CANON RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM
Compared with its EF 16-35mm f/4l sibling, this RF lens goes ultra-wide with viewing angles
This lens gives a noticeably wider maximum field of view than the EF 16-35mm, equating to 114 degrees compared with 108 degrees. The difference of 2mm at the short end of the zoom range might not sound much, but it makes a big difference. Weighing 540g, it’s 75g lighter than the EF lens and easily manageable for handheld shooting.
There’s some seriously upmarket glass shoehorned into this small lens. The total count of 16 elements includes three GMO (Glass Moulded) aspherical elements, two UD (Ultra-low Dispersion) elements and one UD aspherical element. Fluorine coatings are applied to the front and rear elements to repel moisture and grease. As you’d expect from a current Canon L-series lens, it features extensive weather-seals and comes complete with a hood.
Autofocus is driven by a Nano USM motor and features an ‘elastic metal’ body. It’s astonishingly fast for stills, virtually snapping into place, while also enabling smooth and virtually silent autofocus transitions for movie capture.
Performance
The optical image stabilizer delivers a highly impressive 5.5-stop benefit in its own right, boosted to 7-stop effectiveness when combined with the in-body stabilization of later EOS R system cameras. Centre-sharpness is spectacular and, compared with the EF 16-35mm lens, remains excellent right out to the extreme edges and corners of the frame. Both lenses are pretty equal in good control over colour fringing but there’s a heavy reliance on automatic in-camera corrections for distortions and vignetting.