Canon - RF35mm F1.8 Macro IS STM Macro Lens for EOS R-Series Cameras - Black

I’ve been using the Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM with my EOS R-series camera, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite lenses. The image quality is fantastic—sharp even wide open at f/1.8, with beautiful background blur that adds a professional look to everyday shots. The macro capability is a huge bonus. While it’s not a true 1:1 macro, the 0.5x magnification has been perfect for close-ups of flowers, textures, food, and small objects. It also handles portraits, street, and general photography really well. Autofocus is smooth and silent thanks to the STM motor, making it great for both photo and video. The built-in image stabilization works well, especially helpful in low-light situations or when shooting macro handheld. Build quality is solid but lightweight, so it’s easy to carry all day without feeling bulky. I do wish it were weather-sealed, but for the price and performance, it’s a terrific value. Overall, this lens punches way above its weight class. Highly recommend it if you're looking for a versatile, compact, and sharp RF prime lens.

This 35mm compact lens really does it all. Great, and I mean great image stabilization (IS), big 1.8 aperture and nice dreamy bokeh (out of focus backgrounds), macro-capable (not true macro, but really close), and Canon's super smooth (and super quiet) STM focusing! The focal length of 35mm is surprisingly handy for just about everything: Just wide enough for street photography, nature, etc but can get close enough for portraiture. You can "zoom with your feet" to cover an effective range of about 28-50mm or so and you can cover much more than that by cropping in Lightroom or whichever app you use for photo editing. This lens is seriously sharp (which helps if your cropping) and optically near perfect. Canon camera's correct for distortion in the camera body also. I'm done with bulky, heavy cameras with ridiculously heavy zoom lenses! The only lens that this doesn't replace is a tele-zoom. I would much rather use this than a 24-70mm. It's sharper, lighter (probably 1/4 the weight) and brighter (max f-stop) than any zoom in this range. I love the programmable ring which I set to control the aperture! Great build quality with a metal lens mount-just because it's light, doesn't mean it feels cheap. I have this lens mounted on the Canon EOS RP and from that combo, I get great full-frame stills with great color, sharpness, bokeh and ditto for the video with this lens' silent STM focusing and Canons magical Dual Pixel Autofocus (DPAF). It's almost eery how the camera/lens focuses on the right stuff at the right time.

This lens is not spectacular, but it's solid for its price point. Manage your expectations, and you're likely to be quite pleased. It's good, no doubt. It takes good photos, and lets in lots of light. But expect too much from it, and you'll probably be let down. This is the third lens I've bought from Canon since getting into photography, and the first one that didn't use the nano USM focusing motors. As such, I expected the autofocus to be a bit slower, but I didn't anticipate that it would be so clearly audible as well. There is definitely a performance difference there, but how much that affects you will depend on what you use your lenses for. It's noisy, but it's not loud. It's also not weather-sealed like my other lenses are, so you have to be a bit more careful in monitoring your environment. Overall, it takes good quality pictures, and has a nice wide aperture which makes it great for low-light or creating a very narrow depth-of-field, but just make sure you know what you're getting. This is a pretty cheap lens, after all. Much of my own disappointment in this lens was that I didn't do enough homework on it beforehand. I wanted to pick up a wide-aperture lens for an upcoming trip to Disney World, specifically to try to photograph some of the indoor, low-light ride scenes, and didn't want to spend a ton on a somewhat niche photography objective. I was fixated on things like maximum aperture and minimum price, and didn't put enough thought into focal length and macro performance. I was struggling to decide between three lenses; this one, the cheaper 50mm f/1.8, and the slightly pricier 24mm f/1.8. Ultimately, I decided on this one because it was cheaper than the 24mm and advertised a macro performance component that the 50mm did not. I figured the macro element would give me some more creative flexibility. As it turns out, based on how I'm using it at least, I would have been better off going with either the wider focal length or the lower cost, as this is not quite wide enough for many of the indoor shots where I cannot back away from the scene any further, and the macro performance is not great. It's more like "pseudo-macro", or "macro-lite", since the magnification factor is only 0.5x, as opposed to most true macro lenses which generally offer 1.0x or greater. In summary, I will say that I recommend this lens for some buyers, but not all. Make sure you know how you plan to use it. Go ahead and get this if you just want an affordable 35mm prime lens with solid image quality and a wide aperture that will allow you to take pictures in low-light, and if you don't need lightning fast autofocus, aren't worried about shooting out in the elements, or if you don't plan to require any sort of serious macro performance. But please do not get suckered-in by the fact that this lens says "macro" on it. I'd suggest that if you're legitimately interested in getting into macro photography, that you do a bit more homework than I did, and maybe check out the RF100mm f/2.8 L that Canon offers instead. Yes, you'll be paying a little more than twice as much (based on current pricing), and you'll lose about 1.3 stops of light, and you'll be carrying a larger lens that weighs about double what this one does. But the trade-off is that you'll gain a lot in terms of build quality, weather-sealing, autofocus speed and performance, and have a 1.4x magnification like a true macro lens. This lens is fine, but it's definitely a case of "you get what you pay for." I'll attach a few photos from my trip, both indoor in the dark, and outside in the daylight. For reference, my camera is a Canon EOS R6mii. For the purposes of full disclosure, these are my finished edits. I tried to attach the unedited originals to this review, but the file sizes were too large. So you're getting the edited versions instead.

I’ve been using the Canon 35mm lens for a while now, and it’s hands down one of my favorite pieces of gear. It’s the lens I reach for when I want my photos to feel warm, real, and cinematic—whether I’m shooting portraits, capturing everyday moments with my kids, or working with clients. What I love most is how versatile it is. The 35mm focal length feels just right—it gives enough context to the scene without distorting faces, and it’s wide enough to work in tight spaces. The depth of field is gorgeous too. Wide open, it gives me that dreamy, soft background I love, especially in natural light. The autofocus is fast and accurate, even when I’m shooting moving kids or working in slightly dim environments. And the image quality? Super sharp, with beautiful color rendering and contrast. It really fits my style—natural, lifestyle, slightly cinematic. I also appreciate how compact and light it is. I can carry it around all day without feeling weighed down, which is a huge plus for spontaneous photo walks or shooting content for Instagram Reels. Honestly, if I had to choose just one lens to shoot with, this would be it. It feels like an extension of how I see the world through the camera.

I honestly didn’t expect to love this lens as much as I do. It looks pretty simple and nothing crazy at first, but the image quality completely surprised me. The photos come out super crisp and clean, and for the price, it honestly performs way better than I thought it would. The f/1.8 aperture is amazing too — the background blur (bokeh) is really smooth and makes everything look more professional without even trying. It’s perfect for portraits and just everyday shooting. Overall, this is such a solid lens for the money. Definitely one of those “don’t judge it by how it looks” situations because it seriously delivers.