Hands-on Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM review: the niftiest fifty of all?

The Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM doesn't just complete Canon's trifecta of hybrid lenses, it also completes the trio of RF nifty fifties – sitting between the budget RF 50mm f/1.8 STM and the top tier RF 50mm f/1.2L USM. 

While it certainly fills a gap, in my opinion I think there’s a large hole in the lens range for premium non-video lenses around the thousand-buck mark – a space that would usually be filled by third-party lens manufacturers, though Canon has been slow at opening the mount to other brands.

I was recently invited to a press launch at Canon HQ in the UK where I was able to get hands-on with a beta sample of the Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM, so here are my initial feelings…

Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM: Specifications

Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM: Design & Handling

As noted, the Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM completes a trio of hybrid primes for the R system, complementing the new RF 24mm f/1.4L VCM and the RF 35mm f/1.4L VCM that was announced back in June.

The great thing about the three hybrid primes is that they all have a very similar build, size and weight, sharing identical dimensions of 76.5 x 99.3mm and featuring the same 67mm filter thread. 

This means they’re really small, compact and neat to pack away in your camera bag, but also very uniform – which will make them easy to swap and interchange when used on a gimbal, with only slight balancing adjustments required.

Unlike the 35mm and 24mm f/1.4 lenses, the 50mm version doesn’t have a rear filter holder – although this is more of a necessity for those wider focal lengths (where front filters are liable to cause vignetting). 

Again like the other lenses, it features a large focus ring, Control ring, and an Iris ring that can be engaged by an Iris switch. The Iris can be left at its ‘A’ setting, where aperture is set on the camera body, or manually rotated to a set value from the lens. 

This works in video mode on all EOS R cameras perfectly, but for stills it currently only controls the aperture on the EOS R1 and R5 Mark II – though Canon says it would like to expand compatibility further to "key" camera models in the future.

I'm so used to seeing new lenses boast the best optical image stabilization, but the hybrid f/1.4 primes omit this – presumably in favor of optical precision and keeping the lenses lightweight. 

It shouldn’t be too much of an issue when paired with an EOS R body that has a stabilized sensor, though, such as the R6 Mark II or R5 Mark II, or when mounted to a gimbal.

Other things to note about the prime’s appearance is a custom control button on the side of the barrel, a metal lens mount, weather-sealing and Canon’s iconic red ring around the front of the lens – which indicates that it’s in Canon’s elite club of top L-series optics. 

It comes with a new ES-73 lens hood, though one gripe I do have is that the lens hoods for the three primes are all interchangeable – so it’s easy to mix up which hood goes on which lens. 

It would be a big help if it said, for example, 24mm, 35mm and 50mm on the hoods somewhere – but at this point I'll be resorting to a Sharpie or label maker to make this clearer.

Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM: Performance

The Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM employs separate USM and Voice Coil Motors, with the VCM driving heavier groups of glass elements inside the lens, resulting in a blisteringly fast autofocus operation that is also smooth and whisper-quiet.

One of the best features on this new lens is its super wide f/1.4 maximum aperture, which sucks in loads of light – handy for shooting in challenging illumination and keeping your ISO to a minimum, perhaps at a gig or concert, or even shooting stars for astrophotography. It's also useful for blurring the backgrounds of portraits, as the wide aperture will create a super shallow depth of field, while the 50mm focal length provides a natural perspective.

It’s worth noting the more expensive and larger RF 50mm f/1.2L has a maximum aperture of f/1.2, which is only a third of a stop brighter. For this reason I think many photographers will be happy with the new hybrid model, saving a considerable amount of money instead of splashing out on the f/1.2 version.

I was impressed with the test shots I took on the 50mm f/1.4L. The center of the lens is pin-sharp, even shooting wide open. Comparing the in-camera JPEGs with the RAW files revealed a minor vignette at f/1.4, though this was pretty much imperceptible by the time I closed it down to f/4. 

Aside from the minor vignetting, though, the corners of the frame are optically sound and there's no digital manipulation happening here – unlike my experience testing the RF 24mm f/1.4L, which relies quite heavily on in-camera tricks to push and pull pixels around correct distortion and remove quite a serious vignette from the RAW files.

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The 50mm focal length will be a hit with portrait and beauty photographers, where it offers brilliant mid-length shots, tight detail close-ups with its 40cm minimum focusing distance, and wider full-length shots if you step back.

I was seriously impressed with the sharpness of the Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM, which works hand-in-hand with the 45MP resolution of the R5 Mark II I was shooting with. Zooming in to see the razor-sharp details in model Jack's eye lashes in this image blew me away.

Again, below you can see the slight vignette around the corners in the RAW file compared to the JPEG. I personally quite like this, and think it adds some character and also brings the viewer's eye towards the center of the picture. 

Of course, in-camera JPEG processing can remove it entirely and there will no doubt be a Lens Correction Profile for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and other editing programs in the near future.

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Overall sharpness was very impressive, and I didn't see any signs of optical defects like ghosting or chromatic aberration either. The sky was overcast when I was shooting, so I wasn't able to test out how it handled flare, though the lens comes with a newly designed ES-73 lens hood. 

Stay tuned for our full lab tests when we got hold of a production sample in our full review in the coming weeks.

Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM: Verdict

The new Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM is interesting, because it’s significantly more affordable than the RF 50mm f/1.2L USM yet seemingly packs more desirable video features. While the more premium lens does have a slightly wider f1.2 aperture, it’s only a third of a stop brighter – so I can see many photographers opting for this new hybrid lens instead and pocketing the savings.

My gripes with the hybrid lenses are that they do feel like Canon has catered more towards video users than stills photographers, which is evident from the aperture ring only working in photo mode with Canon's top-end EOS R1 and R5 Mark II cameras, whereas the Iris ring works without a hitch in video mode for all bodies.

That being said, I really like how portable all of the hybrid primes are. They’re easy to stow and transport, and will be a hit with videographers who will be able to switch between lenses on a gimbal with minimal adjustments. The super-wide f/1.4 aperture will be great for anyone looking to shoot in low light or blur backgrounds with a shallow depth of field.

I will keep banging the drum that I’d also love to see more non-hybrid premium lenses around the $1K mark in Canon’s RF lens lineup. We're in a cost of living crisis, after all. However, we have to accept that hybrid lenses are the path Canon has gone down – and if you're in the market for a fast, high-quality standard prime then the Canon RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM is a much more compelling product than the more expensive f/1.2L USM.

Alternatives

Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 IS STM – Canon's must-have prime is also its cheapest. It's nowhere near as advanced or optically impressive, but it's truly tiny and is also stabilized – helpful if you don't have a camera with IBIS.

Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM – The first ever L-series RF prime lens, the 50mm f/1.2 is huge, heavy and a low-light monster – but it's also a heck of a lot heavier, isn't stabilized,  and is too chunky to be a go-to video lens.