I’m going to begin this review with an arguably bold statement. The Canon RF 24-50mm f4.5-6.3 IS is one of the most disappointing lenses in the past decade. I’m a mugwump for all of the bigger camera brands, and that’s because everything they do is varying degrees of being much better than most. But in this case, this lens is nearly useless. It’s the kit lens to a lot of the lower-end Canon RF cameras — and as it is, I don’t care for it. As such, this won’t be one of our routine lens reviews following a major structure. Instead, it will be a dissection of the lens fueled by my dislike for it.
For many years, Canon’s kit lenses were always pretty good. But Canon also offered L-series lenses as an option too. In the case of the Canon EOS R8, you don’t get L glass. Instead, you get this sad piece of refuse. Let me put it like this.
This pretty perfect lens in the image above is the Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM. It’s the camera lens equivalent of someone that put years of therapy and work into themselves. Back in the DSLR days, it used to have lens creep that made shooting with it at weddings complicated. It also wasn’t really packed with weather resistance. But that changed over the years. And when Canon launched the RF mount, this lens came in like a knight in shining armor atop Baviaca, complete with its own set of squiers playing Spanish guitars.
It had everything. The weather resistance is incredible and reliable. The lens is lightweight yet versatile. And the image stabilization would accommodate the shakes of the most fervent follower of Starbucks. Couple this with Canon’s autofocus, and you’ve got a lens that’s insanely difficult to beat.
Oh! And it mates itself with only the highest-end cameras like the Canon EOS R, R5, R6 II, etc. Seriously, it’s the one that everyone wants.
On the other hand, we’ve got the Canon RF 24-50mm f4.5-6.3 IS. This is, by far, the single most useless lens from Canon I’ve ever handled. It’s not even a 24-70mm with a variable aperture. Instead, you’re getting barely any range. It’s not weather-resistant, either. And here’s the bigger thing: if you’re shooting at 24mm, the lens will sometimes tell you that it’s not ready for shooting, so you have to shoot at a longer focal length. This more or less makes it a 28-50mm lens. That further adds insult to the botheration.
Then there’s the image quality: which is just okay overall. We expect far more from a multi-billion dollar company.
“But say something good about it, Chris.” Okay:
- It’s small
- The idea of making a collapsible lens is neat, but the execution is impressively awful
- It’s affordable.
I quite literally stopped there in my thought process as I listed out the following:.
- Canon is refusing to add weather resistance to lower-end lenses
- I more or less have to always shoot at higher ISOs than normal
Seriously, this is a lens that I don’t think I’d ever use; and I recommend that any Canon photographer ever reach for it either. If you’re buying a Canon camera with a kit lens, don’t get this. Get one of Canon’s other lenses instead. We’ve got a full guide to them here.
Below are images from our R8 review using this lens.
And that’s it, I’m done.