Re: Struggling between RF USM and STM lineup as an amateur
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I have 4 of the 5 lenses that you mentioned.
The 16, 35, 50 & 85, which I use on my RP (thinking of upgrading to the R8).
The 16 f2.8 I haven't had for very long. I bought it very specifically because I was planning a trip to Europe which would have included photo's of the inside of a lot of churches & I wanted a fast wide angle lens. That trip is on hold at the moment, but I will take it to Japan with me later this month. Advantages are its small, light & cheap. Disadvantages are, it requires heavy software corrections for distortion & vignetting. So far though I'm enjoying using it and the IQ is fine for my purposes. It's not a focal length I normally use, but the combination of the size, weight & price makes it very easy to live with.
This is the first photo I took with it as a tester. Handheld on the RP.
Mason Pine Hotel, Parahyangan, Indonesia
The 35 I use a lot. Excellent image quality. Decent price. Reasonable size & weight with IS and the 0.5 macro is nice to have.
The 50 is exactly what you would expect it to be. I used to use 50mm a lot, but now I find myself using the 35 more often. My old one was the very old EF 50 1.8ii. So this is better both in IQ and focussing. From what I know its pretty similar to the EF 50 1.8 STM. I don't think you would find much difference between those 2.
The RF85 f2 is my personal favourite. I like taking portraits of family & friends and this lens gets used a lot and I really like the results. It's probably my second most used lens after the RF 24-105 f4, which is an outstanding lens and obviously much more flexible, but significantly more expensive.
Hope this helps.
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