Great lens (wedding photographer's perspective)

Hi there!

Here's my experience of the RF 35mm 1.8 STM Macro compared to the EF 35mm 2.0 USM. I've used both for a few weeks on an Canon R6 body and am keeping the RF lens. This is not an super in-depth review, but rather my real-life experience as a professional wedding photographer (7 years and counting) with a style that is all about capturing spontaneous moments.

Image quality
Absolutely fine and visible better than the EF version, especially away from the centre. I'm not a huge pixel-peeper, but feel the RF 35mm 1.8 is a bit sharper in the corners and when used wide open. (Just for fun I did a brick-wall comparison to confirm). I have no hesitations to use it wide open when shooting a wedding, even when I compose a subject in the corner of the frame.

Focus speed
Was a little worried about this one,  but after using it for a while now it's been completely fine for me and I feel it's plenty fast. Yes, the USM motor of of the EF 35mm 2.0 might be a tad faster in theory (and probably is), but in real-life scenario I found it hard to find a noticable difference at "normal" distances (i.e. when photographing people). Only when switching focus from super-close to far away do you notice a little speed-difference between the STM & USM motors, but I can't think of a scenario where this would be a problem for me. Even my little kid running around at the playground didn't pose any problems and focus & tracking were spot-on.

STM noise
This was mentioned in other reviews and I was hoping this wouldn't be that bad...and it isn't. The STM motor is not as silent as the USM version, and when you pay attention to the focus motor in a silent room it's slightly audible. But again, in reality no problem whatsoever, and I doubt anyone besides the one holding the camera would hear the lens focussing (and that's in a silent room!)

Other thoughts
I wish a hood was included (it's not) and had weather sealing, but then again I'm not one to stand out in the rain to take pictures and have only once encountered a scenario where I was happy to have weather sealed lenses during 7 years of wedding photography, so it's more a thing in my head than a real practical problem. Lastly, it just looks nicer on and  R6 body than an adapted EF lens

Great review.  I recently bought an R6 and just last week purchased the RF 35mm f1.8.  I have only taken a couple of dozen photos with it so far, mostly just local stuff around home but I am impressed with it.  I agree that the AF speed is better than I thought it might be with a STM motor compared to USM.

A sunrise a few mornings ago.

The lens has some great possibilities as a macro lens too. A picture of the rings, a flower, a part of the dress, etc all benefit greatly from the macro-effect.

I would like a huge lens-hood. When someone spills beer, when you meet a few drops of rain, kids fingers, bumping against someones head... a hood makes a difference.

Since the last MacOS update once again crashes my DPP4, I've put my 24-240mm on the shelf and have been using this lens a lot. I can go right to HDR software from RAW without worrying too much about lens corrections.

Some sunrise shots from this morning.

Thanks for taking the time to comment on this.  I got the lens on sale and it seemed too good a deal to pass up.  Now I just need an RF-mount body to try it out 😂

Yep, they were $100 off regular price recently

ex human wrote:

Thanks for taking the time to comment on this. I got the lens on sale and it seemed too good a deal to pass up. Now I just need an RF-mount body to try it out 😂

I've got no car and it's breaking my heart

But I've got a driver and that's a start.

Baby you can drive my car - The Beatles

trulandphoto wrote:

Since the last MacOS update once again crashes my DPP4, I've put my 24-240mm on the shelf and have been using this lens a lot. I can go right to HDR software from RAW without worrying too much about lens corrections.

Some sunrise shots from this morning.

Really like the train bridge shot!  Very nice.

Thanks for the write up Teun. I can only agree, it is a lovely little lens.

One of the two windmills in Dokkum (Frisia)