that would include weather sealing, a hood, and a case for a similar price. It just feels like stubbornness by Canon at this point.

That rant aside, the RF 28mm follows a very similar design language to most similar RF lenses with several accent rings in a platinum color and the diamond pattern texture of the multi-purpose ring adding some variety to the look of the lens. The outer shell is durable, resistant to marking or scratching. The new Canon RF finish is matte and lightly flocked, making it resistant to finger prints and scratching. My long term experience with other similar lenses is that they hold up well over the long haul and look pretty much the same after years of use. My “old” RF 50mm F1.8 STM looks pretty much as new as the new RF 28mm despite years of use.

One area of improvement that while I could see a visible seam on the barrels of the RF 16mm and 50mm lenses, I don’t spot anything similar here. You’ll note from the photo above that the control switch is actually on a raised area on the lens that adds a few contour lines and more variety to the lens. The switch is mounted transversely to better fit in the narrow space, and I would say that the quality of the movement in the switch feels a little better than those previous budget lenses. M

I also like the way they’ve handled the switch options. Rather than just a choice between “control” and “focus”, they’ve essentially put an AF/MF switch here with a middle option for the control ring. I’ve complained in past reviews of the RF 16mm and 50mm lenses that when you chose “focus” you didn’t actually engage manual focus (you still had to select that in the camera). But this new approach is much better, as you actually have three choices here. The AF selection means that the front control ring will do nothing (which is what some people want at times). The Control option enables the ring to function in whatever capacity you have chosen in camera – an aperture ring, a focus compensation wheel, etc… But selecting MF is where the core improvement is, in that you can directly engage manual focus from the switch and just start manual focusing. My only complaint is that the detent at the “Control” setting isn’t defined enough. It takes a fair bit of force to start movement on either the AF or MF side and it is easy to slip past the Control setting to either the AF or MF position beyond.

I feel like the manual focus action itself is improved over earlier lenses. The damping on the tiny ring is pretty good, and while there is some feeling of inertia with big focus changes (you can tell it is focus by wire and the focus motor is moving things), it is reasonably well masked and I felt like I could fine tune focus with precision. I continue to LOVE Canon’s “focus guide”; it really does give great precision to manual focusing.

The diamond pattern texture on the ring makes for nice grip and feel and there is no feeling of “detents” here, so video shooters might enjoy setting the control to aperture and having a reasonable “declicked” aperture experience.

Up front we have a 55mm filter thread that will be replicated if you use the lens hood.

Clearly the standout about the build is how compact everything is. This could be the lens that really changes how you pack out your camera. I did my review on the fairly large Canon EOS R5, but if you use this on a small camera like an R8, the total weight with camera and lens would only be 581g! Not quite point and shoot territory, but you can see that even on the R5 the overall package is very compact.

The aperture iris is made up of 7 rounded aperture blades which help keep the aperture reasonably circular, though even here at F5.6 you can see that the shape isn’t purely round.

The minimum focus distance is 23cm (9.1″), which is useful in several ways. It’s not so close that you have to be right on top of your subject to get good magnification, but it also delivers a reasonable 0.17x magnification at that distance, which looks like this:

That’s not incredibly high, obviously, but enough to get a reasonably blurred background for some shots.

As noted in the intro, the RF 28mm doesn’t have image stabilization, but that wasn’t a problem on my Canon EOS R5. That might be a problem if you are using one of Canon’s cameras without IBIS, however, so keep that in mind.

While I will continue to beat the drum of complaining about Canon’s rigid policies regarding weather sealing and lens hoods on non-L lenses, I do think the RF 28mm F2.8 STM is a fairly nicely built little lens that handles well for being less than an inch long.

Autofocus and Video Performance

Canon has equipped the RF 28mm F2.8 STM with a “gear type” STM motor. STM is the lower tier of their autofocus motors, with the best lenses getting a linear-style Nano-USM motor. How happy you are with the autofocus performance from the RF 28mm is largely going to depend on your expectations and what you are doing with it.

If you read the marketing language attached the photo above, you might be led to believe that this focus motor is silent in operation. Canon says “exceptionally quiet”. It’s this kind of thing that makes me scratch my head, as Canon seems to be operating in a vacuum where their standard of comparison is to their own older EF mount lenses and not what’s available across the board on other platforms. It is true that compared to lenses equipped with old micro-motors the RF 28mm is exceptionally quiet, but if you compare it to the focus motors from just about every modern lens makers, it doesn’t even rank as particularly quiet; I would place it bottom 30% for quietness. Focus noise is not loud, but there is an audible whirring/scratchy sound as the focus elements move. I can hear it even when holding the camera at waist level. I’m currently also reviewing an autofocus lens from TTArtisan, and they just started producing autofocus lenses this year…but the STM focus motor on that lens is definitely quieter than the Canon…and it retails for only $125. That’s not to dunk on Canon, as all camera companies tend towards hyperbole in their marketing language, but it is fair to say that the focus motor is not particularly quiet by modern standards. Fortunately the modern standard for autofocus motors is very quiet…so this focus motor is a reasonably (but not exceptionally) quiet one.

I had excellent focus accuracy on my EOS R5 across a wide range of subjects and focus distances.

It’s easier to see in the video review, but when I moved the camera around even in stills mode you could instantly see the camera/lens tracking the eye. What’s easy to see here, however, is how precise the focus was in this shot of Nala:

Eye AF accuracy was good (as we expect at this point), but I also found accuracy very good with non-trackable subjects like this autumn leaf against a complex background.

I did my autofocus speed tests indoors and outdoors, and found AF-C/Servo-AF autofocus changes near instant outdoors and just a bit slower indoors. The actual autofocus change is near instant, but there’s a bit of lag before focus begins as the motor develops inertia.

For stills work I think that most everyone will be satisfied with the autofocus performance. It’s fast enough, quiet enough, and definitely accurate enough.

Things get a little more complicated when you turn to the video side of things, however.

When doing my autofocus pulls test for video I found the lag before focus changes far more pronounced. It feels like Canon has “detuned” the focus speed to allow for smoother focus transitions, and, while I don’t see any visible steps, what I do see is a fairly lengthy pause while inertia builds before the focus change. This is further highlighted by a fairly heavy focus breathing, which really draws your attention to the moment when focus changes.

That caused some issues with my hand test, as the lens is not at all responsive to sudden changes, so I either reveal or conceal my face with my hand before the lens, and, initially, it would be as if nothing had changed, and only after that pause would focus slide to either my face or my hand. That delay actually caused me to have to reshoot the test multiple times and hold the transitions longer, as at first I wasn’t even sure that autofocus was engaged.

Things work best when the autofocus has the ability to gradually move in a linear direction, as if when moving slowly towards a subject. It’s when the lens has to make a significant focus change that the transition is jarring.

For video I would primarily use this lens either for static shots or shots with small, gradual focus changes. Any big focus changes are going to show a lot of focus breathing.

In summation: I like the autofocus accuracy for stills, and the focus speed and quietness are largely fine. The minor flaws for autofocus during photos are magnified during video capture, however, so I wouldn’t call this a great video option.

Canon RF 28mm F2.8 STM Image Quality

The Canon RF 28mm F2.8 STM has an optical design of 8 elements in 6 groups (that’s a lot of glass packed into that small of a lens!) That includes what seems to be a protective layer of glass deep in the lens mount. There are three aspheric elements in the optical design, and that adds up to a lens with a surprisingly strong MTF chart (particularly for a pancake lens!)

The MTF suggest a sharp center, an even sharper mid frame, and with sharpness and contrast only dropping at the very edge of the frame. Real world results look great, to my eye, with excellent detail and contrast. Look at how much detail is in this shot of drying autumn weeds.

That’s very impressive (and on a 45MP body!). I didn’t have a Canon APS-C body on hand, but that particular sharpness profile (MTF) speaks of a lens that will translate to APS-C extremely well, as that bit of drop-off at the edge of the frame will be cropped off. Canon’s APS-C crop will make this lens behave like a 45mm lens…a focal length I personally love. Here’s a few shots taken on the APS-C mode of my EOS-R5 – they definitely look very sharp.

We’ll work through the chart results by first looking at distortion and vignette. Canon has definitely taken to really relying on a software layer to correct for these issues on many of their recent lenses, and that’s definitely the case here.

The RF 16mm F2.8 was one of the worst offenders in this area that I’ve ever seen, but fortunately the less extreme nature of the focal length makes for a milder amount of distortion. I used a +21 to straighten the lines in the middle, but you can see that the distortion pattern isn’t completely linear, so that left a bit of a flaring out in the corners. The standard correction profile does a cleaner job with those lines, though I do see a bit of unevenness in those lines.

Good enough for most applications, though. The vignette is another story, however, requiring me to max out the sliders to fully eliminate the vignette at F2.8 (a +100 correction).

What you see in the viewfinder is the corrected look (like the image above), so that’s what I thought I was framing, though the unedited RAW file first shown (left side) shows that Canon leaves plenty of room for correction. I actually had a little more usable image when doing a manual correction, though that’s less of a factor with a 28mm lens as opposed to an ultra wide where you want as much width as possible.

How about chromatic aberrations?

My tests showed little longitudinal chromatic aberrations before and after the plane of focus. You can see a bit of green fringing after the plane of focus here, though the foreground is very neutral.

I also see little fringing on any of the shiny surfaces of this old SLR in this image. My experience says that this kind of image can be disastrous for lenses that suffer with fringing.

Lateral Chromatic Aberrations usually show up along the edges of the frame as fringing on either side of high contrast areas. If I turn corrections off, I do see a little bit of fringing at 100% viewing, but there isn’t anything to see if I turn corrections back on.

The RF 28mm doesn’t quite escape this section unscathed, but neither is there anything fatal here. All pancake lenses require some compromises to achieve their small size, but I would say that Canon has done an effective job of mitigating those issues.

So how about resolution and contrast? All chart tests done with a Canon EOS R5 (45MP) using a tripod and a two second timer. Here’s a look at my test chart:

And here are the crops (at roughly 180% magnification) from the center, mid-frame, and extreme corner shot at F2.8:

This shows just want the MTF charts suggest. This is a very sharp lens, with excellent sharpness across the frame. Even the corners look quite good.

This is really important when you have a maximum aperture of just F2.8 in a prime lens, as it means that can shoot wide open and get excellent sharpness. You can use smaller apertures as a tool to increase depth of field, not to have to get sufficient sharpness. F2.8 delivers plenty of sharpness even when composed close to the edge.

That helps with low light performance as you can shoot with the aperture wide open. I brought ISO up to 1600 for this low light photo (with only a 1/25th shutter speed), but you can see the image still looks great.

Sharpness further improves at F4 with contrast visibly improving in the center:

…and into the corners:

Stopping on down to F5.6 gives just a little more sparkle everywhere:

That means that real world images at smaller apertures just look fantastic, with great contrast and detail everywhere.

Obviously a little prime lens like this doesn’t have the flexibility or features of Canon’s expensive RF 24-70mm F2.8L IS, but it is delivering similar image quality…at least at 28mm.

Sharpness peaks at F5.6, and is only a tiny bit worse at F8 due to diffraction, but by F22 the image will be very softened due to diffraction.

$40-Diffraction$

The bokeh quality from the RF 28mm is also fairly good. F2.8 is not a huge maximum aperture, so backgrounds will rarely turn into that magical “cream” that extremely large aperture lenses can create. When used up close, however, the bokeh looks pretty good.

Step back a bit and choose a more challenging scene, and the bokeh can get a little busy.

This image falls somewhere in between, as there is more edges on some of the out-of-focus textures than what I would like, but there is still some nice subject separation and the image looks pleasing.

But I’m reminded this is a pancake lens, and for such a small optic, this is a pretty nice end result.

I also noted that the RF 28mm handled bright specular highlights pretty well. There was no issue with “onion-bokeh” or similar issues.

