In a photo industry of ever-increasing prices, it’s refreshing to see optics that supply exceptional value for the dollar. The new Canon RF 45mm f/1.2 STM made the entire industry double-take upon seeing an f/1.2 optic for only $479. Surely, there must be a catch, so I took the handy little 45mm to a local Christmas market to explore the myriad lights using an extremely shallow depth of field lens.
Canon RF 45mm f/1.2 STM: How It Feels
The 45mm lens appears bulky at first glance, largely owing to its very wide aperture. The front of the lens is cut for 67mm filters, which is rather large for a normal focal length lens. However, the lens is very lightweight and will only add about 12.2 ounces (346 grams) to your camera. There is a customizable control ring right at the front of the lens, which can be set for many handy uses, but it does have a permanent click-stop action. The manual focus ring is well-damped and quite large, so it is easy to find without looking.
There is a simple switch for AF/MF focus control, and little else. This is a simple lens with very little in the way of accoutrements. The 45mm has a basic STM autofocusing motor design, which I found to be perfectly acceptable at focusing quickly, even if it makes a bit of a humming sound while operating.
Canon does not supply this lens with a hood, so consider that an extra expense. Also, due to the affordable cost of the lens, there is no weather-sealing or dust resistance to speak of, so treat this lens with some care.
Canon RF 45mm f/1.2 STM: How It Shoots
Canon have managed to keep flaring to a minimum with this lens, as it shows only a mild propensity for ghosting at wider apertures, and still manageable amounts when stopped down. Contrast is good, and internal reflections seem fairly well controlled. I would still consider getting the additional lens hood, which should have been included in the first place.
LoCA, or longitudinal chromatic aberration, causes color casts in the out-of-focus areas of an image, which proves to be a subsequent pain to remove afterward. Unfortunately, this lens has a fair amount of LoCA, especially when shot at wider apertures. Considering how often this lens will also have large out-of-focus areas, LoCA can be a serious problem to manage. Stopping the aperture down will certainly help the situation, but the main intention of a lens like this is to shoot at the wider apertures.
I was seriously expecting to find that this affordable lens would have middling bokeh performance. However, the results are pleasantly surprising. Specular highlights take on a beautiful cat’s eye effect at wider apertures that work well for portraits. As you stop the aperture down, the highlights take on a more rounded look, but always have a slightly polygonal shape to them. I was shocked to find no onion rings within the highlights, but there is a strong and distinct halo around each one. This means that backgrounds can look a little harsh at times, but overall, the bokeh is beautiful on this incredibly wide-apertured lens.
Surely, this lens must be soft because of the relatively low price involved, right? Most affordable primes on the market that advertise such a bright f/1.2 aperture tend to have almost unusable performance at said aperture.
However, Canon has found a way to provide decent levels of detail at the widest aperture range. There is a fair amount of contrast and sharpness at f/1.2, which gets even better as you stop the lens down. Still, I would happily use this lens at f/1.2 and not feel like I was making a major compromise to image quality. Corners are a different story, and here is where the lens probably makes a few shortcuts. The corners always look mushy at wider apertures, and even stopping down the lens to f/2.8 only marginally improves the situation. This choice makes sense given that most users will be shooting with out-of-focus corners anyway, or with subject matter where the corners don’t matter much. If you want center-to-edge performance, though, expect to shoot well into the midrange of apertures.
Canon RF 45mm f/1.2 STM: No Competition… By Design
If this were any other brand of lens, I would reference the veritable cornucopia of third-party lenses available as competition. Long have the Chinese lens houses specialized in ultra-fast aperture optics at a low price but you won’t find many of these options available with compatible autofocus and full-frame coverage for the Canon RF mount. This makes the new $479 Canon RF 45mm f/1.2 a very smart play, both on the part of Canon and as a good decision for the consumer. I hope Canon make many more of these fast-apertured options for the consumer at an affordable price. Especially if the optical performance holds true in the future. Consider this 45mm lens for general-purpose photography and as a shallow depth of field portrait option.
Are There Alternatives?
Yongnuo does make some f/1.8 primes on the market with dubious autofocus compatibility with Canon bodies. These are optically decent, but they are cheaply built and not nearly as bright.
Should You Buy It?
Yes. You get performance and price without too many optical compromises. Canon is delivering excellent value for the dollar.
