CANON RF 16mm F2.8 STM £319/$299

This ultra-wide-angle prime is remarkably compact, especially considering its fast f/2.8 aperture

One of the joys of a camera like the EOS RP is that it’s wonderfully compact and lightweight for a fullframe body. The same can’t be said of many Rf-mount lenses, which put image quality before size and weight considerations. The RF 16mm redresses the balance, with its featherweight 69x40mm, 165g construction. That’s pretty astonishing, given its ultra-wide-angle 16mm focal length and fast f/2.8 aperture.

Stepping motor-based autofocus is near-silent and combines rapid performance for stills with smooth transitions for movie capture. With a minimum focus distance of just 0.13m, you can get in really close and exaggerate perspective effects, making full use of the short focal length.

Unlike some RF lenses, there’s no separate customizable control ring, but the manual focus ring can take on alternative duties in autofocus mode, like stepless (de-clicked) aperture control for shooting landscape movies. Build quality feels very good but, as you’d expect at the price, there are no weather-seals. Typical of non-l-series Canon lenses, the hood is sold separately, but is worth having to reduce ghosting and flare.

Performance

Sharpness across most of the frame is very good when shooting wide-open but it pays to stop down to between f/5.6 and f/11 if you want to maximize sharpness out to the edges and corners. Barrel distortion is frankly so appalling that uncorrected images have a more fisheye look to them. In fairness, though, many lenses for mirrorless cameras rely heavily on in-camera corrections.