Canon and Fuji are my favorites for color rendition, and I was reminded when processing images from the RF 28mm and my EOS R5 how much I do enjoy Canon’s color science.

Here’s another image that shows up that nice balance of saturation without lending to garishness.

Flare resistance is not a particular strength for this little lens. When I worked with bright, directional sunlight I saw a lot of different flare artifacts, including blobs of color, loss of contrast, and prismatic blooming. I also didn’t find that I could produce a particularly well defined sunstar.

Hmmm, it would be nice to have a lens hood included, no?

I’ve used or reviewed half a dozen pancake lenses at this point, but none of them deliver quite this level of optical performance. This is a very strong little lens optically, and I would argue that its optics are as good as any non-L lens in Canon’s currently lineup. You can see many more beautiful images by visiting the image gallery here.

Conclusion

It’s been a while since I’ve been excited by a new non-L Canon lens, but I really like the Canon RF 28mm F2.8 STM. It’s far from a flawless lens, but it is a surprisingly complete one for a pancake lens. This is a lens that doesn’t take up much more room than a front cap for your camera, and yet can produce any number of stunning images.

Pancake lenses are fun because they give you a completely different perspective on your larger cameras. They are discrete and “cute” in a way normal lenses are not. Not everyone loves the 28mm focal length, but I dare you to try out this particular lens and focal length and discover just how useful it can be.

This is also a great option for those shooting with an RF mount APS-C camera, as at the time of this review there are still very few RF-S lenses…and nothing like this. This lens actually reminds me of the EF-M 22mm F2, a lens that I got a lot of joy out of during my time with the Canon M system. I used that lens a lot while vacationing and was just so impressed by the quality of images I could get out of that lightweight combination. I can get even better images with this lens on the superior Canon EOS R5 sensor, and the RF 28mm F2.8 is easily sharp enough to handle that high resolution point. There haven’t been many lenses on Canon RF to date that quality as a bargain, but this just might be one. At $299 USD, it’s not incredibly cheap, but it is a lot of lens (at least in one sense) for the money!

Pros:

Less than an inch long
Extremely lightweight
Improved design to AF | MF | Control
Ring moves smoothly and with good damping
Autofocus is reasonably quick and quiet
Good focus accuracy
Extremely sharp lens…particularly for a pancake
Fringing well controlled
Good color
Fairly good price
Good option for APS-C shooters, too

Cons:

Lens hood not included
No weather sealing
Significant focus breathing
Significant barrel distortion
Very heavy vignette
Flare issues

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Keywords: Canon RF 28mm F2.8, Canon RF 28mm F2.8 STM, Canon RF 28mm Review, Review, STM, F2.8, RF, F/2.8, Canon RF 28 Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, Canon EOS R6, EOS R6 Review, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, 45Mpx, 45MP, Canon, letthelightin

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Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM Review

Dustin Abbott

November 17th, 2022

One of my absolute favorite lenses in the Canon EF mount was the Canon EF 35mm F2 IS. I loved the form factor, the image quality, the great autofocus, and the very helpful Image Stabilization. It featured a nice magnification level of 0.24x, too, allowing for fun close up shots. This was the lens that I was reminded of when I pulled the new Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM lens out of the box. It has a very similar form factor. Of course, the RF24M (as I’ll call it for brevity in this review) is also highly similar to the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 Macro IS STM that I reviewed in 2019. Canon is slowly but surely starting to build out their lens catalog of decent lenses that aren’t $1500-3000 in price, and the RF24M at a price point of $599 USD joins the recent RF 16mm F2.8 (my review here), the aforementioned 35mm F1.8 Macro, and the RF 85mm F2 Macro IS (my review here) as lenses that that help fill that space.

The 24mm, 35mm, and 85mm lenses mentioned here all carry the designation of “macro”, but these aren’t 1:1 macro lens. They are 1:2 macro lenses, which means that they can only deliver one-half life size magnification, or 0.50x. That remains extremely useful, of course, but there are some limitations. Perhaps the greatest limitation is the fact they all of these lenses rely on extremely close focus to achieve their magnification, and that’s most extreme on the RF24M. Minimum focus distance is just 14cm (5.5”), but the problem is that the lens takes up 9 of those centimeters, and the inner barrel extends an additional centimeter at close focus distances. That leaves just 4 cm (about 1.57”) left between the lens and the subject, which means that it is very difficult to NOT shade your subject with the camera/lens, and you definitely will be scaring off any live critter you might have wanted to get a close focus shot of. Macro(ish) work is going to be better served by choosing subjects that won’t get scared off by close proximity to the camera…and that you have a means of getting some light on.

Fortunately Nala is not at all scared of the camera, and while this isn’t a macro shot, per se, it is probably my favorite photo I got with the lens during my review.

I was actually trying to get this shot of an old, rusty lock, but the curiosity of a kitten means that I cannot do any photography on the floor without interference. This gives you a little better sense of what you can achieve with close focus.

I’ve got some consistent gripes with Canon’s design and packaging philosophy with it’s non-L-series lenses, but I’m extremely happy nonetheless to see mid-level lenses like the RF24M come available. The R system needs a strong compliment of affordable lenses that aren’t just bargain optics but actually competent, and the RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS seems to fill that role. I continue to disagree with Canon’s decision to close their platform (for now, at least) to third party lens development, but it is that in large part which makes lenses like this one so important.

Canon’s engineers have shown that they are capable of producing very sharp wide angle lenses in recent years, though at the cost of certain other optical flaws – namely vignette and distortion. That very much remains true here, but the RF24M is also a very flexible tool that can create some great images. Many people love the RF 35mm F1.8 Macro IS, and the new 24mm gives a similar lens with a different focal length that some prefer. If that happens to be you, you can read this text review or watch my video review to help decide if the RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM should be the next lens for you.

Thanks to Camera Canada for getting me a loaner of the RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS. If you’re in Canada, check them out for a reliable online retailer. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Canon EOS R5, which I reviewed here.

Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM Build and Handling

The RF24M is, in concept, the kind of lens that I love. It is reasonably compact at only 2.9″ (74.4mm) in diameter and 2.5″ (63.1mm) in length and weighs in at a diminutive 9.5oz (270g). It is nearly identical in size to the RF 35mm f1.8. They both share a common 52mm front filter thread as well. The lens profile is that squat prime look that frankly looks really good on the camera.

The combination of a 24mm focal length (a preferred walk-around focal length of many) along with the extremely close focus abilities of the RF24M make it an extremely versatile option, and the compact size and light weight make it an easy lens to pack along.

While Canon has moved to including IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization) in almost all of their newer cameras they also continue to value in-lens stabilization (IS). The IS in the lens is rated for 5 stops but works in conjunction with IBIS (if your camera is so-equipped) and Canon rates the combined stabilization of up to 6.5 stops of correction. Tack sharp results at shutter speeds like the 1/10th or 1/15th of a second are effortless, as shown here:

You can go even slower, obviously, but it’s rare situations where I feel the need for extremely low shutter speeds handheld. In this case, however, it allowed me to stay at ISO 3200 for this shot rather than jacking up the ISO to noisier values.

The RF24M has Canon’s typical consumer-grade build quality. It feels better than the budget EF 50mm F1.8 STM but not at the level of most recent third party lenses from Tamron and Sigma on other platforms.. The RF24M unfortunately highlights the fact that Canon seems intent on persisting in one of their more foolish trends – not including weather sealing or a lens hood on non-L series lenses. This policy seems even more archaic when one considers that essentially all the competition at any price includes a lens hood, and I’ve also noted that weather sealing of some kind is now included on more lenses than not. Canon’s policy was fine back in the day when third party alternatives were budget options that were typically rough around the edges, but in the modern market, many third-party lenses are extremely competent and are often more polished than first party alternatives. I think Canon is doing itself a disservice here, as in many cases people will not purchase a separate lens hood (the EW-65B costs an additional $50) and thus never get the basic benefit of a lens hood (added flare resistance and protection of the lens). Vello makes an inexpensive alternative hood for about $15.

The body design of the RF24M is engineered plastics around a metal lens mount. It has a matte finish that is similar to other recent Canon lenses and also has the additional stylish platinum accent area that matches where the lens mounts to the camera body.

There are two switches (On/Off for the IS and AF/MF) on the side of the barrel. They are low profile (no inadvertent bumping) and move precisely. There is also a manual focus ring located in the center of the lens. This being a mirrorless lens with an STM focus motor, there is not direct mechanical coupling to the lens elements, so manual input on the focus ring is routed through the focus motor (focus-by-wire). As per usual, there are limitations to this approach, including less tactile response and no hard stops in either direction. On a positive note, the camera body will show an electronic distance scale on either the viewfinder or the LCD when input is detected, so this helps.

The RF standard control ring is located near the front of the lens and can be programmed in camera to a variety of different functions. A couple practical ones to me include Aperture (you can use it essentially like an aperture ring) and (my current choice) Exposure Compensation. The control ring has a different texture to it than the manual focus ring to help distinguish between the two.

There are nine rounded aperture blades in the aperture iris, and this does a fairly good job of keeping a circular shape as the lens is stopped down. Here’s a look at the bokeh geometry at F1.8, F2, and F2.8.

Even at F2.8 you can see very little of the aperture blade shape.

As noted, The RF24M is not entirely an internally focusing lens, though most all of the barrel extension comes in the “macro” range. You will probably want to enable the “Retract Lens on Power Off” setting to make sure that the inner barrel is not extended during storage. It feels like that could be a point of vulnerability.

In many ways the build quality of the RF24M is fine. I suspect the lens will be durable and it handles nicely. I like the form factor. What I don’t love is that Canon continues to expect the market to be fine with them offering less for the $600 USD price tag. No weather sealing, no lens hood, no case or pouch. I know that they are capable of better!

Autofocus and Video Performance

Canon has given the RF 24mm F1.8 a Lead-Screw-type STM motor, which is the more robust version of STM that Canon employs. The Lead-Screw STM are typically faster and quieter than the cheaper Gear-Type STM motors, and, while I don’t like either as well as Canon’s Nano-USM lenses, the autofocus performance of this type of STM motor is clearly better than the cheaper version.

For many applications, the speed and quietness is just fine. I noticed little focus noise during normal operations. Eye AF works very accurately and makes this an appealing option for vlogging and moving with the camera an arm’s length away. I found that even just handholding the camera and lens (EOS R5) made for a fairly stable and natural environment for moving around in. I saw good accuracy with both human and animal subjects.

Most focus changes for stills happen quickly and without much drama. The lens is not completely silent in focus, but sound is minimal. And, most importantly, I saw very good focus accuracy.

I shot in several different low light situations with the lens and found that focus continued to be confident, though there could be a little more hunting if it didn’t find a good contrast edge. This shot has the added benefit of being only 1/4th second shutter speed, which shows off the solid IS performance as well.

Things are a little less rosy for video. Video focus pulls are mostly smooth, but they are certainly not fast. Even when doing the test when I put my hand in front of the camera and allowing focus to then snap back to my eye there were was some delay before focus began to move to the desired spot. I didn’t notice a significant amount of focus breathing, though there is a bit.

The focus system is not the peak of sophistication (there’s more noise and less torque than the best modern focus systems), but in general focus was accurate along with being fairly smooth and quiet. I have no major complaints here.

Canon RF24M Image Quality

I was unable to find an MTF chart for the RF 24m F1.8 Macro IS STM, but I will obviously share my own findings. In general I felt like the results from the lens were quite good, but there is some unfortunately familiar Canon optical flaws.

The worst of these is going to be found when we look at the vignette and distortion results.

Canon has become completely dependent on electronic correction in too many of their lenses – even some L-series lenses. It’s not unusual (as it is here) to find that you have framed something like my chart in the viewfinder and then find that the RAW image is actually considerably wider than what I saw in the viewfinder or on the LCD. There is a strong amount of barrel distortion without the correction.

