Review: The Canon RF 85mm macro lens

Friday 22 January 2021, 20:10 by Nando Harmsen | 8,532 views | 8 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

As Canon's mirrorless cameras take the market by storm, many excellent lenses are becoming available for the system.

One of them is the RF 85mm macro, an affordable lens that is certainly worth considering. Canon Nederland provided this lens for a review.

The Canon RF 85mm f/2 macro on a mirrorless camera.
There are now many beautiful and unique lenses available for Canon's mirrorless full-frame cameras. They have the new RF mount, and therefore cannot be used on digital SLR cameras.

You hear so much about the fantastic but expensive L lenses that the others are overlooked or receive far less attention.

That is completely unjustified, because there are some fantastic lenses among them too. They are also affordable compared with the expensive L lenses. The RF 85mm f/2 macro is one of them.

The RF 85mm is very easy to handle; it really is a small powerhouse.
The great thing about the Canon RF 85mm f/2 macro is its size. This is a very easy-to-handle lens, small and light, but with a wide f/2 aperture. It is the mirrorless version of the popular EF 85mm f/1.8 for the digital SLR system. It does have an extra advantage, though. It is a macro lens.

85mm, a versatile focal length

An 85mm focal length is very versatile. It is very popular for portraits for good reason, giving you pleasant compression so that the proportions of a face look very natural. It also allows you to keep a comfortable distance.

Iris in the studio. An 85mm focal length is very pleasant for this type of photography. (Canon EOS R5 + RF85 macro - ISO100 - f/5,6 - 1/200 - Elinchrome studio flash with parabolic reflector)
For landscapes, 85mm works as a pleasant short telephoto lens. It allows you to isolate a subject somewhat from its surroundings, which can produce a nice three-dimensional effect.

The macro function also allows you to photograph flowers and mushrooms with the RF 85mm. The longer focal length also makes it possible to keep some distance when photographing insects.

Appearance and features

The Canon RF 85mm f/2 macro is a compact lens measuring approximately 8 x 9 centimetres and weighing no more than 500 grams. It will come as no surprise that the lens is mainly made of plastic, with only the RF mount made of metal.

It does not feel cheap or fragile, though. The plastic is good quality and the switches on the lens are excellent. These switches allow you to turn autofocus and image stabilisation on or off, and to limit the focus distance.

The switches on the RF 85 macro, including the focus limiter for limiting the focusing distances. This is ideal for macro photography.

Focusing

The focus distance limiter is useful and makes focusing faster because the entire focus range does not have to be used. This range normally runs from 35 cm to infinity. It takes three full rotations to cover it, 1080 degrees. This allows you to focus manually with great precision.

With such a large rotation of the focusing ring, it would be useful to have a variable rotation system, where the speed at which you turn the focusing ring determines how quickly the focus changes.

The Canon RF 85mm macro only has a linear motor, however, so you have to rotate the full 1080 degrees.

The lens gets longer when you move towards the shortest focusing distance. You have to make three full rotations to focus from infinity to 35 centimetres.
The lens gets longer when you turn it towards the minimum focusing distance. This is a considerable increase in length. It is therefore important to enable the "retract lens on power off" setting in the camera menu. This will retract the lens when you turn the camera off. If you do not do this, the lens barrel will remain extended when you switch off the camera.

It is recommended that you enable this option in your camera's menu.

The Canon RF 85mm f/2 macro has an STM system, a stepping motor that works quickly and accurately. The STM system is not completely silent, something to bear in mind if you film with this lens.

Image stabilisation

The Canon RF 85mm macro has image stabilisation that works up to 5 stops. If you combine this with a camera equipped with IBIS (In Camera Image Stabilization), this can increase to an impressive 8 stops.

This allows you to take a handheld photo with a shutter speed of around 0.5 seconds.

Image stabilisation allows you to shoot handheld at around 0.5 seconds. This was photographed with the Canon EOS R5. With a lower-resolution camera, you may be able to achieve even longer shutter speeds.
The effectiveness of image stabilisation also naturally depends on the distance. With macro photography, it is more difficult for image stabilisation to keep critical focus exactly in the right place.

Nevertheless, the image stabilisation of the camera and lens combination delivers impressive possibilities.

Macro, but not life-size

A useful extra feature of the Canon RF 85mm f/2 macro is the final addition to its name: macro. With a minimum focusing distance of 35 cm, a magnification of 1:2 can be achieved. This is half the life-size image of an object.

