Canon RF 14-35mm F4 L IS USM

Reviewers find the centre excellent from f/4 at every focal length, with very little gained by stopping down to f/8. Edge sharpness is high too; in lab tests the corners went soft only at 35mm at wide apertures. Colour fringing is low. Flare is well controlled even with the sun in frame, and the nine-blade aperture gives clean sunstars at small apertures. Autofocus is fast and near-silent, and the close-focus ability stands out.

The main reservation is software dependence. With corrections off, 14mm shows pronounced barrel distortion and heavy vignetting, which the profile largely removes, and one test found corner shading at f/4 that needs about two stops down to clear. Testers praise the stabiliser for handheld exposures of around a second. The barrel uses engineering plastics rather than metal, but it is sealed and feels solid. Against the f/2.8 version it is seen as good value.

Owner comments are limited. A landscape photographer calls it essential kit that they would never sell, keeping it for regular landscape work and using a faster prime for astro.

The f/4 aperture is the most cited limit: one owner who shoots low-light cockpit scenes hand-held says an f/1.4 prime is in a different league from this zoom in those conditions.