I had to dial in a fairly massive about of correction here (a +33) to correct the distortion and nearly maxed out the slider to correct for the vignette. What’s unusual for a lens with so much distortion, however, is that the nature of the distortion is very linear. I was able to achieve a nearly perfect manual correction, which was a pleasant surprise. Also interesting is that the fully corrected image is still considerably wider than the profile corrected image. I just did a “constrain crop” that removes the distorted portion of the image left after correction, and got a file output of 7536 x 5026 (about 37MP):

If I crop to the same dimensions as the JPEG image (what I saw in the viewfinder) I end up with dimensions of 6978 x 4657 (about 32.5MP).

What’s interesting is that the RAW image that receives the profile correction outputs at full size (45MP), though clearly the image has been deeply cropped from the original RAW (which is somehow the EXACT same size!). The only solution to this is that there is some upscaling that takes place after the correction/crop, and, sure enough, if I look at my manual corrected and cropped file at 100% and compare it to the outputted file with the profile correction, the detail looks better in what I’ve manually outputted.

Hmmm. Pro tip. If you want a wider perspective, shoot in RAW, manually correct, and then just “constrain crop”. You end up with significantly more in the frame, which could be very useful when shooting interiors or even landscape shots. You can see what I mean if you compare the edges of the frame in this comparison where I’ve used that technique.

The good news is that as a first party lens, it receives “Cadillac” profile treatment. The correction profiles in camera (JPEG and Video) are augmented by excellent profiles in Lightroom and other software for RAWs. I don’t love this approach, but we are going to have to accept the reality that Canon is designing lenses like this with the idea that electronics are part of the process to give the desired optical result. You can see that the “curved bridge” becomes a “straight bridge” after the correction profile is added.

There are limits. You’ll want to be careful about putting people near the edge of the frame as the act of correcting will stretch and distort them.

Because the correction works well, however, it will do in a pinch for shooting interior spaces, though obviously a lens with lower native distortion is a more logical choice if your shooting priorities include real estate or architectural work.

You are also always going to want to correct the vignette in most all situations, which is fine other than the fact that you can end up with some additional noise in the edges of the frame when correcting at higher vignette. Bottom line is that this is a lens (much like the 14-35mm F4L IS, the 16mm F2.8, and the 35mm F1.8) are VERY reliant on profile corrections.

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) typically show up as purple/magenta fringing before the plane of focus and blue/green fringing beyond the plane of focus due to colors not being perfectly focused together. They typically diminish as the lens is stopped down to smaller apertures. The RF24M does show a bit of LoCA (like you can see above in this crop from a macro shot of my Dad’s old camera) but I didn’t find it overly destructive, either.

This shot of dried weeds with light pouring through them is about the worse that I could find.

Lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) are a little less pronounced. They show up as fringing on either side of contrast areas (like tree trunks, for example) along the edges of the frame. Unlike LoCA, they do not improve when stopping the aperture down, but are much easier to correct for (typically a one click “remove chromatic aberrations” box in editing software). There’s a minor amount of Lateral CA near the edges of the frame.

There are 11 elements in 9 groups here including a UD (ultra-low dispersion) element and one aspherical lens in the optical formula.

Does that do the job for optical performance? Here’s a look at my chart globally at F2.8, taken with the 45MP Canon EOS R5:

The following are near 200% crops from the center, mid-frame, and extreme lower right corner.

What we find is exceptional resolution and contrast in the center, very good performance in the mid-frame, and really a quite decent corner performance. This is a slightly better than expected optical performance, and I think it is backed with real results. Look at how crisp the textures are on Ferrari here.

Likewise this landscape shot at F1.8, which looks great in the center and still fairly good on the edges.

Stopping down to F2 produces slightly higher contrast across the frame, with a bigger jump happening at F2.8. There’s quite a noticeable difference in corner performance from F2 to F2.8:

There’s very slight additional gains at F4 and F5.6, and very slight regressions at each stop after that. At these landscape apertures details look crisp across the frame:

But in real world use, I’m pretty delighted by the amount of sharpness I get on my high resolution R5, and the lens would look even better on less punishing lower resolution bodies.

This autumn leaf shows nice detail and a fairly soft background beyond.

Let’s talk about the bokeh quality. This isn’t an L-series lens in terms of the optical performance, but frankly the bokeh quality isn’t bad. In some situations it is nice and soft:

Generally the closer you are to the subject the better the bokeh quality, as things can get a little busy in the transition zone:

Here’s a few more samples at difference focus distances to let you evaluate it for yourself.

As noted, this is called a macro lens though some debate whether a 1:2 level of magnification constitutes true macro. At the least, however, a 1:2 magnification (0.50x) is still extremely useful, allowing you to fill the frame with subjects (like my standard bill from my test chart).

This link of rusted chain stands out nicely isolated from the rest of the strand.

Maybe not true macro, but definitely useful!

Canon claims that the lens has received Super Spectra coatings that improve the resistance to flare. Flare resistance is fairly good, with only some minimal ghosting artifacts and no veiling. The sunburst from the 9-bladed aperture is pleasing as well.

While I didn’t get to shoot stars during my review period, I did shoot a city scene and found some less than desirable results along the edge of the frame.

There are better astro options out there.

So, not a performance without flaws, obviously, but also with some real strengths (and versatility), and in general I was happy with the kinds of images I could get with the RF24M and how they looked.

As always, I would recommend that you check out the image galleries to see a greater variety of photos and get a sense of the lens performance for yourself.

Conclusion

I didn’t love the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 Macro IS when I reviewed it, and while the RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM is similar in so many ways, I actually feel more positive about it. Yes, it has way too much distortion and vignette, but it also nice and strong in a lot of different areas, including delivering a fairly strong macro performance.

What really stands out is the versatility of a lens like this. You can do a LOT of different photography with a lens like this, from up close work, to walk around and street, to landscape and environmental portraits.

The RF24M is not going to compete with L series lenses optically, but I also found that images had a fairly good pop to them and I generally liked the look of them other than shots where the bokeh got a little busy. Some people love the 24mm focal length, and if that describes you, then the Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM is a lens that will probably become a favorite even if also sports a few flaws.

Maybe you’ll want to go out and grab one…like this:

Pros:

Lovely form factor
Extremely versatile lens
Focus accuracy is very high
Stable AF tracking on eyes for vlogging
Good up close performance
Good wide open performance
Good flare resistance
Good color

Cons:

Extreme distortion
Very heavy vignette
Coma performance isn’t good
No lens hood or weather sealing

Gear Used:

Purchase the Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 IS STM @ B&H | Amazon | Camera Canada Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | | Camera Canada | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

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Keywords: Canon RF 24mm F1.8, Macro, IS, Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM, Canon RF 24mm Review, Review, STM, F1.8, RF, F/1.8, Canon RF 24 Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, Canon EOS R6, EOS R6 Review, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, 45Mpx, 45MP, Canon, letthelightin

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM Gallery

Dustin Abbott

November 17th, 2022

One of my absolute favorite lenses in the Canon EF mount was the Canon EF 35mm F2 IS. I loved the form factor, the image quality, the great autofocus, and the very helpful Image Stabilization. It featured a nice magnification level of 0.24x, too, allowing for fun close up shots. This was the lens that I was reminded of when I pulled the new Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM lens out of the box. It has a very similar form factor. Of course, the RF 24mm (as I’ll call it for brevity in this review) is also highly similar to the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 Macro IS STM that I reviewed in 2019. Canon is slowly but surely starting to build out their lens catalog of decent lenses that aren’t $1500-3000 in price, and the RF 24mm at a price point of $599 USD joins the recent RF 16mm F2.8 (my review here), the aforementioned 35mm F1.8 Macro, and the RF 85mm F2 Macro IS (my review here) as lenses that that help fill that space.

The 24mm, 35mm, and 85mm lenses mentioned here all carry the designation of “macro”, but these aren’t 1:1 macro lens. They are 1:2 macro lenses, which means that they can only deliver one-half life size magnification, or 0.50x. That remains extremely useful, of course, but there are some limitations. Perhaps the greatest limitation is the fact they all of these lenses rely on extremely close focus to achieve their magnification, and that’s most extreme on the RF24M. Minimum focus distance is just 14cm (5.5”), but the problem is that the lens takes up 9 of those centimeters, and the inner barrel extends an additional centimeter at close focus distances. That leaves just 4 cm (about 1.57”) left between the lens and the subject, which means that it is very difficult to NOT shade your subject with the camera/lens, and you definitely will be scaring off any live critter you might have wanted to get a close focus shot of. Macro(ish) work is going to be better served by choosing subjects that won’t get scared off by close proximity to the camera…and that you have a means of getting some light on.

Fortunately Nala is not at all scared of the camera, and while this isn’t a macro shot, per se, it is probably my favorite photo I got with the lens during my review.

I was actually trying to get this shot of an old, rusty lock, but the curiosity of a kitten means that I cannot do any photography on the floor without interference. This gives you a little better sense of what you can achieve with close focus.

I’ve got some consistent gripes with Canon’s design and packaging philosophy with it’s non-L-series lenses, but I’m extremely happy nonetheless to see mid-level lenses like the RF24M come available. The R system needs a strong compliment of affordable lenses that aren’t just bargain optics but actually competent, and the RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS seems to fill that role. I continue to disagree with Canon’s decision to close their platform (for now, at least) to third party lens development, but it is that in large part which makes lenses like this one so important.

Canon’s engineers have shown that they are capable of producing very sharp wide angle lenses in recent years, though at the cost of certain other optical flaws – namely vignette and distortion. That very much remains true here, but the RF24M is also a very flexible tool that can create some great images. Many people love the RF 35mm F1.8 Macro IS, and the new 24mm gives a similar lens with a different focal length that some prefer. If that happens to be you, you can read the text review or watch my video review to help decide if the RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM should be the next lens for you…or just check out the photos below.

Thanks to Camera Canada for getting me a loaner of the RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS. If you’re in Canada, check them out for a reliable online retailer. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Canon EOS R5, which I reviewed here.

Photos of the Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM

Photos Taken with the Canon RF 24mm F1.8

Gear Used:

Purchase the Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 IS STM @ B&H | Amazon | Camera Canada Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | | Camera Canada | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Get a discount off all Skylum Editing Software (Luminar, Aurora HDR, AirMagic) by using code DUSTINHDR at checkout:
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

Keywords: Canon RF 24mm F1.8, Macro, IS, Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM, Canon RF 24mm Review, Review, STM, F1.8, RF, F/1.8, Canon RF 24 Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, Canon EOS R6, EOS R6 Review, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, 45Mpx, 45MP, Canon, letthelightin

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM Review

Dustin Abbott

September 9th, 2022

Canon has been a new roll in the mirrorless space since with a run of amazing cameras that began with the EOS R5 (my review here) and EOS R6 (my review here), and then carrying on to the high end sports model EOS R3 (my review here) and its APS-C counterpart, the EOS R7 (my review is in the process). I’ve had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Canon in the mirrorless space, though, as while I love some of these new cameras, the RF mount remains closed to third party development, which really limits lens choice. I think Canon is making a mistake here, personally, but as of September 2022 when I am working on this review, this remains status quo. That means that (for now) we are wholly dependent on Canon to provide us a variety of necessary lenses at the various price points and performance levels that a market that runs from amateurs with minimal budgets to working professionals requires. One of my primary complains has been that in many cases the lenses for the EOS R cameras have been priced higher than the cameras themselves, with few lenses under $1000 USD and the majority over $2000. Canon has slowly been addressing this with a new spate of lens releases including some more affordable options, though while there are currently 11 Canon RF prime (fixed focal length) lenses, only about half of those can be had for under $1000…and only three for $500 or less. That list includes the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 Macro IS (my review here) – Canon RF 85mm F2 IS STM when it is on sale (my review here), and the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM. (my review here). Fortunately we can add one more very useful lens to that list, the lens we are here to review today, the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the announcement of the RF 16mm because of the affordable price tag ($299 USD) and the utility of such a wide focal length (108° 10′) in a very compact package that is near identical in size to the “nifty fifty” (50mm F1.8):

Canon’s engineers have shown that they are capable of producing very sharp wide angle lenses in recent years, though at the cost of certain other optical flaws – namely vignette and distortion. That very much remains true of the RF 16mm, which is unquestionably a flawed lens. But its price point and utility have proven to be significant enough for many people to overlook those flaws and still give it a hearty endorsement. Will that also be true for you? You can read this text review or watch my video review to help make that decision.

