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Canon RF 35mm f1.8 Macro IS STM Review

By Andrian Tam · · 3 min read

Pros: 

  • Great travel lens
  • Small, compact and lightweight
  • Great aperture at f/1.8
  • Macro capabilities
Cons:
  • No weather sealing
  • No dedicated focus ring
  • No clicks on the RF control ring
  • No setting to define focus range (macro - infinity)
  • Autofocus can throw off to Macro searching for subject
The 35mm lens is the first of 2 RF mount lenses at this focal length, one at f1.8 (Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM) and the other as an L lens at f/1.4 (Canon RF 35mm F1.4 L VCM). This review is only for the f/1.8 version. 


I have been having this lens now for a year and I bought it from Georges Cameras in Sydney, great service from them and I always get my gear from them when I'm there. Best part is as a foreigner, I get tax refund so the prices are sometimes cheaper than at home in Malaysia. Why a 35mm? 

35mm was a street standard and you would find lots of vintage cameras including mountable lenses and rangefinders to be 35mm in focal length. This has become a common street lens standard for many, giving a view that has less distortion but wide enough to enjoy. 


However my sentiment with the lens after few months of usage was about the opposite. I find the 35mm lens to be not wide enough for landscapes, nor not zoomed enough for portraits. Since then, this lens has sat in my dry box for a very long time. The only time i use it is if I am travelling and i want a low light lens at f/1.8.


For work, I also barely uses this lens but its on standby as a back up in my camera case. Most of the time i will use zoom lenses for it's versatility, as i shoot events mainly which I still practice the holy trinity:
  • Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8 L iii USM
  • Canon RF 24-105 f2.8 L IS USM Z
  • Canon EF 70-200 f2.8 L ii IS USM
With these 3 lenses, i never needed to use prime lenses. The only exception, is when I have a closed setup and when I take products close up. This lens is amazing for static automotive photography. 






This lens excels in taking close up or detailed shots of car parts, or any product parts if needed. 

Is the Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 lens good for videos? Well, yes and no. 


The RF 35mm fits well on a Canon R8 on a DJI Mini 3, which is a compact camera gimbal great for traveling. One day in Sydney, i was able to take cinematic shots of a car meet with just this setup (start from 1:39)

The only annoying thing about this RF 35mm f/1.8 is that when it tries to focus, it will go through the whole range from macro to infinity, searching for a subject especially when it's low light. This focus throw is very slow and there is no way to stop it from searching slowly but to wait till it reaches macro, and then it tries to zoom out to infinity again. 
There are 2 types of lens hoods that you can get for this lens, a circular hood or a flower petal type from JJC. After buying the petal lens hood, I find it quite fiddly and hard to naturally attach it on and off as it is quite tight. 

So again, is the 35mm a great travel lens? If you like simplicity and light weight, definitely. I'm abit different. I love compression and shots that are more than 100mm. In my last post, I talked about how I ditched the RF 35mm for the Canon RF 24-240mm, and now I use the RF 24-240mm 90% of the time for travelling. The RF 35mm remains as a backup lens for night use, but even with that, I still have been shooting car shots at night with the 24-240mm on a tripod. 
Taken with the RF 24-240mm on tripod
Nevertheless, lets have a look at some of the shots taken with the RF 35mm f1.8 lens:














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