Coming Soon

A "no interest if paid off within 24 months" deal made it impossible for me to pass up the RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM lens at Best Buy. Especially since price increases have yet to kick in with stock already imported into the US. I'm very much looking forward to its arrival via FedEx perhaps tomorrow.

Canon makes three 50mm lenses in the RF mount. I've owned several copies of the very cheap f/1.8 STM version as they are frequently on sale and then I trade them in with almost no loss on the transaction. It's not my favorite lens.

Here is the diagram of the f/1.8 version.

$200 lens

The f/1.2L version is amazing but big, heavy and very, very expensive. I owned the EF version of this lens, which is smaller, lighter and less expensive, which I used with an adapter on my EOS R6. Here is a gallery with photos from the EF version.

Here is the diagram of the RF f/1.2L version.

$2,300 lens

Last October, Canon introduced an f/1.4L version of the lens which is unlike any 50mm lens Canon's made before. It's an L lens so it's weather sealed. It has an aperture ring, although it will only function in video mode on my R6 Mark II. It also has a button on the lens which I will set for depth of field preview. Here is a diagram of the RF f/1.4L version.

$1,400 lens

Here is a photo from The Digital Picture showing all three of these lenses together with the old EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens.

I dismissed this lens when it first came out because I was using EOS R8 bodies without IBIS and the lens does not have its own image stabilization. But now that I'm using an R6 Mark II body with IBIS I will have up to 7 stops of image stabilization with the lens. With three stops of extra light (8 times as much light) and shallower depth of field options compared to my 24-105mm f/4L lens it will add a lot to my capabilities.

Here are photos of the two lenses I'll now be using, again courtesy of The Digital Picture.