CANON RF 85mm f/2.0 MACRO IS STM
Macro photography opens up a whole new world of subject matter, and lucky owners of Canon RF mount mirrorless bodies can now get involved more affordably with a lens that suits plenty of other applications too.
It’s currently one of the most affordable of Canon’s RF mount lenses for its full frame mirrorless system, but the 85mm f/2.0 macro has more tricks up its sleeve than just closeup photography. And the image quality is truly outstanding.
As we’ve noted on a number of occasions recently, the mirrorless camera world is really all about lenses at the moment. Of course, the particular capabilities of the camera bodies are important, but it’s the lenses that give a particular system its appeal and Canon is working hard to make the RF mount look like an attractive proposition. There’s stiff competition, of course, especially in the full frame format, but
Canon has been hitting a number of winners, and the 85mm f/2.0 Macro IS STM looks like another one.
For starters, Canon has carefully balanced the specifications, capabilities and price; it’s tempting to think of a macro lens as more of a speciality lens than an ‘everyday’ lens so you might decide to put off purchasing one until you’d ticked some other boxes… a telezoom maybe? Think again, because this lens has more tricks up its sleeve other than close-up focusing. Of course, it can go close – down to 35 centimetres – but this gives a reproduction ratio of 1:2 or half life-size which makes it easier to design optically than if Canon had gone all the way to 1:1 and, perhaps more importantly, easier to deliver enhanced optical performance without requiring an alphabet soup of special elements. Of course, the mirrorless camera configuration – and its shorter flange back distance – helps here, particularly in pursuing the Holy Grail of macro lens optical performance, namely the optimum uniformity of centre-to-corner sharpness. Electing for what Canon calls a “half macro” design also makes for a more compact and lighter weight lens that is also more affordable. Consequently, Canon has also been able to incorporate optical image stabilisation which immediately enhances the potential scope of this lens’s usability, especially in low-light situations. The OIS delivers five stops of correction for camera shake and it’s obviously particularly good news for owners of the
EOS R and RP, neither of which have in-body image stabilisation. In concert with the IBIS in the R5 and R6, the correction range extends to a massive eight stops. However, five stops of correction still provides plenty of room to move with slower shutter speeds. Assuming that 1/85 second is the minimum ‘safe’ speed (based on the 1/focal length rule) without stabilisation, you should – theoretically at least – able to shoot with a shutter speed as slow as about 1/3 second, which might be a challenge physically. But even if you decide 1/15 second is as low as you want to go, you’re still going to be able to shoot in low light – in combination with f/2.0 – without needing to dial up the ISO. However, as depth-of-field is often critical with macro work – and it reduces significantly at close-up focusing distances – the image stabilisation will also allow you to use smaller apertures such as f/11 and f/16. If you really want more lens speed and you’re prepared to pay for it, there’s already the RF mount 85mm f/1.2 prime, but it’s a big beast, much pricier (by close to a factor of three) and lacks the same close-up focusing
capabilities… but it is an L series lens so the optical performance is superlative.
MULTI TASKING
The 85mm focal length is, of course, often called the portrait focal length because of its perspective, absence of distortion (certainly in terms of reproducing the human face) and shallowish depth-of-field which helps render backgrounds more softly to avoid distractions. Obviously, the 85mm f/2.0 is as much a portrait lens as it is a macro lens, with the maximum aperture of f/2.0 easily giving reducing the depth-of-field to allow for more selective focusing, and a nine-bladed diaphragm ensuring smoother out-of-focus effects.
All this also makes it suitable for quite a number of other subjects, including people, pets, street photography and weddings or other social events.
The optical construction comprises 12 elements in 11 groups – so it’s not especially complex – and including one element with ultra-low dispersion characteristics, which is primarily designed to minimise chromatic aberrations. Autofocusing is achieved via a stepping motor (the ‘STM’ initials in the model name) designed to give smoother and quieter adjustments, primarily for when shooting video. The lens’s inner barrel telescopes during focusing, extending by about three centimetres. A focusing range limiter is provided with settings for Full, 0.5 metres to infinity, and 0.35 to 0.5 metres. This last setting is particularly useful when shooting close-ups as it avoids the AF wasting precious time with hunting… important if you’re shooting flighty subjects such as insects.
