Canon RF 14mm 1.4 L VCM

Every now and then, Canon is out to show who's the gorilla in the jungle with some exotic lens designs. They rattled the industry with the RF 10-20mm f/4 L IS, the RF 85mm f/1.2 L DS, or the RF 28-70mm f/2 L. And now they are leaving their mark with the Canon RF 14mm f/1.4 L VCM. It's the widest and fastest ultra-wide prime lens around - and it's bafflingly compact for what it is. Thus, kudos to Canon for making it happen. The compact dimensions resulted in some compromises, which made it necessary to heavily rely on digital autocorrection. Having said this, it's only the end result that counts, and it's mostly impressive for a lens in this class - meaning a 14mm full-frame lens is never going to be completely flawless. The center quality is great, and even the corners manage still good results. Unless you use a high-megapixel camera, astrophotographers should be pretty happy, and you will not see any softness in 8K video. Despite autocorrection, there's still some vignetting at f/1.4 but it's mostly fine from f/2 in this respect. The bokeh is surprisingly smooth for a lens in this class, and sun-star lovers should also be pleased. In terms of build quality, the RF 14mm f/1.4 L VCM stays in line with its cousins. It uses Canon's L-class flavor of tough engineering plastic with extensive weather sealing. Some may not like the bulb-like front element, though, and if you want to use filters, you have to use the rather cumbersome rear gel filter slot. Videographers surely appreciate the fact that the 14mm f/1.4 is about as compact as the other Canon VCM lenses, so the balance on your rig barely changes. If you require such a fast lens or have a priority on video productions, the RF 14mm f/1.4 L VCM is an attractive option. Otherwise, Canon L-class zoom lenses are about as good at this focal length.

The Canon RF 14mm f1.4L VCM expands their hybrid series to six prime lenses with the widest-angle to date. Sure Canon has an RF 10-20 zoom that can go wider still, but the 14 is a prime lens with a much brighter aperture and claims superior quality to the zooms. In my early tests it’s certainly very sharp across the frame, although like most modern wide-angles employs a software profile to correct the barrel distortion. Canon’s also maintained essentially the same size and weight across the series, which also makes it not only considerably smaller than Sigma’s recent 14 1.4, but half the weight (although note the Sigma was not available for Canon RF at the time of writing). We’ll need proper side-by-side tests to see which takes the lead under which conditions, but it remains a physically impressive feat, especially when you consider it’s two stops brighter than the old EF 14 2.8 without being much larger, and is priced only a little higher than that model's original RRP without even taking inflation into account.