SUPERTEST

Are newer Canon lenses always better? We put some of the most popular Canon EF and RF lenses in head-to-head tests to find out!

THE CONTENDERS

Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6

IS STM £249/$299

Canon RF-S 10-18mm F4.5-5.6

IS STM £379/$329

Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L

IS USM £1,389/$1,299

Canon RF 14-35mm F4L

IS USM £1,599/$1,299

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L

IS II USM £1,389/$1,299

Canon RF 24-105mm F4L

IS USM £1,389/$1,299

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L

IS II USM £2,599/£2,399

Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L

IS USM £2,939/$2,599

There has been so much hype over mirrorless cameras over the past few years, it’s easy to lose sight of just how great Canon DSLR and their companion EF and EF-S lenses have been over the past couple of decades. In short, Canon’s conventional EOS kit has been setting the standard for many years. But then everything went mirrorless.

If you’ve got a perfectly good EOS DLSR and collection of lenses, you need a very good reason to trade it all in for R System replacements. We tend to think that camera bodies come and go but quality lenses potentially last a lifetime. Changing lenses is even more of a tricky decision as EF-mount lenses work perfectly well on EOS R System bodies via an EF-EOS R mount adaptor. So are there any compelling reasons to jump ship?

Taking the reflex mirror assembly out of the equation, the EOS R System enables the proximity of the rear element of a lens to be much closer to the image sensor and there’s also a growth in the diameter of mounting flange, both of which give the potential for superior image quality. And then there’s the data transfer speed between the camera body and the lens, for improving performance factors like autofocus speed, tracking and image stabilization. One Canon boffin described it like this; if the data speed of original EOS film cameras and lenses was walking speed, the latest DSLRs and EF lenses are like a moped, whereas the EOS R System and new RF lenses are like a bullet train! So how do the rivals compare in practice?

CANON EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM £249/$299

Compact, lightweight and stabilized, this EF-S lens rewrote the wide-angle zoom rulebook when it was launched

Carrying around additional lenses is no fun when they’re big, heavy and cumbersome.

This offering from Canon for APS-C cameras is refreshingly small for a wide-angle zoom and tips the scales at less than half the weight of many competing lenses.

Its 67mm filter thread is also a lot smaller than usual, so filters are relatively inexpensive to buy.

One weight-saving feature of the lens is that it has a plastic mounting plate, but build quality feels reasonably robust. Typical of many recent Canon lenses, it features an STM (Stepping Motor) autofocus system which is fast for stills, smooth for video capture and virtually silent. The electronicallycoupled focus ring enables manual override of autofocus but there’s no focus distance scale.

Less than half the price of Canon’s ancient EF-S 10-22mm wide zoom, also for APS-C cameras, this lens adds the bonus of image stabilization. As normal with non L-series Canon lenses, you need to buy the lens hood separately, the genuine EW-73C costing around £21/$40.

Performance

Centre-sharpness is very respectable even when combining the widest viewing angle and aperture, at the short end of the zoom range. However, it’s not as sharp as the equivalent RF-S 10-18mm lens towards the edges and corners of the image frame, and colour fringing can be more noticeable at both ends of the zoom range. Even so, it’s easy to correct, either during editing or when using the automatic in-camera fix that’s available in recent Canon cameras. For an own-brand Canon lens, it’s a steal at the price.

FEATURES

01 Super Spectra coatings reduce ghosting and flare.

02 The 67mm filter thread is a tell-tale sign of the diminutive build.

03 The EW-73C petal shaped hood is an essential buy.

04 At 18mm, the longest focal length picks up the baton from ‘kit’ standard zooms.