Thanks to Camera Canada for getting me a loaner of the RF 16mm F2.8 STM. If you’re in Canada, check them out for a reliable online retailer. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Canon EOS R5, which I reviewed here.

Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM Build and Handling

If you are familiar with the RF 50mm F1.8 STM, then you basically are already familiar with the build of the RF 16mm F2.8. The RF 16mm is a fraction of a millimeter wider and longer than the 50mm, measuring in at 1.6 (D) x 2.7″ (L) / 40.1 x 69.2 mm. It weighs 165g (5.8oz), which is only 5g heavier than the 50mm. That definitely puts these two lenses in a slightly smaller class from the other “twins” in the RF 35mm F1.8 IS Macro and the new RF 24mm F1.8 IS Macro. You can see that breakdown in this comparison:

I have to confess to a certain degree of frustration every time I review a non-L series lens from Canon, though I’m more tolerant when reviewing a truly inexpensive lens like this one. Canon persists in the pettiest forms of “nickel and diming” with their consumer grade lenses. They never include a lens hood. The EW-65C lens hood will set you back an additional $35 so I suspect that 90% of purchasers will never bother with a lens hood. As is the case with all non-L Canon lenses, there is no weather sealing of any kind on the lens or any kind of included case or pouch. These days a similarly priced Samyang lens for Sony would come with weather sealing, a hood, and a case, so I continue to think that Canon can do better.

The RF 16mm follows a very similar design language to the 50mm, with several accent rings and the diamond pattern texture of the multi-purpose ring adding some variety to the look of the lens. The outer shell is durable, resistant to marking or scratching. The new Canon RF finish is matte and lightly flocked, making it resistant to finger prints and scratching. I find that the look of the lens stays consistent (it doesn’t look one way when cleaned and unused and another if you actually take it out of the box and use it!)

One minor negative that I noticed is that there are several visible seams in the outer shell of the lens. You can see one of them right above the switch on the left side of the lens barrel:

Not a big thing, but a reminder of the budget origins even if the lens itself feels bit more upscale.

We have a metal lens mount around back and you can also see the 12 communication pins that the RF lens mount has which enable Canon to have more flexibility in lens design.

One advantage of those pins is the control ring, a new addition to RF lenses. The control ring can be programmed to several different functions in the camera body. Popular applications are for aperture control and exposure compensation.

Like the RF 50mm F1.8, Canon has a much smaller lens to work with, so instead of a simple AF/MF switch, Canon elected to go with a switch that changes the function of the control ring between whatever function you have set for the control ring (I have exposure compensation, myself) and focus. In theory this is good, but in practice the execution could be better. I would prefer that if you switched to the focus setting, the lens would automatically engage manual focus. As it stands, you have to switch over to manual focus in the camera body, and, since most lenses have an AF/MF switch, there is little reason to program one of your valuable programmable buttons to that function (though the new EOS R7 does now have a physical AF/MF switch on the front of the camera). That means jumping into the menus to make the switch, a more time-consuming process. It seems to me that having the “focus” setting always be manual focus would be the more elegant solution. You could then simply engage “control” if you want normal autofocus function.

The nice diamond pattern texture on the ring makes for nice grip and feel, however, and unlike most control rings, there is no feeling of “detents” here, so video shooters might enjoy setting the control to aperture and having a reasonable “declicked” aperture experience.

Manual focus is far from being a “Zeiss” experience. If you make a major focus change, you will experience a feeling a bit like “drag” as the focus motor provides a some resistance as it makes the focus change. Manual focus feels a little crude by modern standards, though I was able to focus with precision using Canon’s excellent “focus guide”.

Up front we have a very small 43mm filter thread which is shared with the RF 50mm F1.8.

Clearly Canon has basically leveraged the existing physical design of the RF 50mm F1.8 as a housing for this new lens. That means that we get all of the quirks of that design, but it also means we get all of its strengths.

The RF 16mm F1.8 is wonderfully compact. It really transforms even a larger camera like the EOS R5 into a highly portable platform. It is rare that a focal length as wide as 16mm is going to be your primary lens choice, so being able to bring along that wonderfully wide angle of view as an additional lens option is what is going to make this lens so attractive to many (including myself).

The aperture iris is made up of 7 rounded aperture blades which help keep bokeh circular but when stopped down provides interesting sunstars:

Canon has equipped the RF 16mm with a very close minimum focus distance of just 5.1″ / 13 cm. Since that figure is measured from the sensor of the camera (about mid-frame in the body), that means that you are VERY close to your subject about 6cm by the time you reach minimum focus:

Up close performance is pretty good, but you won’t get a very flat plane of focus. You can get up to 0.26x magnification, but with only a small part of the frame in focus.

This is definitely a useful addition, however, and allows you to get some reasonably blurred out backgrounds if you are close to your subject and background is a little further away:

The lens doesn’t have image stabilization, but I found that I was able to get very stable handheld video results using the IBIS in my Canon EOS R5 that I used for the tests. Handholding 16mm for photos has never been a problem in most situations as the wide focal length shows little motion blur. I did use a bit of motion blur creatively by dragging the shutter and capturing some sparklers in motion.

Overall I’m satisfied with the build and handling of the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM. There’s nothing exceptional about the build, but there isn’t anything hugely objectionable, either.

Autofocus and Video Performance

Canon has given the RF 16mm an STM motor, but frankly that doesn’t mean a whole lot anymore. I have found that the performance of STM motors varies widely in almost every facet, but most obviously in focus speed and sound. Some STM lenses are very quick and quiet and have a fairly sophisticated performance, while others feel somewhat slow and crude. The 16mm falls somewhere in the middle of the pack, with reasonably good speed, great accuracy, and some focus sound that isn’t excessively loud. I most noticed the more sedate focus speed when doing video focus pulls which are not particularly quick and have a noticeable lag from when you select a new focus area to the time that focus actually takes place. If you watch the AF section in the video review you can definitely see the lag when I take my hand away from covering the camera and it locks back to my face.

On a positive note, however, eye AF works very accurately and makes this an appealing option for vlogging and moving with the camera an arm’s length away. I found that even just handholding the camera and lens (EOS R5) made for a fairly stable and natural environment for moving around in.

Like RF 50mm F1.8, the RF 16mm is a front focusing lens (the front group of elements moves forward and back). It is not internally focusing and will extend about 1 cm when focused to it’s minimum (macro) limit. You will probably want to enable the setting on your camera that will retract the lens when powering down the camera, as the extended barrel feels a bit vulnerable.

Most focus changes for stills happen quickly and without much drama. The lens is not completely silent in focus, but sound is minimal. And, most importantly, I saw very good focus accuracy.

I shot after dark with the lens and found that focus continued to be confident.

General purpose/walkaround results proved to accurately focus and deliver very good results.

Canon’s best focus results come from their linear style Nano USM motors, which this lens doesn’t have. There are little glimpses of the budget nature of the focus system here and there, but for the most part the lens got the job done.

Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM Image Quality

On paper, the MTF charts from the RF 16mm F2.8 STM don’t look incredibly good, with a very sharp center but a strong drop off as move towards the periphery of the frame.

A lot of this can probably be attributed to the impact of having to correct A LOT of barrel distortion and vignette, though good profile support helps the corners to look a little better in real world use. For most things, however, I felt that real world results where stronger than what the MTF chart suggests, with nice detail in many of my “big” images.

But we’ll take a closer look at performance, starting with the elephant in the room – the vignette and distortion.

Without correction, this is basically a fisheye lens! I had to dial in a +70!!! To correct the barrel distortion bulge, and, even then, there is an obvious mustache pattern left to the distortion. This is close to being the highest figure I’ve ever had to use for a manual correction. Likewise I had to max out the vignette slider in Lightroom to correct for the vignette. The good news is that as a first party lens, it receives “Cadillac” profile treatment. The correction profiles in camera (JPEG and Video) are augmented by excellent profiles in Lightroom and other software for RAWs.

Now, another interesting thing. I frame my chart in the viewfinder to square up with the outer lines of the test, as you can see from the JPEG result here on the right:

But if you compare it to the profile corrected RAW file you see on the left you’ll see that it is considerably wider even though the distortion appears to be corrected just fine. For some reason the Canon crop is really aggressive. RAW shooters are going to get a much wider angle of view, for some reason. I wonder if Canon crops off part of the edges of the frame to help corner quality on the image?

Because of so much correction you are going to want to be very careful about putting people near the edge of the frame. They will get stretched in very strange ways…and they won’t thank you for it. See how stretched the young man is in the foreground of this photo.

Composing with this boy nearer the middle of the frame produces a much more natural looking result.

I also found that interior lines corrected fairly well, but you will definitely get some stretching of objects near the edges after correction, which means that this isn’t necessarily a top choice for shooting interiors.

Because the correction works well, however, it will do in a pinch.

You are also always going to want to correct the vignette in most all situations, which is fine other than the fact that you can end up with some additional noise in the edges of the frame when correcting at higher vignette. Bottom line is that this is a lens (much like the 14-35mm F4L IS) which is VERY reliant on profile corrections to make it usable.

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) typically show up as purple/magenta fringing before the plane of focus and blue/green fringing beyond the plane of focus due to colors not being perfectly focused together. They typically diminish as the lens is stopped down to smaller apertures. I didn’t notice any significant issue with LoCA on the RF 16mm.

Lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) are a different story, however. They show up as fringing on either side of contrast areas (like tree trunks, for example) along the edges of the frame. Unlike LoCA, they do not improve when stopping the aperture down, but are much easier to correct for (typically a one click “remove chromatic aberrations” box in editing software). There’s a fairly strong amount of Lateral CA near the edges of the frame which don’t fully correct even with the “remove CA” option. You can see in the crop comparison that while the “remove CA” box helps, some fringing remains.

So yes, there are some optical flaws here. If you were expecting a compact L series prime for $300…you’ll have to keep looking! There are some very redeeming features to come, however, so don’t give up quite yet.

There are 9 elements in 6 groups here including an aspherical lens. Does that do the job for optical performance? Here’s a look at my chart globally at F2.8, taken with the 45MP Canon EOS R5:

The following are near 200% crops from the center, mid-frame, and extreme lower right corner.

What we find is exceptional resolution and contrast in the center, very good performance in the mid-frame, and really a quite decent corner performance. This may be helped by the fact that the JPEG in camera crop is much tighter (and is reflective of how it looked when I framed in the viewfinder:

That leaves a lot of room in the RAW image for the worst of the corners to be left out.

That bears out in real world samples, too, as detail at F2.8 is great in the center, good in the midframe, but if you get into those extreme corners things look much worse.

Still, I find a real world F2.8 landscape like this looks pretty credible. You can find flaws, but that’s pretty nice IQ for the money.

Stopping down to F4 produces some improvement across the frame with the corners getting more evenly illuminated, though corner sharpness never reaches the excellent levels of the center or mid-frame.

Sharpness peaks near F5.6, but even if we go to F8 to give the corners a better chance, you can see that they never get quite as crips as the center:

But in real world use, I’m pretty delighted by the amount of sharpness I get on my high resolution R5, and the lens would look even better on less punishing lower resolution bodies.

