Canon RF 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM

Testers find the centre sharp from wide open, but they differ on the rest of the frame: one finds the edges need stopping down, another finds sharpness unusually even across the frame and through the zoom range, though with centre resolution behind Canon's better RF standard zooms. Lateral colour fringing is low. Raw files show heavy vignetting and strong distortion, especially between 24mm and 35mm, and distortion correction is applied automatically with no way to turn it off, so the lens is effectively designed around its profile.

Autofocus is quick, near-silent and reliable for stills and video, and the 4.5-stop IS is effective. Build is solid for the price but largely plastic, with no weather sealing, and the optional hood adds cost. Reviewers see it as a size-first travel and kit lens that is good value, with the slow aperture limiting background blur and low-light work and the RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 as the obvious alternative for more reach.

Owners like how small and light it makes an R8 or RP kit, and many treat it as the lens that goes along when nothing bigger will: travel, snapshots and group photos stopped down. Several say it resolves better than they expected, some comparing it favourably with pricier zooms once lens corrections are applied, and they praise the quiet AF for video and the effective IS on bodies without IBIS.

The common complaints are having to twist the barrel out before shooting (the camera shows a warning otherwise), the plastic mount, the short 50mm long end and low magnification, flat colour and coloured ghosts into the light. Two report dust inside the lens, one of them from new, and some think it poor value bought on its own rather than in a kit.