Earlier this week Canon announced a very unique lens that almost slipped under the radar because of the huge amount of new products introduced almost at the same time. This is the ultra-wide zoom RF 14-35mm F4 L IS USM and it brings a host of interesting features.
A new type of Ultra-wide zoom lens
Until now you could more or less divide ultra-wide zoom lenses into two main groups – those with 16-35mm focal range (and maybe the unique Tamron 15-30mm as well) and the wider but also shorter group that include anything from 11-24mm to the more common 14-24mm lenses.
A unique groundbreaking ultra wide angle zoom in more ways than one
This means that if you wanted an ultra-wide-angle zoom lens you had to give up something – either the wide side or the more tele side of the lens.
This is where the new RF 14-35mm F4 L IS USM from Canon comes into the picture and really changes things. As far as we know this is the first-ever 14-35mm full-frame lens. This makes it not only useful as an ultra-wide lens but also as a normal wide-angle 35mm lens which can easily be used for portraits for example.
Besides having the widest (ultra wide-wide) range of any full fra e lens that we know of the new RF 14-35mm F4 L IS USM has a few other big points going for it:
- Despite how wide and long it is actually lighter than the previous Canon 16-35mm f/4 lens (weighing only 540g).
- It includes image stabilization which is not that common on ultra-wide-angle lenses but certainly a nice addition for a relatively slow lens like this.
- One of the most surprising features of this lens is that unlike most (if not all) 14mm full-frame lenses it does accept screw-in filters and has a 77mm filter thread size which makes it much easier to use with filters compared to basically any other comparable ultra-wide-angle lens.
Specs
Here are the main specs for the Canon RF 14-35mm F4 L IS USM lens:
- 14-35mm f/4 full-frame RF mount lens.
- 16 elements in 12 groups including 3 UD elements, 3 aspherical elements, and a single UD aspherical element.
- Several advanced coatings including Fluorine, ASC, SSC, and SWC.
- AF/MF switch and image stabilization switch.
- Dust and water-resistant body.
- 5.5 stops of stabilization (up to 7 stops with the R5/R6 in body stabilizer).
- Nano USM AF motor.
- Includes a user-programmable control ring.
- Min focus distance – 20cm (for the entire zoom range) with 1:2.63 macro magnification at 35mm.
Stabilized ultra-wide zoom
Pricing and availability
The lens is expected to arrive on the market during August 2021 and will sell for $1700.
Videos from around the web
A number of videos on the new lens have been released so far and we bring them to you below (the video hands-on look above comes from Pictureline).
Bedford Camera & Video store hands-on with the RF 14-35mm F4 L IS USM lens
Landscape photographer Todd Dominey with a few interesting thoughts about the new lens
Canon’s official video for the RF 14-35mm F4 L IS USM lens
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