Here’s a crop of a flower from a wider shot, which shows nice sharpness and contrast.

While this isn’t really a “bokeh” lens due to the wide angle of view and only moderately large maximum aperture, the good close focus ability will give you a chance to play with putting backgrounds out of focus a bit, like in this mushroom shot.

You’ll note the bokeh circles have a “clipped” look to them on the edges, but through most of the frame the bokeh circles have a pretty decent quality to them. The transition zone after the mushroom looks fairly busy, though.

Canon claims that the lens has received Super Specta coatings that improve the resistance to flare. In this case, the marketing is pretty accurate, as I consider flare resistance a real strength for the lens. It gave up very little even when panning across the very bright midday sun.

I was able to shoot the night sky on a pretty good night, and the RF 16mm gets a passing grade for astrophotography. There is some comatic distortion along the edges of the frame, but I also found that the heavy vignette made it a little difficult to correct for while retaining even illumination in the dark sky.

There are better astro options out there, but the RF 16mm will certainly work in a pinch.

I would recommend that you check out the image galleries to see a greater variety of photos and get a sense of the lens performance for yourself. There are some real strengths like flare resistance, color, and sharpness across most of the frame, but the distortion, vignette, and lateral chromatic aberrations are pretty rough. I liked the lens just fine for landscape work, where I felt it delivered beautiful results for a budget lens.

I wouldn’t like it nearly as well for environmental portraiture, interiors, or architectural. Even casual group shots will need to be shot with some care so that you don’t lose friends when they get stretched to obscene proportions!

Conclusion

The title to my video review is that the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM is fun, flawed, and useful. It does have some severe flaws, but I love the flexibility of the focal length and the compact size of the lens. It does something that no other lens is really doing on the Canon RF platform right now, and does it at a truly reasonable price point.

The RF 16mm is not going to compete with L series lenses optically, but I also found that images had a certain pop to them that stood out when I compared them to images I was taking on the Canon EOS R7 and EF-S 18-150mm STM that I was reviewing at the same time. This image, for example, is pretty lovely.

So, in conclusion, the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM is not only worth buying because it is cheap, but also worth buying because it is competent. It will go anywhere with you and provides a nicely wide alternative to something like the 24-105mm or 24-70mm lenses. It would also be a great focal length counterpart if your primary lens on an outing is a telephoto, offering the option to get a wider angle of view but with a minimum of additional size and weight. It is for this reason that I’m considering a purchase even despite the RF 16mm’s many flaws.

Pros:

Beautifully compact for such a wide angle lens
Excellent price point
Focus accuracy is very high
Stable AF tracking on eyes for vlogging
High level of magnification
Good center and mid-frame sharpness even wide open
Excellent flare resistance
Good color

Cons:

Extreme distortion
Very heavy vignette
Strong lateral chromatic aberrations
Corners aren’t sharp at wide apertures

Gear Used:

Purchase a Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | eBay

Purchase a Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

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Keywords: Canon 16mm F2.8 STM, 16mm, RF 16, RF 16mm, Canon RF 50mm Review, STM, F2.8, RF, F/2.8, Canon RF 16 Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, Canon EOS R6, EOS R6 Review, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, 45Mpx, 45MP, Canon, letthelightin

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM Gallery

Dustin Abbott

September 8th, 2022

Canon has been a new roll in the mirrorless space since with a run of amazing cameras that began with the EOS R5 (my review here) and EOS R6 (my review here), and then carrying on to the high end sports model EOS R3 (my review here) and its APS-C counterpart, the EOS R7 (my review is in the process). I’ve had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Canon in the mirrorless space, though, as while I love some of these new cameras, the RF mount remains closed to third party development, which really limits lens choice. I think Canon is making a mistake here, personally, but as of September 2022 when I am working on this review, this remains status quo. That means that (for now) we are wholly dependent on Canon to provide us a variety of necessary lenses at the various price points and performance levels that a market that runs from amateurs with minimal budgets to working professionals requires. One of my primary complains has been that in many cases the lenses for the EOS R cameras have been priced higher than the cameras themselves, with few lenses under $1000 USD and the majority over $2000. Canon has slowly been addressing this with a new spate of lens releases including some more affordable options, though while there are currently 11 Canon RF prime (fixed focal length) lenses, only about half of those can be had for under $1000…and only three for $500 or less. That list includes the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 Macro IS (my review here) – Canon RF 85mm F2 IS STM when it is on sale (my review here), and the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM. (my review here). Fortunately we can add one more very useful lens to that list, the lens we are here to review today, the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the announcement of the RF 16mm because of the affordable price tag ($299 USD) and the utility of such a wide focal length (108° 10′) in a very compact package that is near identical in size to the “nifty fifty” (50mm F1.8):

Canon’s engineers have shown that they are capable of producing very sharp wide angle lenses in recent years, though at the cost of certain other optical flaws – namely vignette and distortion. That very much remains true of the RF 16mm, which is unquestionably a flawed lens. But its price point and utility have proven to be significant enough for many people to overlook those flaws and still give it a hearty endorsement. Will that also be true for you? You can read this text review or watch my video review to help make that decision.

Thanks to Camera Canada for getting me a loaner of the RF 16mm F2.8 STM. If you’re in Canada, check them out for a reliable online retailer. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Canon EOS R5, which I reviewed here.

Photos of the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM

Photos Taken with the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM

Gear Used:

Purchase a Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | eBay

Purchase a Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | | Camera Canada | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Get a discount off all Skylum Editing Software (Luminar, Aurora HDR, AirMagic) by using code DUSTINHDR at checkout:
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

Keywords: Canon 16mm F2.8 STM, 16mm, RF 16, RF 16mm, Canon RF 50mm Review, STM, F2.8, RF, F/2.8, Canon RF 16 Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, Canon EOS R6, EOS R6 Review, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, 45Mpx, 45MP, Canon, letthelightin

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM Review

Dustin Abbott

December 6th, 2021

In mid 2020, I reviewed the Samyang RF 85mm F1.4 autofocus lens, a lens that I really liked and gave a very positive review of because it was a good performing third party lens that came at a reasonable price ($699 USD). Canon’s own RF 85mm F1.2L is an amazing, amazing lens (you can read my review here), but at a price point of $2799 USD, it simply isn’t in reach for many photographers. Canon also has an RF 85mm F2 Macro IS lens, but that lens left me with mixed feelings when I reviewed it mostly because the autofocus was really, really underwhelming. At that point I recommended that people go with the Samyang if they didn’t the macro capabilities, as the lenses were priced similarly and I felt the Samyang had more to offer. I was excited because it seemed like third party lenses were finally starting to come for Canon’s RF mirrorless mount…but then they stopped. Samyang’s RF 14mm F2.8 and RF 85mm F1.4 are still available at North American retailers (under both the Samyang and Rokinon brands), but Samyang no longer lists them on their website. The word on the street is that Canon actually stopped them from developing for their platform, and it is certainly true that I’ve not seen any new Samyang RF products in the past year and a half (the new AF 50mm F1.4 II for Sony FE would be a perfect new RF option). It has caused a little despair, as I really like my Canon EOS R5 camera, but, like many photographers, find that the native Canon RF lenses tend to be very, very expensive. Third party options are needed for photographers not made of money…so I was delighted when Viltrox contacted me about reviewing their new Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM II lens. The Viltrox RF85 (as we’ll call it for brevity in the review) provides an extremely competent and truly inexpensive ($399 USD) option for Canon RF photographers…and they may have just the future proofing tool on board to help them.

I originally tested the Samyang RF 85mm F1.4 on the Canon EOS R camera, but a few months later Canon released the EOS R5 (my current Canon camera of choice) and the EOS R6. In the process, though, some focus algorithms changed and the IBIS (In-Body-Image-Stabilization) didn’t work right. Samyang had to scramble to put out a dock (Lens Station) that allowed one to update the firmware of their RF lenses to fix these problems, but it was after that point that it seems like Canon made trouble for them. Viltrox has long employed a more direct solution – a USB port (USB-C, in this case) embedded right into the lens mount, which allows you to download and apply firmware updates directly through your computer to the lens. This should allow any potential owners of the Viltrox RF85 to be able to update their lens easily and eliminate the concern that some firmware update to their camera (or the purchase of a new camera) renders their lens inoperable. Viltrox is fairly proactive with their firmware updates, too, making minor tweaks and improvements. There has already been a firmware update to the Viltrox RF85, and I was able to do the update in a couple of minutes from start to finish.

My experience with this basic design goes back several years, as I first reviewed a manual focus version of the original optical formula, then an autofocus version, and then the MK II autofocus version. All of these were on Sony FE, however, but now Viltrox has developed this new version that is built around the MK II optical formula for Canon RF. In many ways, this feels like the most mature execution of this lens. The design language fits the larger diameter Canon RF nicely, and the inclusion of an AF/MF switch adds both convenience and some signs of growing maturity of design. The build feels good, autofocus is also quite good, and this has always been a lens that punches above its weight class optically. Add up all of these things and then give it a great price like this, and I suspect this will be a lens that will be attractive to many Canon mirrorless photographers who have been looking for a reasonably priced portrait lens for their camera and don’t want to have to resort to manual focus.

So, on paper, we’ve got a winning formula, but does the lens hold up under more scrutiny? You can find my more detailed thoughts by watching my long format definitive or standard video review below…or just keep reading!

Thanks to Viltrox for sending me this lens for review. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and the photos shown in this review have been taken on my 45 MP Canon EOS R5.

Viltrox RF85 Build and Handling

The basic dimensions of this lens are pretty familiar to me, though Viltrox did a good job with the MK II redesign that retains a high quality of build materials while reducing the weight. This is the lightest of the 85mm autofocusing options available for Canon RF right now, though not by a large margin, as you can see from this comparison chart:

The Viltrox RF85 weighs 484g (right under a pound), which makes it on the lighter side of moderate. It does have a smaller maximum aperture than several of these options (save the Canon F2 option), but the Canon F1.2 lens is about two and a half times the weight, so this really makes the lightest option for you at the 85mm focal length on Canon RF. Its external dimensions of 80 mm (diameter) x 92 mm (length) make it second only to the Canon F2 lens in smallness, and that by a very close margin. We’ve got a front filter thread of 72mm, and a surprising amount of glass behind it.

As noted, the lens sports an AF/MF switch on the left side, which I always welcome, as it remains the simplest way to transition in and out of manual focus.

The manual focus ring is very wide and has tight metal ribbing. I find the damping very nice, and focus emulation is quite good here. Canon’s “Focus Guide” does work if your camera is so equipped, but what you don’t get is an onscreen distance scale. Things like focus overlays or peaking do work, however. Focus seems fairly linear in operation.

My one handling complaint has to do with the lens hood, which is plastic and feels a little cheap compared to the rest of the build. I wouldn’t quibble over that with a lens that is so inexpensive, but I also don’t find that it bayonets on very cleanly. It feels like I had to force it, and there isn’t really a satisfying “click” when it is fully locked into place. The lens hood is petal-shaped and has a ribbed section to help grip it.

The lens mount is made of brass (a premium material) and is a nice pairing with the all metal construction elsewhere. It does have the aforementioned USB-C port along with the electronic connections, but what you won’t find is a weather sealing gasket there. I did shoot with the lens in a light rain without a problem, but you’ll want to be more careful with a lens that lacks weather sealing.

Viltrox states that there is some anti-shock engineering in the lens barrel to help with durability along with multi-coatings on the elements.

There is no image stabilization in the lens itself, though it is compatible with the IBIS on the Canon EOS R5, R6, or subsequent bodies so equipped. That does add some extra performance in allowing you to shoot in a broader variety of situations. I was out in very dim conditions and got this crisp shot at 1/15th of a second thanks to the IBIS of my camera.

