Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro is STM, Compact Medium-Telephoto Black Lens (4234C002)

I bought this lens to replace my old EF 85 f/1.8 lens. I was hesitant because of some bad reviews. But it turned out to be a great upgrade. Image quality is top notch – very sharp, good contrast and great colors. I use it on my EOS R6. Images from this combo are very clean (no haze that I often experienced from the old 85 f/1.8). f/2.0 vs f/1.8 on the old lens – this really didn’t matter much to me. The performance of the old lens wide open wasn’t great. I used f/2.2 or above for most of my shooting with it. This new RF lens however produce excellent results wide open at f/2.0. The bokeh it produces is very good too. And of course, this new RF lens has IS, close focusing distance and 1:2 macro. All useful features. Before buying this, I was concerned about 2 issues – slow and noisy autofocus and geometric distortion. Neither turned out to be issues for me. Autofocus is noisy but it is fast for normal shooting (0.5m to infinity). Manual/focusing for Macro (0.35m – 0.5m) is difficult, but Macro in general is difficult if you want to do it right. Geometric distortion (very minor pincushion distortion) is harmless, especially after lens correction. I am not much into videos, so no experience there. I am a hobbyist with 25+ years of experience using SLR, DSLR and now mirrorless. I very much appreciate the smaller RF lenses Canon is producing (I use RF 85 f/2.0, RF 35 f/1.8 and RF 16 f/2.8) to go along with compact bodies such as R6. Photography is fun again!

Even though this lens is not exactly what I want in an 85mm auto-focus lens for RF mount, I am happy to give this lens 5 stars. What I really want is an enthusiast-grade, f1.4 - 85mm with AF, but as of this writing, Canon doesn't offer one nor do they allow others to make one. Canon offers the super premium/professional f1.2 and this budget f2 but nothing in between. That's a shame, but here we are. So, with that said, at a cost of $500 and given the design ambitions of this lens as being a non-weather proof f2, yeah, this lens really terrific. I mostly do street work with many faces frequently the frame and this lens is quick to achieve sharp focus exactly where I want it to be. It is very reliable. The image quality is excellent, the build is very good and it does not weigh a ton. For the $500 that I paid, I consider this lens as an overachiever. It produces really excellent photos.

As a long time user of the EF L lenses I was not expecting much from this medium range lens. I got it to handle macro and some basic portrait work. Lena arrived today and did some quick test shots above to check its macro capability with it mounted on an RP. Needless to say, I was a both surprised at the quality of the images. The lens is light, not as quick at focusing as an EF L lenses, I don’t have any RF L lenses so cannot comment, but acquires focus at a decent speed. Very little hunting if you point the center focus square at the point you want it to focus. Bokeh is outstanding. Well worth the price and portability! Highly recommended.

Excellent image quality and contrast in an affordable package. - In the cat pic, look at the chair near the cat's paw to get an idea of how shallow DOF is at f2. - The other pic shows size of the lens mounted on an RP PROS: - Fast f2 but still affordable compared to the 1.2 lenses out there (like 1/4 the price) - Compact and light - Excellent IQ - Very useful image stabilization CONS: - STM autofocus is a bit loud - A bit plastic-y and not weather sealed Highly recommended

I’ll start off with the bad: 1. The focus motor is very noisy. It’s probably the loudest focusing lens I own. 2. Autofocus is slow, as is the case with many macro lenses. It just seems this is a little slower than necessary. However, it does focus accurately. The good: 1. Very high image quality, even at f/2. I was surprised at how good it is for this price. Basically L lens IQ. 2. It’s light. Made out of plastic, but you also won’t get tired holding it. 3. Image stabilization is very good, especially when paired with an R6 or R5. 4. It’s cheap(ish). There isn’t a better 85mm for the money when you take into account its cost and IQ. It’s somewhat of a unique lens. It’s not the absolute best at either portraits or macro, but the absolute best is going to cost you 3x as much. If you’re ONLY interested in macro, I’d go with a dedicated macro lens. If you want something that will give you good portraits with some light macro work, this lens is basically perfect.

I just purchased this lens to mount on my R6 Mark ii and I love it! Ultra crisp images! Fantastic portrait lens! Not very fast focusing for fast action shooting but this lens was really not built for that. Buy this for the value!

I really liked this lens, I am happy with my parchase, great quality.

This lens does a beautiful job at the fraction of the price that the USM lens is! 1000/10 reccomend. I will say the focus speed is not a quick as the USM lens, however it is manageable and for the price to me its worth the few seconds difference!!!