R5 C: Are non-L primes good for indoor studio video work?

I just picked up a R5 C on sale and I'm looking forward to moving to the Canon ecosystem. With my R5 C, I will primarily be doing controlled, indoor studio video work; at a variety of focal lengths from 24mm to 85mm.

For a lot of shoots I do, corner quality can be important. But I'll also be using the R5C for photography as a hobby, where IQ isn't that important (but convenience and range is).

I will film in 8K and crop+downsample in post. Low-light or bokeh is not super important; thus I will be usually shooting with f4, f/5.6, or higher.

Given this, I am thinking a set of non-L primes are a good solution for me, which delivers strong image quality at the aperture ranges I actually shoot at. Specifically:

* RF 35mm f1/8

* RF 50mm f/1.8

* RF 85mm f/2

I can pick up a set of these three brand new for AUD ~$1600 (inclusive of 10% sales tax), taking advantage of a sale. Unfortunately, the RF 28-70 F/2L (AU$4800) is not part of the sale, but the RF 24-70 F/2.8L is for AU$2790.

Additionally, I will probably eventually buy the RF 24-105 f/4L (AU$1600), and the upcoming RF 15-30mm for my photography hobby.

My question: are my purchases sensible? Will I get strong image quality, including corner sharpness, at f/4 or f/5.6 with my set of primes? Would you recommend something else? (I am okay to adapted lens if they are worth it!)

Thanks,

Paul K

1. pknittel wrote:

I just picked up a R5 C on sale and I'm looking forward to moving to the Canon ecosystem. With my R5 C, I will primarily be doing controlled, indoor studio video work; at a variety of focal lengths from 24mm to 85mm.

For a lot of shoots I do, corner quality can be important. But I'll also be using the R5C for photography as a hobby, where IQ isn't that important (but convenience and range is).

I will film in 8K and crop+downsample in post. Low-light or bokeh is not super important; thus I will be usually shooting with f4, f/5.6, or higher.

Given this, I am thinking a set of non-L primes are a good solution for me, which delivers strong image quality at the aperture ranges I actually shoot at. Specifically:

* RF 35mm f1/8

* RF 50mm f/1.8

* RF 85mm f/2

I can pick up a set of these three brand new for AUD ~$1600 (inclusive of 10% sales tax), taking advantage of a sale. Unfortunately, the RF 28-70 F/2L (AU$4800) is not part of the sale, but the RF 24-70 F/2.8L is for AU$2790.

Additionally, I will probably eventually buy the RF 24-105 f/4L (AU$1600), and the upcoming RF 15-30mm for my photography hobby.

My question: are my purchases sensible? Will I get strong image quality, including corner sharpness, at f/4 or f/5.6 with my set of primes? Would you recommend something else? (I am okay to adapted lens if they are worth it!)

Thanks,

Paul K

Depends on how sharp you want the corners to be. Check out the reviews on Optical Limits. To me they are all “sharp enough across the frame” at f4 and f/5.6, but I don’t know what your standard of sharpness is.

The RF50f1.8 is pretty soft and has low contrast in the corners from f1.8 to f2.8, but by f4 is pretty good. My testing very much agrees with Christopher Frost's video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKdy35jeJtk

The RF85f2 is much sharper and with better contrast in the corners than the RF50f1.8 when wide open. It's sharper than an RF-L zoom at f2.8 and very sharp at f4, even in the far corners.

I don't know about the RF35f1.8, but from what I have read, it is much better than the RF50f1.8 and may be similar to the RF85f2.

pknittel wrote:

I just picked up a R5 C on sale and I'm looking forward to moving to the Canon ecosystem. With my R5 C, I will primarily be doing controlled, indoor studio video work; at a variety of focal lengths from 24mm to 85mm.

For a lot of shoots I do, corner quality can be important. But I'll also be using the R5C for photography as a hobby, where IQ isn't that important (but convenience and range is).

I will film in 8K and crop+downsample in post. Low-light or bokeh is not super important; thus I will be usually shooting with f4, f/5.6, or higher.

Given this, I am thinking a set of non-L primes are a good solution for me, which delivers strong image quality at the aperture ranges I actually shoot at. Specifically:

* RF 35mm f1/8

* RF 50mm f/1.8

* RF 85mm f/2

I can pick up a set of these three brand new for AUD ~$1600 (inclusive of 10% sales tax), taking advantage of a sale. Unfortunately, the RF 28-70 F/2L (AU$4800) is not part of the sale, but the RF 24-70 F/2.8L is for AU$2790.

Additionally, I will probably eventually buy the RF 24-105 f/4L (AU$1600), and the upcoming RF 15-30mm for my photography hobby.

My question: are my purchases sensible? Will I get strong image quality, including corner sharpness, at f/4 or f/5.6 with my set of primes? Would you recommend something else? (I am okay to adapted lens if they are worth it!)

Thanks,

Paul K