I wasn’t intentionally trying to shoot at a low shutter speed, but instead was already at ISO 1600 and wasn’t thinking about raising it further as this had been sufficient in other lighting conditions on this little outing. That’s where IBIS saves you.

The lens has nine rounded aperture blades, and the geometry is fairly good wide open, though with some vaguely lemon-shaped bokeh circles near the edges of the frame at F1.8. AT F2.8 you can start to see a bit of the aperture shape, and that is stronger still by F4, as you can see in this series.

At no aperture is there perfectly round shapes across the frame, so if that is a huge deal to you, you’ll have to look elsewhere. On the plus side, the bokeh circles are pretty clean, with no “onion” effect and little outlining. This contributes to very nice bokeh from the lens.

The minimum focus distance here is 80cm, which is actually slighter better than average, as is the magnification, which nets you a 0.13x magnification. Not a very high figure, but actually the highest of the bunch here outside of the lens that has “macro” in the name and sports a much higher 0.50x magnification. Here’s what MFD looks like:

The performance is fairly good, with good contrast, a flat plane of focus (even the corners are sharp), and fairly good resolution of the fine details. Few 85mm lenses are really exceptional for magnification, but the Viltrox RF85 is mildly better than average, and does allow you to get nice looking “close” shots even though they bear no resemblance to macro-type results.

The lens feels good in the hand, and, as I said in the intro, this is probably the best implementation of this lens that I’ve seen from an aesthetic and functional point of view. It’s a nice fit on my Canon EOS R5, and feels like it belongs there.

Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM Autofocus and Video

As the name suggests, the RF85 employs an STM (Stepping Motor) autofocus system. This on the surface means little to me, as there is a wide range of performance when it comes to STM. Some STM motors are fast, silent, and smooth in operation. Others are louder, slower, and clunkier in operation. So where does this particular application of STM land?

Somewhere in the middle, though fortunately towards the better end. Some STM motors are completely silent, but that’s not completely the case here. Focus noise is very quiet, but there is some faintly audible clicking and whirring during major focus changes if you listen closely. During video pulls, confidence is good but not exceptional, with some occasional visible steps and a minor pulse. It’s all a far cry from where we were just a few years ago, but this is middle tier performance overall.

Eye AF performance was another matter, however, as I had very good accuracy when the camera detected either human or animal eyes. I used the lens side by side with the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS as I was reviewing both lenses simultaneously, and the Viltrox was very bit as good in those situations. In fact, it was a bit better in some instances (the lens stopped down), as the Canon exhibits some focus shift. In this shot of Loki, for example, the Viltrox was razer sharp, while the Canon showed some backfocus.

Other shots in the series were equally sharp even though Loki kept moving around (as cats do).

I also saw exceptional results in portrait work, with well focused results at further distances:

…and at much closer distances.

The Viltrox RF85 really shines as a budget portrait option.

My general purpose accuracy was also good, even in poor lighting conditions, so I was generally satisfied with autofocus.

Video shooters should note that there is a fairly significant amount of focus breathing when shifting focus from near to distant objects.

In short, the Viltrox RF85 doesn’t have the world’s most sophisticated autofocus system, but it is a far cry better than what we have in the Canon RF 85mm F2 STM, for example, and definitely superior to most budget lenses. It gets the job done with little drama.

Viltrox RF85 Optical Performance

Viltrox has produced a budget lens with better optics than you might expect, with a strong center and mid-frame, though the MTF (if I could find one!) would most likely show some falloff in the corners. The optical formula is a fairly simple 10 elements in 7 groups, but once again this lens is better than the price would suggest. For most practical applications of a 85mm lens, this is quite sharp even at F1.8:

We’ll take a more critical look at the performance, however, starting with vignette and distortion. What’s interesting is that the camera mistakenly identifies this lens as the Canon EF 85mm F1.8 (as does Lightroom, BTW), so it does apply the correction profile for that lens in camera. It isn’t a perfect match, however, as while it does diminish some (not all) of the vignette, it does basically nothing to correct the pincushion distortion. There is a Viltrox profile for E-mount version of the lens that can be downloaded from the Viltrox website, but I was unsuccessful in manually installing it and getting it to show up. That may change in the future, obviously. Here’s a look at the RAW result uncorrected and then manually corrected.

There’s some obvious pincushion distortion (a -5 cleared it up fairly well) and some obvious vignette. The vignette required a +61 and the midpoint moved to zero. The lens doesn’t excel in either metric, but neither is there anything critical here. For most shots I simply left the image uncorrected, as a bit of vignette is pleasing for many wide aperture shots. I would personally only correct in certain situations (obvious dark in snow or sky, for example). The vignette diminishes as you stop the lens down but never completely disappears.

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations aren’t completely banished, but there’s nothing excessive here. I could see them when I set up this torture test, but I didn’t see much in real world images.

I saw a bit of lateral chromatic aberrations in the bare branches at the edge of this landscape shot, but again nothing major that caught my eye in the course of real world shooting.

The Viltrox RF85 has a bit of each of these aberrations (distortion, vignette, and chromatic aberrations), though none of them are present to any kind of destructive level. For a budget lens there really isn’t a fatal flaw in any of these potential trouble spots.

So let’s transition to resolution and contrast. This is my test chart captured at 45MP with the EOS R5.

If we look at nearly 200% crops from across the frame, we can see an excellent center and mid-frame performance, but less resolution and acuity in the corners.

I’ll put that into real world perspective in a moment, but first, let’s look at a few competitors. Remember that Lightroom identifies the Viltrox as the Canon EF 85mm F1.8, so that’s what it shows up as in these comparison crops. First, the Samyang RF 85mm F1.4. If we compare both at F1.8, the Samyang has the win pretty much across the frame…and particularly in the corners. Here’s a look at the midframe:

The Samyang is definitely more expensive (and somewhat larger and heavier), but it is optically stronger. As I noted in my review, it’s actually surprisingly strong even when compared to the mighty RF 85mm F1.2L.

If we compare the Viltrox against the Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro lens (at F2, the maximum aperture of Canon), the situation reverses. The Viltrox is stronger essentially everywhere save the extreme corners.

So this is a sharp lens, but not top tier sharp. But, to be fair, we really are splitting hairs here, as this lens produces very crisp images even on a high resolution body like my R5. Look at how much detail is in this wide open portrait shot:

That’s a lot of resolution.

Stopping down to F2 produces a very minimal bump in contrast, but it is negligible. The jump in contrast at F2.8 is far more obvious, with the center and mid-frame results looking excellent. No big jump in the corners, yet.

The corner jump begins at F4, where they now look quite good even at 200%:

By F5.6 they are excellent, so choose F5.6 or F8 if your priority is even sharpness across the frame. Here’s a F5.6 landscape:

That’s obviously nice and sharp across the frame, though there’s enough sharpness at larger aperture where it matters to use aperture creatively here rather than just out of necessity for sufficient sharpness. For example, I went out in a late autumn gloom with a light rain falling, and I captured the last light falling on the trail ahead at F2 in an image I really love here:

I took a number of other landscape type shots at apertures of F1.8-2.8, and liked most all of them, like this one:

I consider the Viltrox to be strong enough optically to satisfy most photographers, and, relative to the price, it is downright excellent. That extends to the bokeh, which I think is actually quite nice. Even in this shot, which has a lot of potential for busyness in the transition zone, the quality of the rendering is nice…and the detail on the main subject is excellent.

Getting a little closer really blurs the background out beautifully.

Here’s another nice bokeh shot:

I’ve had a number of people write me about the quality of the bokeh of this particular lens in other mounts, and since the optical formula is basically the same here that praise applies equally here.

Less positive is the flare resistance, which can show some vulnerability in challenging situations. We see some obvious ghosting and some veiling (loss of contrast) in this series:

Flare resistance is stronger at smaller apertures than wide open, so that might help you in a challenging situation.

All told, though, the Viltrox RF85 is a good lens optically and can deliver a lot of great images even if you’re on a tight budget. Think of it as the 85mm equivalent of the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM, except with a nicer build. Feel free to check out more images and draw your own conclusions by visiting the image gallery here.

Conclusion

The Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM is a very welcome addition to the Canon RF catalog which is noticeably light on autofocusing third party lenses. The simple reality is that there are plenty of loyal Canon photographers who are interested in some of the RF mirrorless cameras but simply can’t afford the expensive first party options. Perhaps you’ve spent most of your budget on your new camera and need an inexpensive portrait option. The Viltrox is a pretty sweet option for $400!

We’ve got a nice build, good handling, good image quality, and good autofocus even if none of these are absolute top tier. There really isn’t any fatal flaw here, and I genuinely liked the kinds of images I could get with the lens.

No, we don’t have weather sealing, and there are a few little build quirks that betray the budget origins, but this feels like a lot of lens for the money. It was easy to forget I was using a budget lens either in using the lens or reviewing the images I took with it, so that makes this a definite win. I’m not sure that Canon will be delighted for this lens to arrive on the market, but I suspect that many Canon shooters will be very happy for its addition!

Pros:

Clean design with a nice build
Manual focus ring is wide and nicely damped
Has AF/MF switch
USB-C port allows for instant firmware updates
STM Focus is fast and fairly quiet
Excellent sharpness across most of the frame
Very nice bokeh rendering
Good color rendition
Excellent price to performance ratio

Cons:

No weather sealing
Somewhat flare prone
Lens hood doesn’t bayonet on cleanly

Gear Used:

Purchase the Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM @ B&H Photo | Viltrox Store (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 10% off) | Amazon | PerGear | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

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Keywords: Viltrox RF 85mm, Viltrox RF 85 Review, Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM, Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM Review, Viltrox 85 RF, AF, RF, STM, Viltrox, 85, 85mm, F1.8, 1.8, F/1.8, Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, Video, 45Mp, Canon

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

December 3rd, 2021

In mid 2020, I reviewed the Samyang RF 85mm F1.4 autofocus lens, a lens that I really liked and gave a very positive review of because it was a good performing third party lens that came at a reasonable price ($699 USD). Canon’s own RF 85mm F1.2L is an amazing, amazing lens (you can read my review here), but at a price point of $2799 USD, it simply isn’t in reach for many photographers. Canon also has an RF 85mm F2 Macro IS lens, but that lens left me with mixed feelings when I reviewed it mostly because the autofocus was really, really underwhelming. At that point I recommended that people go with the Samyang if they didn’t the macro capabilities, as the lenses were priced similarly and I felt the Samyang had more to offer. I was excited because it seemed like third party lenses were finally starting to come for Canon’s RF mirrorless mount…but then they stopped. Samyang’s RF 14mm F2.8 and RF 85mm F1.4 are still available at North American retailers (under both the Samyang and Rokinon brands), but Samyang no longer lists them on their website. The word on the street is that Canon actually stopped them from developing for their platform, and it is certainly true that I’ve not seen any new Samyang RF products in the past year and a half (the new AF 50mm F1.4 II for Sony FE would be a perfect new RF option). It has caused a little despair, as I really like my Canon EOS R5 camera, but, like many photographers, find that the native Canon RF lenses tend to be very, very expensive. Third party options are needed for photographers not made of money…so I was delighted when Viltrox contacted me about reviewing their new Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM II lens. The Viltrox RF85 (as we’ll call it for brevity in the review) provides an extremely competent and truly inexpensive ($399 USD) option for Canon RF photographers…and they may have just the future proofing tool on board to help them.

