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Features

The Best Canon RF Lenses Under $500 You’re Bound to Love

Chris Gampat
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03/31/2022
4 Mins read
Hillary Grigonis The Phoblographer Canon RF 50mm f1.8 STM Review-8254

Last Updated on 03/31/2022 by Mark Beckenbach

There are lots of lenses available for the Canon RF camera system. But lots of the absolute best ones are very expensive. If you’re not looking for the best of the best, there are Canon RF lenses under $500 that are still really great. Need a macro? Well, they’ve got one! And what about the incredible Canon nifty 50! It returned for Canon RF mount! Here are the Canon RF lenses under $500 we think are the best.

Pro Tips and What to Know About Canon RF Lenses Under $500

  • Be sure to check out our guide to all of Canon’s RF Lenses lenses.
  • We would never recommend something to you that we haven’t tested ourselves. With that said, all of these Canon RF lenses under $500 named have links to our reviews. All of the images were also shot by us.
  • The image quality from Canon RF lenses under $500 really comes from a combination of the sensor and the lens design. Canon’s sensors are unique to only them. Try using them with the Fine Detail profile for some truly nice colors.
  • All these photos were shot with various Canon RF lenses under $500 over the years. We’ve used them on the Canon EOS R3, Canon EOS R6, Canon EOS RP, and the Canon EOS R original.
  • All of the Canon RF lenses under $500 we’re recommending do not have a weather resistant design. So don’t take these into the rain.

Canon RF 50mm f1.8 STM

Pros

  • Affordable
  • Compact and lightweight
  • Solid bokeh and color
  • Great autofocus performance
  • Lots of room for character

Cons

  • Softer than other mirrorless primes, especially at the corners
  • No weather-sealing
  • Some minor color fringing

How’s the Image Quality?

In our review, we state:

“I love a good budget nifty fifty — and the Canon RF 50mm f1.8 certainly falls under that category. Bokeh is excellent, colors are rich, and there’s plenty of character left over. It’s not as sharp as leading mirrorless prime lenses, but for $200, the images are pretty spectacular.”

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Canon RF 24-105mm f4-7.1 IS STM 

Pros

  • Very sharp
  • Nice color rendition
  • Lightweight and small
  • Good build quality
  • Very fast and quiet when focusing
  • Finds focus quickly in both good and low light conditions
  • The programmable control ring is a nice touch
  • Excellent image stabilization
  • A fun macro feature which works surprisingly well
  • Very affordable at just $399

Cons

  • A lens hood is not included.
  • There’s a lot of distortion at 24mm (but easily fixed during post).
  • No weather sealing

How’s the Image Quality?

In our review, we state:

“Overall, you’ll be delighted with the images from the Canon RF 24-105mm. Colors are beautiful and natural, images are very sharp, you can create some beautiful bokeh, and there’s not a hint of fringing or chromatic aberration. There is a problem with distortion when at 24mm, but it can be corrected in post.”

Buy Now

Canon RF 35mm f1.8 STM Macro

Pros

  • Small
  • Lightweight
  • Fairly fast to focus
  • It’s a lens designed to always be on your camera.
  • Image stabilization (very much needed in the system)
  • Gorgeous bokeh
  • Sharp enough for most uses but not as sharp as most L glass I’ve seen and used. Still, it’s a shocker.
  • Pretty affordable at $449 regularly

Cons

  • We would have gladly paid more money weather sealing.

How’s the Image Quality?

In our review, we state:

“While the Canon RF 35mm f1.8 USM IS isn’t quite L quality, I’m impressed by what it can deliver. This is very much designed for an amateur and enthusiast, so it isn’t designed to render the best image quality. If you’re a higher-end enthusiast or a professional you’ll need to reach for the company’s L lenses. Some of the best things about the image quality are the bokeh and, like many other lenses out there, you’ll need to use a flash to get the most sharpness. However, as I say that, I went back into Capture One to look at the sharpness; it’s impressive for a lens this affordable and for a system this new. While folks may hate on the new Canon RF system, and I really can’t deny that it still could be more innovative, the lenses and the performance are more than good enough for most folks.”

Buy Now

The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear that we’ve fully reviewed. If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

canon canon rf canon rf 24-105mm Canon RF 24-105mm f4-7.1 IS STM canon rf 35mm canon rf 35mm f1.8 canon rf 50mm canon rf 50mm f1.8 Canon RF lenses under $500 image quality lenses nifty 50 review
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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