Hands-on Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM review: Canon's widest professional prime for the RF mount

When we were begging for f/1.4 RF primes, I don't think any of us predicted that Canon would deliver them in the form of high-end hybrid lenses. Yet here we are – and the Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM is the fourth in this crossover creation line.

In case you missed it, hybrid lenses like the Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM combine the strengths of traditional photographic lenses (such as fast autofocus and a control ring) with features of cinema glass (like parfocal zoom, minimal breathing and an Iris Ring) and broadcast optics (including auto irising and servo and remote control).

The widest lens in the hybrid range, the Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM is also the company's widest professional lens; only the budget-friendly RF 16mm f/2.8 is wider. By now we know what to expect from these lenses, so how does the new 20mm fare against its stablemates?

Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM: Price & availability

The Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM goes on sale in April at a retail price of £1,919.99 (US and Australian pricing to be confirmed).

For context, that makes it the most expensive of Canon's series of f/1.4 "hybrid" VCM lenses, with the RF 24mm f/1.4L costing £1,499.99, the RF 50mm f/1.4L £1,539.99 and the RF 35mm f/1.4L coming in at £1,669.99.

The closest non-L primes are the slightly wider RF 16mm f/2.8 at £319.99, and the slightly longer RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro at £659.99.

Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM: Specifications

Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM: Build & handling

As you'd expect, the Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM conforms to the standards set by the previous hybrid primes, so everything here is virtually identical, from the 76.5 x 99.3mm dimensions to the 67mm filter thread. This is, after all, designed to be a completely uniform set of lenses.

The only handling disparity is the weight, with the 20mm f/1.4 coming in at 519g – just a shade heavier than the lightest lens in the lineup, the 24mm f/1.4 at 515g. While not exactly a small lens, it does feel nice and nimble and is excellently balanced on a body like the EOS R5 that I tested it with.

Otherwise you've got the same robust and weather-sealed build quality, with a satisfying manual focus ring, customizable control ring, and lockable Iris Ring for video use (and stills, provided you're using a post-August 2024 camera like the Canon EOS R5 Mark II).

While the lens is loaded with top-tier features and Canon's premium coatings (Air Sphere, Super Spectra and Subwavelength Structure), like its siblings it does not feature any image stabilization.

This is pretty much par for the course with Canon's professional L-series primes, though, and most users will likely be shooting with a professional camera that has in-body image stabilization.

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Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM: Performance

For super-wide shooting, the Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM is a beautiful lens to use. Like its stablemates it's been engineered to shoot wide open, so you needn't worry about sacrificing performance if you're working in low light or (like me) you're just a bokeh whore.

And what bokeh it is! You don't usually think "bokeh" when using a 20mm lens, but these hybrid primes all produce beautiful painterly out-of-focus rendition – though obviously you'll have to work harder to achieve subject separation unless you're working close-up.

Impressively, though, the RF 20mm f/1.4 can focus as close as 20cm / 7.9 inches, enabling you to get very creative with your compositions and use the inherent distortion of this field of view to your advantage.

However, there's another kind of inherent distortion – one that's common to the entire hybrid family. These f/1.4L lenses rely on in-camera correction to cover the entire image circle, and shooting in RAW reveals severe distortion and vignetting, as you can see below:

BUT, it's important to repeat that this isn't (as is usually the case) an accidental side effect of lazy lens design. Canon has engineered the hybrid primes with digital compensation in mind for distortion, enabling the lenses to be smaller by focusing on aberrations that can only be corrected optically.

As such, the f/1.4L lenses are developed to over-resolve during distortion control – which means that there is no effective resolution loss during the image-stretching process.

While this feels like witchcraft to my unscientific brain, Canon's promises were borne out in our lab tests on the RF 35mm f/1.4L; my colleague Ben found that "levels of sharpness are highly impressive from the center of the image frame right out to the extreme edges and corners."

So, although some might conclude that the RAW distortion indicates subpar performance, the end results are images every bit as sharp (perhaps even sharper) than they would have been if the corrections were achieved 100% optically – which would result in a larger, heavier and no doubt costlier lens.

Personally, I'll take smaller glass and a couple of quick clicks in Photoshop to sort the distortion in my RAWs – but of course, JPEGs come out pristine, thanks to the in-camera correction.

Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM: Samples

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Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM: Early verdict

I haven't had the chance to fully torture test the Canon RF 20mm f/1.4L VCM, and I'm eager to see how things like focus breathing and distortion control perform. However, after using the exemplary RF 35mm f/1.4L, I've no reason to believe that it will be anything less than excellent.

I can see this lens being a huge hit for astro shooters, with its fast aperture and pristine output, as well as architectural photographers and those who love luscious frame-filling landscapes.

Just as importantly, high-end videographers will welcome having a wider prime than the RF 24mm f/1.4L without having to invest in cinema glass. I've assisted on a shoot where a fast 20mm would have been ideal for talking heads segments!

It's exciting to see how rapidly Canon has matured its hybrid lineup, and this is an impactful lens whether your interest is in stills, video or somewhere in-between.