Canon RF 24-105mm F/4 L IS USM Lens Review

On this video, published a couple of months ago by photographer, Christopher Frost, he takes a look at Canon’s RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens for the EOS R camera range.

The Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM is the kit lens of the EOS R and its EF counterpart is one of the most sold in the past.

Image stabilization on this lens seems to work very well in stills and video. The lens is made from plastic and although the ring feels nice the build quality isn’t super impressive.

The lens is parfocal (it doesn’t change focus when zooming) and has relatively minimal focus breathing. The focus seems to work very well for both stills and video and in general, it seems that this lens works very well for video shootings performing quietly and smoothly.

On the EOS-R camera, the lens seems very sharp in the middle of the frame from f/4 at all focal lengths. The corners at 24mm wide open are O.K. but not amazing and better at 50mm but at 105mm the corners are a bit soft wide open but improve closing down.

Compared to the EF version it seems that both lenses perform about the same (the RF might be a bit sharper but not by much). Close up sharpness isn’t amazing but when you close to f/8 it improves considerably.

The lens has both vignette and barrel/pincushion distortion but both are fixed by the in-camera correction so this isn’t that important.

Flaring is more or less controlled and bokeh is generally pretty good (although you won’t get too much from f/4).

All in all, this is a nice travel all-around lens with very good AF and stabilization with a great deal of emphasis on video shooting.

As for pricing, the Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM isn’t an inexpensive lens and is currently selling for $900 on its own (as a kit you are going to save a couple of hundred $).

You can find many more previews and reviews on our Photography review section here on LensVid and you can find more of Frost’s videos here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.