I originally tested the Samyang RF 85mm F1.4 on the Canon EOS R camera, but a few months later Canon released the EOS R5 (my current Canon camera of choice) and the EOS R6. In the process, though, some focus algorithms changed and the IBIS (In-Body-Image-Stabilization) didn’t work right (along with some quirks in focus). Samyang had to scramble to put out a dock (Lens Station) that allowed one to update the firmware of their RF lenses to fix these problems, but it was after that point that it seems like Canon made trouble for them. Viltrox has long employed a more direct solution – a USB port (USB-C, in this case) embedded right into the lens mount, which allows you to download and apply firmware updates directly through your computer to the lens. This should allow any potential owners of the Viltrox RF 85mm to be able to update their lens easily and eliminate the concern that some firmware update to their camera (or the purchase of a new camera) renders their lens inoperable. Viltrox is fairly proactive with their firmware updates, too, making minor tweaks and improvements. There has already been a firmware update to the Viltrox RF 85mm, and I was able to do the update in a couple of minutes from start to finish.

My experience with this basic design goes back several years, as I first reviewed a manual focus version of the original optical formula, then an autofocus version, and then the MK II autofocus version. All of these were on Sony FE, however, but now Viltrox has developed this new version that is built around the MK II optical formula for Canon RF. In many ways, this feels like the most mature execution of this lens. The design language fits the larger diameter Canon RF nicely, and the inclusion of an AF/MF switch adds both convenience and some signs of growing maturity of design. The build feels good, autofocus is also quite good, and this has always been a lens that punches above its weight class optically. Add up all of these things and then give it a great price like this, and I suspect this will be a lens that will be attractive to many Canon mirrorless photographers who have been looking for a reasonably priced portrait lens for their camera and don’t want to have to resort to manual focus.

So, on paper, we’ve got a winning formula, but does the lens hold up under more scrutiny? You can find my more detailed thoughts by watching my video review or reading the text review…or just enjoy the photos!

Thanks to Viltrox for sending me this lens for review. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and the photos shown in this review have been taken on my 45 MP Canon EOS R5.

Photos of the Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM

Photos taken with the Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 (Canon EOS R5)

Gear Used:

Purchase the Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM @ B&H Photo | Viltrox Store (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 10% off) | Amazon | PerGear | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Keywords: Viltrox RF 85mm, Viltrox RF 85 Review, Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM, Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM Review, Viltrox 85 RF, AF, RF, STM, Viltrox, 85, 85mm, F1.8, 1.8, F/1.8, Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, Video, 45Mp, Canon

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM Review

Dustin Abbott

November 26th, 2021

The Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM holds a very unique place in my personal lens kit; it has lasted longer than any other lens. I have had dozens of lenses come and go since I purchased the 100L Macro back more than a decade ago. I’ve changed cameras a number of times, and even though I don’t even own a camera with a native EF mount any longer, the EF 100L Macro has stayed with me because it just keeps working so well. The lens that may finally bump it out of my kit may have arrived, however, and that is in the form of the excellent new Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM. This is an updated version of the lens designed specifically for Canon’s new RF mount (for the EOS R mirrorless system). The new RF100M (as I’ll call it for brevity) takes a lot of the things that made the EF lens special and ups the ante in several ways.

The the first and most obvious upgrade is that this is not just a 1:1 macro lens anymore, but now we have the ability to go as high as 1.4x magnification. Does that make a difference? It definitely does. Here’s the difference between a 1.0x magnification and a 1.4x magnification:

That’s getting you significantly closer, and the potential of more magnification is always very useful when you want to get in close!

Canon has also added a unique spherical aberration (SA) control to this lens, which allows you to play with the bokeh and focus in a creative way, which we’ll detail more later in the lens. For some people this will probably be more of a gimmick, but there are some who will squeeze some creativity out of it.

There’s a lot to love here, but as per usual, you’ll have to pay for it. The US price for the lens is $1399 USD, or about $1849 here in Canada. The general trend is that RF lenses have essentially all been priced higher than their EF equivalents (sometimes significantly so). What’s unique here is that the price of the EF 100mm F2.8L Macro has been creeping up over the past year. It’s currently priced at $1299 USD, which is the highest price I’ve ever seen for this lens. It debuted at $999 USD MSRP (I believe), and had trended down to $899 after a few years. It has steadily crept upwards since mid-2020, however, and now sits at this premium. I believe that supply chain issues have been cited, but it’s very odd for a lens that has been on the market for 11 years to have a price point over 30% higher than its launch. So, at the moment, that makes the price premium for the RF version more palatable, but only through a rather complicated backstory. So is it worth that premium price?

If you use a lens like this the way that it should (for general purpose, portraits, etc… along with macro), I suspect the correct answer for many the answer will be yes, but you can find my more detailed thoughts by watching my long format definitive or standard video review below…or just keep reading!

Thanks to Camera Canada for loaning me this lens for review. They are my personal source for my gear and have been great to work with. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and the photos shown in this review have been taken on my 45 MP Canon EOS R5.

Canon RF100M Build and Handling

I was unsurprised to find that the size of the new RF100M had grown relative to the EF version, as that seems to be par for the course. The size difference is pretty significant, though. The new lens is 148mm, which is about as long as the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 zoom for Sony. That’s a 25mm growth over the EF version, and makes it roughly 60mm longer than the RF 85mm F2 Macro. The diameter is only slightly larger (81.5mm, leaving the same standard of 67mm for the filter thread), but the weight is up to 730g vs 625g for the EF version. You can see how the two compare here:

That length does have some real world consequences, namely that it will change the calculus about what bags you can use to carry the lens mounted on a camera. In my standard top-mount bag (Cecilia Tharpe 8L), the RF100M mounted on the EOS R5 leaves me unable to correctly close the bag, whereas I don’t have that problem with the EF lens. Then again, by the time I add an adapter to the EF lens (which I have to do these days), the difference in length is basically gone.

The RF110M is a professional grade lens, with a high quality build that features advanced weather sealing. It starts with a robust gasket at the lens mount, roughly 12 internal seals, and a fluorine coating on the front and rear elements to help resist moisture and fingerprints. This is clearly a very well built, high quality lens.

The maximum aperture here is F2.8, though it is important to recognize with all macro lenses that as you approach 1:1 macro (and, in this case, beyond), the laws of physics dictate that the effective aperture changes. The physical aperture does not (the physical opening will still be 1:2.8), but less light passes through that physical aperture, meaning that you’ll need something like 2 stops of additional light if you are shooting at macro levels relative to what you will need at a portrait distance. I’ve gotten many, many questions on my YouTube channel of people afraid that something is wrong with their lens because of this behavior. This is normal behavior.

The RF 100mm macro is an unusual prime lens due to having three separate rings on it. Typically a prime lens will have only ring (manual focus), though some will have an aperture ring. Canon’s RF lenses have a control ring (more on that in a moment), but in this case we’ve also got the SA Control ring, which is actually closest to the lens mount. I don’t love this position, actually, as I feel even though this ring is thinner than the focus ring, you do tend to reach for it instinctively because it comes first. If you don’t actually end up using the SA Control (and I’ll guess that the majority of users won’t), you will probably end up wishing that Canon had not included this feature. I’m afraid this is going to go the way of the touchbar from the original EOS R as something that seemed like a good idea but never really took off.

I’m also reminded of Canon’s Dual Pixel RAW tech that debuted with the 5D Mark IV, which seemed innovative on paper but I never could really find a use for. I owned the 5DIV for something like 4 years and never used DPRaw outside of initially testing it. It was a tech with potential that never realized, and I hear little about it today. From what I can see, SA Control is going to go a similar route.

Let’s pause and explain the idea. Canon says, “The RF100mm F2.8 L MACRO IS USM features Canon’s first adjustable Spherical Aberration (SA) control ring on the lens barrel that allows you to adjust the depiction of the image’s background bokeh. Used to add a unique emphasis to your imagery, the SA Control Ring allows the user to change the shape and character of the foreground and background bokeh. A minus setting creates a dreamy, soft-focused look, while a Plus setting creates a bubble-bokeh-type look.” There are four steps of control in either the minus or plus direction. The midpoint between the two is zero, which would typically just be called normal. Here’s what our test subject looks like at zero or normal:

If we go all the way to the (-) position, here’s what that same image looks like:

It’s hard to see why someone would choose the latter image. There is this “80s’ soft-focus look”, with some halation and light blooming. The subject is also smaller in the frame, which shows that there has been some shift of the optical path that diminishes magnification. The bokeh doesn’t look any more pleasing to me, but that’s because in this case it would work to improve foreground bokeh…though obviously at the cost of serious sharpness on your subject.

Now we’ll go all the way to the (+) extreme:

There’s that soft focus look again, though slightly less extreme, and in this case the subject has gotten larger. At least here there is some tangible benefit to the bokeh, which is larger and rounder…though also with more outlining, so that will have to be a look that you specifically want.

Obviously the three steps in between zero and the extremes will moderate that effect.

I did not enjoy the effect at all for portrait work, as I saw little benefit to the look of the bokeh (a little “faked” looking) while the cost to sharpness was palpable.

I also found that the “bubble bokeh” was quite distracting in this portrait shot (disregarding the soft focus look of the subject). It made the background look somewhat busy.

If you don’t mess with the SA ring, this is an amazing portrait lens (more on that in the IQ section), but I can’t perceive any reason to use the SA effect for portraits unless you REALLY loved the 80s!

My chief complaint about all of this, though, is that while there is a detent at the zero position, it isn’t a hard or strong one. Certainly not enough to really lock the lens into the zero position, so I’ve noticed a few times that the ring has gotten shifted a bit one way or the other, which obviously could have negative consequences to image sharpness. Fortunately this lens does have a locking switch on the far side of the barrel which I missed at first. This is obviously not to prevent zoom creep (no zoom!) but it does allow you to lock in the zero position to essentially keep the SA ring from moving at all. You can only lock it in the zero position, and I suspect that most people will lock the SA ring there and probably never use it.

My take: the liabilities of this new SA ring outweigh the potential benefits. This falls in the “gimmick” status for me, though your findings may vary.

The middle ring is the focus ring, which moves smoothly and with decent damping for a “focus-by-wire” lens. All mirrorless autofocusing lenses employ this manual focus method, which routes input on the focus ring through the focus motor. I thought I could detect the slightest amount of lag when moving quickly, but it was so faint that I couldn’t quite be sure. Like many photographers, I use manual focus quite often for macro work, as autofocus is a bit inconsistent and often too imprecise. Manual focus gives the best control, and I felt I quickly forgot about focus and just got the photos that I want, so that is really the standard that matters to me.

The final ring is the control ring, a feature unique to RF lenses. It utilizes a unique diamond texture pattern that allows you to easily find it by touch. You can choose what function to assign to that ring, and it does have faint detents (clicks) as you rotate it, which gives you tactile feedback so that you know the changes you are making. Canon says this, “For photographers and moviemakers who would prefer a silent control ring, the clicking mechanism can be removed at a Canon Factory Service Center location for a fee.”

The included lens hood is more shallow than the very deep hood found on the EF version, making the two lenses more comparable in length with the hoods attached (the EF version is actually slightly longer with the hood attached). The lens hood has a fairly matte finish that matches the rest of the lens, and includes a small locking button to keep it bayoneted in place until you want to remove it.

Like other RF lenses, the RF100M does employ the 12 pin communication that allows Canon to do more with the RF mount, which is part of what enables some of these new features.

The IS in the lens name refers to Canon’s Image Stabilization, and it is a highly effective application. The lens IS is rated up to 5 stops (which is very high!), but in theory you can reach as high as 8 stops when paired with the In Body Image Stabilization (IBIS) of certain Canon cameras, like the EOS R5 I did this test on. I have found these claims personally a bit hyperbolic, as I’m certainly never been able to realize those kind of figures myself. That would mean being able to handhold a 2.5 second shot effectively, which I doubt anyone is pulling off. I don’t want to come off as negative, however, as I actually think this is a great IS system and works well in concert with my high resolution R5. This shot isn’t perfectly sharp at 1/4th of a second, but it is acceptably sharp, and that’s roughly 5 stops of handholding.