At 90.5 millimetres in length and weighing in at 500 grams, the RF 85mm f/2.0 macro is very comfortable to use with hand-held shooting. The external construction looks to be mostly reinforced polycarbonate and there’s no mention of any weather sealing, but it still looks and feels solidly built. Certainly, the absence of a rubber gasket around the lens mount suggests this lens doesn’t have weather protection so some care needs to be taken if shooting in rainy or misty conditions.
The lens mount is a machined stainless steel component, and the screwthread filter fitting is 67 millimetres (so they’re more affordable too). No lens hood is supplied though – something Canon does a lot with non-L lenses and is really taking penny-pinching a bit too far – and it’s likely you’re going to want one when shooting on sunny days.
As with all the RF mount lenses, the 85mm f/2.0 macro has the multi-functional ‘Control Ring’ which can be set to adjust apertures, shutter speeds,
ISO settings or exposure compensation. In addition to the focus range limiter, there’s also an MF/AF selector and an on/off switch for the image stabiliser. The manual focusing collar is electronic rather than mechanical – a.k.a. ‘fly-by-wire’ – which can feel a bit disconnected, but is precise enough on this lens to allow the very fine adjustments that are often needed with close-up work. The ‘Focus Guide’ display in the EOS R bodies proves to be a handy assistance for fine-tuning manual focusing here, indicating the degree of back- or front-focus – via a trio of tiny pointers – as well as indicating when the subject is in-focus.
PERFORMANCE
While there may be a few costcutting measures in the physical construction, Canon hasn’t skimped on what’s required to deliver a solid optical performance. We tested the RF 85mm f/2.0 Macro IS STM on an EOS R body, which means there weren’t the benefits of Canon’s latest AF smarts or the focus bracketing function on the R5 and R6, or indeed, the extra capabilities of its in-body image stabilisation.
Nevertheless, the lens still ably showed off what it can do in terms of uniformity of both sharpness and brightness, and the corrections for distortion, chromatic aberrations and spherical aberrations. Even shooting wide open at f/2.0, the corners are still extremely sharp, so excellent centre-to-corner sharpness is maintained across the aperture range up to f/16, after which the effects of diffraction become evident. Some vignetting is evident when shooting at f2.0, but it’s effectively eliminated by stopping down to f/4.0 and, of course, can be dealt with in-camera when shooting JPEGs or video. The EOS R series bodies have in-camera lens corrections for vignetting and distortion plus, via the ‘Digital Lens Optimiser’, additionally for lateral chromatic aberrations, spherical aberrations and diffraction. Even with the distortion correction switched off, the 85mm f/2.0 macro is still very well corrected optically with just a hint of pincushion-type distortion at f/2.0, which is gone by f/4.0. Likewise, the handling of both lateral and longitudinal chromatic aberrations is impressive even without the assistance of DLO, and this is particularly important with a macro lens where high contrast edges can easily be blurred by colour
WHILE THERE MAY BE A FEW COSTCUTTING MEASURES IN THE PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTION, CANON HASN’T SKIMPED ON WHAT’S REQUIRED TO DELIVER A SOLID OPTICAL PERFORMANCE.”
fringing which compromises the definition of very fine details.
The autofocusing performance with the EOS R was a bit patchy. The lens focused speedily and accurately over the longer subject distances, but sometimes struggled in some situations when shooting closer up. This was especially the case when the main subject wasn’t in the centre of the frame and it didn’t seem to have anything to do with where the focusing point or zone was positioned either. We suspect the AF experience would be very different with the R5 or R6 bodies. That said, manual focusing is often the more reliable option when shooting close-ups and this was pretty much the case here. A plus point is that the 1:2 reproduction ratio is delivered at a distance of 35 centimetres which means there are no problems with the lens casting a shadow on the subject and there’s also less likelihood of live subjects such as insects being scared off as a big eye appears to be looming up on them.
THE VERDICT
The plusses far outweigh the minuses with the RF 85mm f/2.0 Macro, as none of the latter will ultimately stop you achieving great results. The optical performance is excellent, both in terms of sharpness and the corrections for both distortion and chromatic aberrations. The compact size and weight allow for comfortable handheld shooting, and the maximum aperture of f/2.0 still gives plenty of exposure flexibility in low-light situations and scope for selective focusing utilising the shallow depth-of-field.
The lack of weather sealing may or may not impose some restrictions depending on how much you like shooting in bad weather, and the absence of a lens hood in the box is irritating, but certainly not a deal breaker. It’s still impossible to ignore the superb value-for-money that this lens represents, especially as it adds some very useful capabilities to any photographer’s growing kit of RF mount lenses.