Canon RF 45mm F1.2 STM lens

Canon RF 45mm F1.2 STM lens

What brightness, what image quality and above all what a price!

Canon is bringing back the 50mm nifty-fifty lenses to their roots. Traditionally, 50 lenses have been a super deal offering bright light and good definition.

Sure, it's a slightly wider 45mm focal length, but this is partly done to differentiate the lens from the three 50mm versions:

• RF 50mm F1.2 so-called show off lens that wanted to show how good optics can be made
• RF 50mm F1.4 VCM newer professional workhorse, very fast focusing
• RF 50mm 1.8 STM, a popular basic lens

So this Canon RF 45mm F1.2 falls between the F1.4 and F1.8 versions in terms of price and quality, but still excels in terms of aperture.

Kameraliike.fi has been able to try out the lens before the release and the STM focusing motor focuses quickly even in low light, which is important because at full aperture the depth of field is really small! The lens also feels really high quality in the hand. It doesn't come with weather protection or special lenses like the L series, but the initial impression is excellent.

Canon RF 45mm - What to consider

The price difference between the RF 50mm 1.4 VCM and 50mm F1.2 versions is huge, so you can't expect the same performance from this lens. In various tests, the lens has been liked, the depth of field and a certain style of drawing in the images look very pleasant. But if you take out the test boards, you can see the difference between special lenses and image corrections compared to professional lenses

Important note about image quality: this lens has a focus shift phenomenon, meaning that the focus point of the image changes slightly when changing the aperture, meaning that the image is sharp at F1.2, but the image may appear blurry at F2, for example, and become sharp again when you stop down to F4.

The problem is related to the structure of the optics but there are a couple of workarounds. For new cameras like the EOS R5 II and EOS R6 II, Canon released a software update that fixes the phenomenon,

On other bodies, you can turn on Exposure+DOF simulation in the viewfinder settings, so that focus is done at the selected aperture. But on some cameras, such as the original EOS R or EOS R100, there is no solution to the problem, meaning the lens works at full aperture, but especially at the F2.8 setting, when shooting close up, there may be a problem.

The Canon RF 45mm F1.2 does not include image stabilization, but for example, the EOS R6 III camera's in-body stabilization has full stabilization power, i.e. 8.5 stops in the center of the image.

Specifications:

• Compatibility: Canon RF mount (EOS R cameras)
• Focal length: 45mm
• Aperture: f/1.2 (min. f/16)
• Construction: 9 elements in 7 groups, 9 rounded diaphragm blades
• STM focus motor
• Programmable control ring and focus ring
• 1x PMo aspherical special lens
• Closest focus: 45cm (max. magnification ratio 0.13x)
• Filter thread: 67mm
  
• Size: 78mm x 75mm
• Weight: 346g

The sales package includes:

• Canon RF 45mm F1.2 STM lens
• Lens Cap E-67 II lens cover
• Dust Cap RF rear plug