OpticalLimits is one of my favorite review sites, and they recently completed their review of the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM.
First, let’s face facts, the Canon RF 16mm is the cheapest ever full frame 16mm that has ever been produced by an original camera manufacturer. Ever. There are going to be some compromises to its performance.
There are usually three main contributors to lens design;
- Cost
- Size / Weight
- Quality
Each one of these factors affects the other. In the case of the RF 16mm F2.8 you have a small, light, and cheap 16mm ultra-wide prime. Quality is going to suffer.
If any of you have been following my patent application commentary over the years at CanonNews – you’ll know that I’ve been very outspoken about Canon’s trends on making the image circle smaller on lenses. It isn’t an uncommon thing in Canon’s patent applications. However, while doing so can reduce the cost and size / weight, it does have a pretty dramatic effect on image quality.
OpticalLimits did quite a thorough review of the RF 16mm F2.8 and while the optical quality did suffer, they do admit it’s a huge bang for the buck lens that is hard to pass up – just don’t look too closely at the corners.
The Canon RF 16mm f/2.8 STM is a lens with many facets. It comes down to where you come from and what you want. For instance, if you own an EOS R3 or R6, it’s a decent ultra-wide prime lens – because, at 20 megapixels, even a Coke bottle is sharp enough. Well, almost. While on an EOS R5 and 45 megapixels, you don’t really want to look at the image corners. It is, of course, also worth noting that this is the cheapest, fast ultra-wide prime ever released from a genuine manufacturer. Even when ignoring all quality concerns, it’s dirt cheap for what it is. If you can’t afford the real thing, having a 16mm ultra-wide lens is better than having none at all.
They give it a low grade of optical quality but a resounding 5 out of 5 stars for price / performance.
Read the entire review here.
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