Sony is no longer the only choice in mirrorless cameras. While the Japanese electronics manufacturer have been at it for a long time, its compatriots have also started betting into the technology in recent years. Canon, for one, has been rather active in pushing out new mirrorless cameras and lenses in the recent years to not just compete against Sony. They want their throne as the largest camera manufacturer in the world, and they want the top spot in mirrorless cameras too.
To unseat the current king of mirrorless cameras though, Canon needs to offer more than just a few cameras and select popular lenses. They need to cater to a much larger market. They need to create a larger support system for their EOS R line-up of products. That is why they have introduced their new RF24mm f/1.8 MACRO IS STM and RF15-30mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lenses.
While it is only two lenses that they are introducing currently, they now have 30 lenses in their collection of lenses for the EOS R system. The RF lenses, in numbers, still pale in comparison to Sony’s current offerings. Canon is catching up fast though, at this rate anyway.
RF24mm f/1.8 MACRO IS STM
As its single focal length suggests, it is another prime lens made for the EOS R series mirrorless cameras from Canon. It completes the range of affordable prime lens collection in Canon’s RF stables. The 24mm adds to Canon’s current 16mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm prime lenses. It is not just a regular wide-angle prime lens though.
Canon says that this is a sort of dual-purpose prime lens. It is still a wide-angle lens at 24mm, at which focal length, is perfect for landscape shots and even close-up portraits if you like. But it is also developed as a macro lens with only 0.14m in focusing distance from your selected subject. The ultra-short focusing distance will allow you to capture things like food, flowers, small animals, and even toys in rather immaculate detail up-close. At f/1.8 aperture too, you can capture all of these and even portraits with beautiful bokeh on your photos.
The 24mm is also not a very hefty lens to carry around, making it the perfect lens for travelling. At 270g, the prime lens is not what you would call back breaking. Yet, it still packs Canon’s rather clever Image Stabilisation hardware with up to 6.5 stops to ensure that you are capturing the best possible photos without wobbles. It contains 9 aperture blades so that your bokeh comes as round as they can be.
RF15-30mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM
If you need versatility from your lens, a zoom lens should always be the preferred option. Zoom lenses give you a sort of flexibility no prime lenses can give you. If you need one lens to do it all, you want to go for a Zoom lens.
The RF15-30mm with f/4.5-6.3mm is a budget lens. With aperture as high as f/6.3mm, you may not get depth effect as good as the one you get on the prime lens. It is a small trade-off for the versatility in range you get from 15mm to 30mm though. At 15mm, you get a wider angle from the 24mm to capture more landscape goodness in your travels. At 30mm, you can just zoom in enough to cut out whatever you might not want in your photo but still get a good wide-angle shot anyway. At 30mm too, you are getting a rather natural perspective, very close to what you can see with your natural human eyes.
While it is not exactly a macro lens, its 0.28m focal distance puts it close enough for you to work with if you still want to capture macro images. Of course, to get even more detail on your subject, you want to get a good zoom in. It sacrifices some of the lens opening with up to f/6.3 aperture, but with good enough lighting, you should be able to come up with something beautiful still.
At 390g, it is heavier than the budget prime lens Canon introduced alongside this lens. It is also slightly bulkier than the prime lens, which is sort of a given with more elements introduced for the lens to zoom in and out. It still packs Canon’s legendary image stabilization at 7 stops for ultra-steady and crisp images out-of-the-box. It features 7 aperture blades, 2 less than the prime lens. But you can still capture rather interesting photos with the RF zoom lens.
Availability
There are no confirmations on when the new RF lenses will make it to Malaysia. Although, you can already find more information on the new lenses on their website. If you do head over there, you would have noticed that there is no pricing just yet too. There are no clear indications how much Canon would be pricing both these budget lenses. Based on what we have seen on the market though, the 24mmm lens should set you back anywhere between MYR 2,000 to MYR 3,000. The zoom 15mm-35mm should go anywhere between MYR 2,500-3,500. Take it with a pinch of salt though, we could be wrong.