Six Underrated Canon RF Lenses You've Probably Overlooked

The best Canon RF lens for your kit might be one almost nobody talks about. Six of them sit in the shadows of pricier alternatives, dismissed over a single spec or forgotten entirely, even though they deliver image quality that holds up against Canon's L-series glass.

James Reader walks through six underrated RF lenses, starting with the Canon RF 28mm f/2.8, a pancake prime that gets skipped because of its f/2.8 aperture. Reader argues the aperture misses the point. The 28mm focal length works for travel, landscapes, video, street, and environmental portraits, and the lens is so small you barely notice it on the camera. Paired with something like the Canon R8, it makes the most compact full frame RF setup available. He picked his up used for under £200, and the sharpness rivals L glass at the same focal length, though it has strong vignetting wide open and no weather sealing.

The second pick flips the logic. The Canon RF 135mm f/1.8 is expensive L glass, yet Reader still calls it neglected because the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 hogs the portrait spotlight. He admits his own videos fed that hype. The 135mm gives you dimensional subject separation, no distortion, and gorgeous color, and in his sharpness tests it landed first or second against the best RF options every time. Compared to the 85mm f/1.2, it has better autofocus, image stabilization, arguably stronger video performance, and a lower price. He rates it among the finest portrait lenses made by any brand.

Reader then defends a lens people openly call boring: the Canon RF 24-105mm f/4. Faster zooms like the RF 24-105mm f/2.8, the RF 28-70mm f/2.8, and the enormous RF 28-70mm f/2 get all the attention. The f/4 shines for travel, moving from wide landscapes at 24mm to distant detail at 105mm. It also hides a full set of classic portrait focal lengths, with 105mm being one of his favorites for headshots. His only real complaint is sample-to-sample sharpness variation at the long end.

Here's context that makes these picks land harder. Several of these lenses lean on digital corrections for distortion and vignetting, and that used to be a mark against them. The RF 24-240mm took heat at launch for exactly that. The wider RF conversation has shifted. Even premium RF primes now rely on the same profile-based corrections, so a spec sheet that once looked like a compromise reads as normal engineering in 2024. When you evaluate glass today, the finished image matters more than how the lens gets there, which is why a "slow" variable aperture superzoom can still surprise you. Reader took the 24-240mm to Italy expecting little and came home ready to buy it, and his wife told him to after seeing the shots.

Two more round out the list. The Canon RF 85mm f/2 macro delivers soft bokeh, sharp results, and macro function he loves for watches, rings, and wedding details, held back only by autofocus that can hunt across the full macro range. The Canon RF 100-400mm is Reader's gateway into supertelephoto without spending thousands, small and light enough for wildlife, sports, air shows, and even an eclipse he shot recently. He also flags the Canon RF 24mm f/1.8 as a near miss, sharper than the RF 35mm f/1.8 and excellent on an APS-C body like the Canon R50, kept off the main list only by its price.

Watch the full breakdown above for Reader's take on the 85mm f/2's autofocus quirks and the mystery prime he thinks belongs on this list.