This means that the lens is not a fully-fledged macro lens, which can generally achieve 1:1 magnification. Even so, 1:2 magnification allows you to get small subjects into the frame at a pleasant size. After all, even with a fully-fledged macro lens, you do not always use the maximum magnification.

This is the difference between 1:2 magnification and 1:1 magnification. The difference is quite large, but you do not always need 1:1 magnification anyway.
The macro feature is particularly useful for photographers who shoot weddings. It means you no longer need to bring an extra macro lens.

The Canon RF 85mm f/2 macro is perfect for tighter portraits at weddings and can also be used to capture the rings properly.

For rings and jewellery, 1:2 magnification is often enough. It makes the RF 85mm very flexible. One lens for both jewellery and portraits.

The combination of focal length, short focusing distance and magnification also makes the lens very suitable for photographing still lifes and other creative subjects.

The angle of view is very pleasant for keeping too much out of the frame. The short focusing distance hardly limits your ability to achieve the desired composition and magnification. In that respect, it is a true all-rounder.

The Canon RF 85mm macro lens is very suitable for creative photography. (Canon R5 + RF 85mm macro - ISO100 - f/8 - 1/200 - two Profoto A1 speedlite flashes)

Image quality

You can safely call the image quality of the Canon RF 85mm f/2 macro very good. Centre sharpness is excellent even at f/2. Stopping down to f/2.8 produces a little extra contrast and sharpness.

The edges of the photo are reasonably soft at f/2, which is not distracting. Stopping down to f/2.8 and f4 produces a significant improvement. At f/2, the Canon RF 85mm macro also shows almost 3 stops of vignetting. This may seem like a lot, but it is very normal at these apertures. This type of vignetting is hardly relevant for portraits.

With lens aberration correction switched off in the camera, the vignetting becomes visible. At f2 there is around 3 stops of vignetting, while at f/2.8 there are only 1.4 stops.
The vignetting improves quickly when the aperture is stopped down to f/2.8 and f/4. At f/4, only 0.6 stops of vignetting remain. The vignette can also be corrected by automatic lens optimisation in a camera, making it barely or no longer visible.

Light of different colours passes through the lens in different ways, causing coloured edges to appear where light and dark meet. This is called chromatic aberration (CA). Manufacturers try to compensate for this effect in clever ways.

The CA of the Canon RF 85mm macro is present at f/2 in the form of purple or green edges, depending on whether it is in front of or behind the focus point. This effect becomes less pronounced as the aperture is stopped down. At f/4, the CA has virtually disappeared. This effect can often also be corrected within limits during post-processing.

The effect of chromatic aberration at different apertures.

Conclusion

With the RF 85mm f/2 macro IS STM, Canon has brought a fantastic and versatile lens to the market. It will appeal to both amateur photographers and professionals. The compact size and weight are major advantages, as is the macro function.

The autofocus system is pleasantly fast. Although it may not be as lightning-fast as the L version of this lens, it is fast enough for almost all applications.

The STM system does produce some noise, which anyone wanting to film with this lens will have to bear in mind. With an external microphone, however, this will not be a problem at all.

It was a pleasure to use the Canon RF 85mm f/2 macro for portraits.
The macro function of the RF 85mm does not produce 1:1 magnification. This will be sufficient for many purposes. Anyone who does a lot of macro photography may feel somewhat limited by the lack of 1:1 magnification.

The lack of internal focusing could be considered a disadvantage, as the lens increases in length. It is something you always need to take into account.

A greater disadvantage is the limitation to linear focusing, meaning you have to turn the ring through the full 1080 degrees to move from infinity to the minimum focusing distance.

Do you not immediately need 1:1 magnification? Then the Canon RF85mm f/2 macro is an excellent choice.

The few minor disadvantages certainly do not outweigh the advantages of this fine lens. After using it, I can only conclude that this small, versatile lens is an excellent choice for any photographer. I can highly recommend the Canon RF 85mm f/2 macro IS STM.

Advantages

• Small, compact and light
• Fast f/2 aperture, also for a pleasant shallow depth of field
• Focus limiter included
• Macro function up to 1:2
• Image stabilisation up to 5 stops, up to 8 stops with IBIS
• Precise focusing thanks to the large 1080-degree rotation
• Excellent sharpness, which improves at f/2.8 or smaller
• Comfortably wide focusing ring
• Favourable price

Disadvantages

• No internal focusing
• Lens must be retracted before removal
• Mainly plastic, although it is good quality
• Only linear focusing is possible, it cannot depend on the rotation speed
• No weather sealing

Thanks to Canon Nederland for providing the lens.

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