What can you do with a cheap lens? 1: outdoors

G Dickson wrote:

unhappymeal wrote:

You know that Nikon makes a 40mm f/2, right? Its list price is within 50 Euros of the RF 50mm f/1.8 and it weighs a whopping 10g more. That extra 50 euros buys you silent autofocus (I've played with the RF 50mm f/1.8 at our local store, it audibly chatters), weather sealing and nicer (imho of course) bokeh.

I'm glad you like the lens, but some of us want Canon to do better. I feel the same way about Canon's entry-level bodies. The RP, in a vacuum, is a fine camera, but the Z5, which was selling for nearly the same price, is just so much better it's ridiculous. It feels like outside of Canon's top tier bodies and lenses that they are regressing.

In many ways I completely agree with you. I was thinking about replacing my 40mm f2.8 stm with the 35mm RF. Over 500 pounds. Plastic construction and no weather sealing. At that price point. No thanks.

You know there's nothing wrong with plastic construction. In some respects it's a lot more durable than metal. It sounds like you're in the UK, so perhaps weather sealing is more important to you (I grew up there). We don't get a lot of rain in Colorado, but we do get quite a bit of snow. I'm happy enough using non weather sealed lenses for a while in snow. In pouring rain, I prefer to be inside pouring something for myself. If I were a pro, I'd be more concerned about weather sealing. The RF 35 is a truly excellent lens, though. I got the EF 35 F2 IS when it dropped in price from its initial $899 (yes) to a more reasonable $599. I loved that lens for many years. I even sold my EF 35 F1.4L after I got the 35 F2, because I was always choosing the smaller lens, and it was optically pretty much on a par with the L lens. The RF version is better than the EF version. And it focuses really close. And it's 1/3 stop faster. And it's cheaper (many years later). If it's just the plastic versus metal thing holding you back, you're missing out on a great lens. If you really need the weather sealing, of course, you'll have to wait. But the 40 F2.8 doesn't have that either, and the 35 is just so much better than that.

I am absolutely no lens snob, but the non-L RF lenses really don't appeal. For the price of that 35mm, Sigma offer an f2 (but not for Canon of course) in full metal construction, metal lens hood, weather sealing gasket at the mount and an aperture ring.

I haven't had an aperture ring on a lens since my days of shooting manual focus film SLRs. For me, that would be a waste of space. But if you don't like using one of the many controls you can program on the camera body to adjust aperture, I suppose you could use a ring on the lens. Of course, with an RF lens (or the control ring adapter), you can program the control ring to control the aperture. I have mine programmed for ISO. I agree that it would be nice to get a lens hood with the lens. Here again I actually prefer a plastic hood. It's a pet peeve of many, including me, that Canon only gives lens hoods with L lenses. But it's a minor peeve. I always buy the cheap Chinese versions for around $10, and they work perfectly.