It's been a long time coming.

I mean, not much more can be said about that – right? We have waited for 30 years since the original Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 and here we are.

Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM vs Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

First up is comparing the new lens to the older EF lens. I know this really isn't fair at all, but it's to establish a performance baseline.

So the RF lens has better contrast, significantly better resolution, and significantly better corners. and better bokeh. Simply put, it takes the EF lens out back to the woodshed. As it should, the EF lens was a modified FD film mount design when Canon was quickly making as many lenses as they could for the EF mount. It wasn't even optimized or redone for digital sensors.

Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM vs Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM

A far better challenge for this upstart 50mm f/1.4 VCM is to compare it against its bigger brother the Canon RF 50mm f1/2L USM. I really didn't know what to expect on this comparison as making an f/1.2 lens is still hard, and there are some compromises. It should be noted that we are comparing f/1.2 vs f/1.4 MTFs, so we have to give a little nod to the Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM in this regard.

Looking at the MTFs, sharpness at the center and across the frame is better and a more natural tailing off into the corners versus the RF 50mm f/1.2. Contrast is also better with the Rf 50mm f/1.4 as well. In a way, this is to be expected, but it does tell us something. Unless you need f/1.2 speed, the f/1.4 lens is a better lens wide open against the f/1.2 wide open.

I will most likely be adding to this comparison as we get more data, but I wanted to get this out as quickly as possible to our readers. Check back often for more details.

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Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM

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Go to discussion...

209 comments

  1. It's more expensive than I expected
    For me the 24 and 50mm are in line with expected pricing. It's actually "cheap" considering the EF 35mm 1.4 ii was $1800 in 2015 money. The original $2800 rf 70-200 really bumped up the price from the $2100 EF III so not surprised to see the IF version being $3k, though I would have liked to see closer to $2500 given weakness of the Yen.
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  2. Today Canon has launched some much-anticipated lenses for the RF mount. Besides the 35mm F1.4, the next hot lens for Canon has always been the 24mm F1.4, and here we are.

    Guess the 5th lens was the 2nd color of 70-200?
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  3. Article on the MTF for the 70-200 is posted now.

    Thanks!
    Looks like they could improve the Performance over the non-Z lens, esp. at 70 mm. 200mm looks very close, except for the corners.
    Personally, I'd be in for the smaller form factor of the first RF70-200/2.8.
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  4. If I was in for the 70-200 I wouldn't know which colour to choose.
    I suppose I would stick with the Canon white ;)
    Black is the skinnier lens! It is a full 5g less!
    Weight
    Approx. 2.5 lb. / 1115g (White model) / Approx. 2.4 lb. / 1110g (Black model)
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  5. I'm spoiled by the 28-70mm f/2 and the original 70-200mm f/2.8 which are all I need for paid work. I have some of the cheaper primes for casual shooting but I may never need an L prime, especially at these prices.
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  6. Finally a RF 70-200/2.8 that is worthy to replace the legendary Ef version.
    It’s really light in comparison to the EF version. The EF version is now 1.5x heavier than this new RF version.
    Optically, there’s not much between them. According to the MFT charts, the new RF version is better in the corners, centre performance is pretty similar at 200mm. The 70mm performance is much improved.
    However, these new charts include in-camera software correction. I would expect a far newer lens formula to be better, but it goes to show how good some of the more recent EF lenses are.
    Another thing that strikes me, this new lens with a 1.4x tc is nearly as sharp as the native RF 100-300/2.8 is natively.
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  7. I'll have to wait an hour or so before the Dutch prices go public, but it looks like the 50 f/1.2L will be €25 cheaper than the 50 f/1.4L VCM when getting it through grey import.
    The answer is of course to wait for the VCM to hit the grey market, that would make it €300 cheaper, if the pricing behaves like the 35VCM.
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  8. Wow, the MFT's for the RF 24mm f1.4 L VCM are up n the japanse site...this is certainly Canon's finest 24mm ever. Maybe optically eclipsing their TSE 24mm.
    working on it now! the difference between the EF and RF is insane, it's not even close.

    all the lenses are top notch for sure.
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  9. In terms of MFT charts and camera sensor resolution, anything over 0.85 on the blue lines / dotted lines is going to out resolve a R5 sensor. What gets us sharpness freaks so excited about lenes that fare high sharpness figures is that the higher figures usually indicate superior sharpenss with teleconverters. This new RF 70-200mm f2.8 LIS Z doesn't dissapoint. the 1.4x TC charts show a similar optical resolution at 280mm as the native RF 100-300mm f2.8 LIS is at 300mm. Sure the 100-300 has a one stop advantage, which is massive. However, this new RF 70-200mm f2.8 LIS Z is impressive optically.
    Dial in the weight savings, better MFD and max magnification, slightly better IS system and AF motors....finally a lens to eclipse the old EF lens.
    I'm suprised that this lens doesn't have any flourite elements in it's formula.
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