I don’t frankly see a lot applications for handholding slower shutter speeds than this, but what mattered more to me is that I was able to get very steady handheld video shots or reasonable macro shots. Canon says, “Equipped with the Hybrid IS technology, the Image Stabilizer of the RF100mm F2.8 L MACRO IS USM effectively reduces blurring in handheld macro photography by compensating for both angle and shift camera shake.” I’ve found the system in the EF lens (the first to utilize hybrid IS, I believe) to work very well over the years, and it does feel that the RF lens is more stable still. Video IS works very well for static shots or shots with small, controlled movements. Walking with the bare lens doesn’t have the same smoothness as gimbal footage, though it is much better than without stabilization! The stabilization is otherwise very mannerly and quiet. It gets the job done very nicely and adds to the usefulness of the lens in lower lighting conditions, like this shot where I was able to shoot at 1/40th second and keep my ISO at 800:

You can focus down as closely as 26cm (around 10″) which is only 4 cm closer than the EF version of the lens, but that version focus breathes more. The improved MFD combined with the lack of focus breathing is what allows for that higher degree of magnification. Here’s a look at the degree of magnification at MFD:

It’s worth noting that while some lenses give you higher magnification but at the cost of lower up close performance, the opposite is true here. I prefer the MFD performance of the new RF lens over the older EF lens, which I find has a little cleaner color rendition, better contrast, and slightly more detail:

All of this is very positive.

Like most other equivalent Canon zooms, there are nine rounded aperture blades in the aperture iris. This seems to keep a fairly circular shape as you stop the lens down.

The lens is made of a tough polycarbonate with a very fine flocking. It is not quite a matte finish, but close to it. My experience with these L series lenses is that they hold up very well over the long haul, and it’s not unusual for photographers to have used them for 10-20 years and they still look fairly good. The only other features on the lens is a small bank of three switches, starting with a three position focus limiter (useful in a macro lens), an AF/MF switch and a ON/OFF for the IS.

There are no IS modes here, but Canon’s IS systems are “smart” and detect when things like panning are happening and adjust accordingly.

All told, this is a nicely made lens that gives a lot of great features along with a highly professional build.

The primary negative in the build is the additional size and weight. As you can see above, once you mount that lens hood, this is not a small combination. The weight has proven heavy enough to call for a tripod collar in my use, but Canon does sell one that will work with an adapter. It’s not included, though, and is fairly pricey. You’ll probably want to learn to live without having one, and I haven’t personally found it an issue for anything.

Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS Autofocus Performance

The RF100M employs my favorite Canon focus system – Nano USM. This is a focus motor similar to what Sony calls a Linear Motor, which drives the focus group of elements back and forth rather than rotating them. Macro lenses can be slow focusers because they have such long focus throws (many more focus possibilities in the macro range that most lenses don’t have), so Canon has gone a step further and employed dual Nano USM motors here to help keep focus snappy. There’s a huge difference between the quality of focus of the 100L Macro and the cheaper 85mm F2 Macro. I ended my review of that lens very conflicted, as while I loved the optical performance, the autofocus performance was very disappointing. If you are looking for the single most compelling reason to spend the extra money and get the RF100M, this may just be it.

Autofocus was generally excellent with only a few caveats. Everything was very positive with a person in the frame, and I got excellent focused results with casual shots:

Portrait results were excellent, with excellent focus results at a variety of focus distances, like up close:

And if further away.

I really loved this lens as a portrait lens, and I’ve felt that same about the EF version over the past decade.

The caveat I referred to is that I often found the lens reluctant to focus at a point closer to the camera even if I put a focus point right one the blurred out foreground object, like this:

This is, frankly, one area of Canon autofocus that seems to lag behind the better Sony cameras. I really like the AF of the EOS R5 overall, but it isn’t as good in this kind of situation. This was the focus point that I wanted:

Sometimes choosing a higher contrast area closer to your desired focus distance helps, or manually focusing enough to get you “in the zone” before reengaging autofocus. What’s interesting is that using the focus limiter doesn’t always help in this situation. It’s my only real complaint about the autofocus.

In general, however, autofocus worked well in terms of focus accuracy.

My video results were also good. Focus pulls were quiet and smooth, with a well damped feeling that wasn’t too fast or twitchy. I saw moderate focus breathing during focus (often not a strength for macro lenses) and heard next to no focus sound even in a quiet environment. The microphone didn’t really pick up anything, so this will be a non-issue in real world video work.

I didn’t utilize autofocus a lot at macro distances, as manual focus is preferred there, but I did use it for close focus results in the field, and autofocus was accurate even up close like that.

One other negative to report is that if you are stopped down, the lens does seem to exhibit some focus shift. I had a sequence where I was taking photos of Loki with the morning light on him, and I inadvertently still had the aperture at F5.6. I noticed that basically all the photos were backfocused a bit, like this:

You can see that though Eye AF easily locked onto the very visible eye, the focus is on the fur further back. I was also testing the new RF version of the Viltrox AF 85mm F1.8, an inexpensive third party lens, and the focus results were perfect in the same sequence. I did a little research and found that Bryan Carnathan experienced something similar and confirmed the issue with Canon’s engineers.

So a bit of a mixed bag on the autofocus. Canon beefed up the autofocus system for this lens, and it shows. It’s definitely faster in focus than, say, the EF version, and quieter and smoother on top of that. But it also has a few issues, namely the focus shift problem and also a fairly typical Canon reluctance to grab focus on closer objects without some coaxing.

RF100M Optical Performance

Macro lenses are often very sharp lenses by necessity, as they need to have the acuity to accurately reproduce fine details. The Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro has 17 elements in 13 groups, and this optical design is a winner. Center sharpness is excellent (resolving about 90% at the 30LP/mm level according the MTF chart below), but it also holds that performance well into the corners, where the lowest resolution score in the extreme corner is about 78%.

A quick look at the MTF charts for the EF version confirms what my real world results show – the difference is minimal in the center of the frame, but the advantage for the new RF lens grows the further you move out from the center. This adds up to a lens that packs a lot of punch, with great contrast, resolution, and color rendition.

There are not going to be many optical flaws to point to, but I’ll break down things for you anyway. Here’s a look at vignette and distortion:

There’s a negligible amount of pincushion distortion there (-2, which is not enough to mess up anything and just enough to make portraits a bit more flattering). Vignette is also fairly well controlled (a rarity among Canon RF lenses!) with only a +43 required to correct it. All good on this front.

There is a bit of longitudinal chromatic aberration, though it is exaggerated here by using a very shiny, metallic surface with a lot of light on it.

In this image there is still a lot of potential for LoCA, but I don’t really don’t see much of it.

I don’t think that this will often be a real world issue, but there is a bit more than, say, the Laowa 100mm F2.8 Macro due to that lens’ Apochromatic optical design.

I didn’t really see any evidence of lateral chromatic aberrations even in the bare branches along the edges of the frame here:

All told, we are off to a great start here. There are minimal optical flaws among these typical sore spots.

So how about the resolution? Here’s a look at the test chart we use for these tests:

Here are wide open crops from the center, mid-frame, and far right corner (all tests on the 45MP sensor of the EOS R5):

The results from across the frame are consistently good. If we compare to the EF lens, we find that contrast and detail advantage over much of the frame from the RF lens, though it does appear that EF image is a bit brighter. The EF lens seems to have a bit better light transmission (possibly due to having fewer elements).

There’s no question that this lens is sharp, though. Just take a look at this deep crop from an F2.8 portrait:

Stopping the RF100M down to F4 further improves contrast and allows the lens to eke out even more detail.

Unfortunately the focus shift does rob some of the apparent sharpness at F5.6 on my test chart. F5.6 looks a tiny bit softer at some points in the frame than F4, but I suspect that is due to focus shift rather than actual optical performance. In real world results, I found the RF100M slightly sharper at F5.6 than at F2.8 at infinity, for example, though by a tiny margin. Here’s a landscape shot with comparison crops from the center and edge:

If you are manually focusing (as with macro), the focus shift is not really a problem. My close macros looked great at F5.6:

Here’s another example:

I also feel like the quality of the bokeh is quite good from this lens (whether you are messing the SA Control or not!). Here’s a frosty image that I love:

Moving back a little also produced nice looking bokeh:

Here’s another example that has a lot of nice looking bokeh in it. This will be a great choice for wedding photographers:

The only image I didn’t love the bokeh in was this one with some foreground bokeh, where I felt things were just slightly busy.

Canon colors are generally pretty great, and you can usually trust them to take lovely photos right out of camera.

It’s not unusual for telephoto lenses to struggle with flare resistance, but I felt like that was another area of strength here. I shot this same scene with another telephoto, and it really fell apart by comparison. The “Super Spectra” coatings are obviously doing their job.

All told, there is a lot of optical strengths here and little negative to report outside of the bit of focus shift. This is a lens that takes the excellence of the EF version and raises it a few notches. Feel free to check out more images and draw your own conclusions by visiting the image gallery here.

Conclusion

The Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM is a (mostly) excellent upgrade to the outstanding Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS. It gives higher magnification, better resolution, and faster, quieter autofocus. The improvement to the 1.4x magnification is always welcome, as when you are doing macro work you want as much flexibility as possible.

There are a couple of misses here. The focus shift issue will impact image sharpness in some situations, and I feel like the SA Control feature is largely going to be a gimmick for most users. There’s also the reality that the lens has grown a fair bit in size relative to the EF version. It’s also the best macro option available on RF right now, and the images that it produces are genuinely gorgeous. Rich color, excellent contrast, and fabulous detail regardless of your distance to the subject.

The price hike is both unwelcome and expected, as this has been the case for almost all the L series RF lenses. You get what you pay for here ($1399 USD), as this is a lens with a lot of capabilities, a high grade build, and an autofocus system that is both fast and quiet. Where or not SA Control is for you, the RF100M is a macro lens with a lot of versatility and high performance, and is a welcome addition to the growing catalog of RF lenses.

Pros:

High grade of build
Professional grade of weather sealing
Magnification up to 1.4x
Dual Nano USM delivers fast, silent focus
Image Stabilizer works effectively
Excellent sharpness across the frame
Beautiful color and great contrast
Chromatic aberrations well controlled
Good flare resistance
Very nice bokeh and general rendering
Makes for an excellent portrait lens

Cons:

SA ring feels more like a gimmick (and thus liability to handling)
Focus shift is a serious problem
Some AF reluctance to focus on close objects at times

Gear Used:

Purchase the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Purchase the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS @B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3HG7lPc | Amazon https://amzn.to/3nC0bnd | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/39jfr | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3nyjduF | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/32lVmX3 | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3kXBrUD | Ebay https://ebay.us/3b3GVf

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DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Canon RF 28mm F2.8 STM Review

Dustin Abbott

November 4th, 2023

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the Canon RF 28mm F2.8 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM Review

Dustin Abbott

November 17th, 2022

Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM Build and Handling

Autofocus and Video Performance

Canon RF24M Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

Purchase the Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 IS STM @ B&H | Amazon | Camera Canada Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | | Camera Canada | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM Gallery

Dustin Abbott

November 17th, 2022

Photos of the Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM

Photos Taken with the Canon RF 24mm F1.8

Purchase the Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 IS STM @ B&H | Amazon | Camera Canada Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | | Camera Canada | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM Review

Dustin Abbott

September 9th, 2022

Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM Build and Handling

Autofocus and Video Performance

Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

Purchase a Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | eBay

Purchase a Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | | Camera Canada | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM Gallery

Dustin Abbott

September 8th, 2022

Photos of the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM

Photos Taken with the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM

Purchase a Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | eBay

Purchase a Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM @ B&H Photo | Camera Canada | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | | Camera Canada | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM Review

Dustin Abbott

December 6th, 2021

Viltrox RF85 Build and Handling

Viltrox RF 85mm F1.8 STM Autofocus and Video

Viltrox RF85 Optical Performance

Conclusion