Canon RF 24-240 f/4-6.3 IS USM Lens

I have an EOS R camera that I use for travel, landscapes and other still shots. I don’t use it for sports and action because it’s really not suited to that type of photography. I had only one RF lens, the 35mm f/1.8, but I wanted a more flexible lens for carrying and traveling with. I wanted a lens that would give me a bit more flexibility than the 35mm lens by itself (although I still like the 35mm for ultimate portability).

I was in a situation where I had a credit at the online Canon store – so I took the opportunity to buy the RF 24-240, since they were also offering a $200 discount on this lens over the holidays.

Here’s my initial assessment of the lens. It appears to be a good lens for outdoor, daytime photography (f/6.3 is a bit high for shooting in low light). It also seems light enough to carry when I’m hiking. So, the pluses are it’s zoom, and it’s size. The negatives are also it’s zoom and it’s size. What I mean is the super zoom and small size cause it to produce lower quality images compared to L lenses, which would be larger, heavier and not have the same zoom range. Fortunately, this lens seems to fit my needs, and I understand that I’m not going to be able to capture images that would generally have the quality of a prime, L series lens.

So, I’m doing a day hike to use it and see the results. Here’s some of my examples:

I like to shoot at 24mm for landscapes, and I noticed a bit of chromatic aberration in general, but more at 24mm. I shot a few of my images at 70-100 mm, but I like the wider focal lengths, between 24 and 50mm, for landscapes.

I’m planning a trip to Arizona in the spring, so I think the telephoto end of this lens will be more useful in the wide open landscapes of northern Arizona. I’ll be sure to give it a good workout then and report back with another round of examples.

I would recommend this lens, with the understanding that you get what you pay for, and you can’t have a lens that does everything well. If you want a small-ish, super zoom, that can fill many different roles – the kind of lens you might take when hiking – this lens seems to work for that. If you’re going to shoot high quality portraits, I would go for prime lenses, like those in Canon’s L series, or even Sigma’s Art lenses. But, for hiking and carrying, this lens seems to work well so far.