Hands-on Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM review: Canon’s long-awaited portrait prime gets a hybrid makeover

Portrait photographers have been awaiting the Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM since the EOS R system debuted in 2018. Sure, we had the RF 50mm f/1.2L at launch, but that’s not a headshot lens; for that, we had to wait until 2019’s RF 85mm f/1.2L and 85mm f/1.2 DS lenses – but those were hulking, expensive prestige optics. Then we had the budget RF 85mm f/2 Macro in 2020 – a much smaller and cheaper but also much slower and non-sealed option.

What the Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM presents, then, is the traditional sweet spot portrait lens – a cut above the plastic fantastic f/2, offering great performance without the price or heft of the f/1.2. More than that, though, it’s the latest addition to Canon’s line of hybrid lenses – optics that combine the handling and performance characteristics of its EOS, Cinema EOS and broadcast lenses.

This means that the Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM joins the four current hybrid primes – the RF 20mm, 24mm, 35mm and 50mm f/1.4 VCM – to form an outfit of video-friendly lenses with harmonized size, weight and filter threads for friction-free filming.

I’ve come to expect a lot of these lenses, which offer the best of all worlds when it comes to Canon optics. So how does the Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM fare?

Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM: Specifications

Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM: Price

The Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM goes on sale at the end of September and carries a retail price of $1,649 / £1,799 (Australian pricing to follow). This makes it the second-most expensive lens in the hybrid lineup, behind the RF 20mm f/1.4L at $1,699 / £1,919 / AU$2,999.

For comparison, the top-end Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM comes in at $2,999 / £2,999 / AU$4,499 (though there are currently region-specific rebates) while the budget Canon RF 85mm f/2 Macro IS STM is priced at $649 / £669 / AU$999.

Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM: Build & handling

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It should come as no surprise that the Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM looks, feels and handles almost identically to its hybrid prime siblings.

It possesses the same uniform 76.5 x 99.3mm size and 67mm filter thread, but is the heaviest of the quintet at 636g – compared to the 20mm at 519g, the 24mm at 515g, the 35mm at 555g and the 50mm at 580g.

Obviously the upside of the harmonized sizing is that hotswapping filters and gimbals (and lens caps!) across the hybrids is a breeze. However, a side effect is that the hoods are also interchangeable – and, unless you know the difference between “Lens Hood ES-73” and “Lens Hood EW-73F”, you won’t know which is for which lens, as there’s no other information on each hood.

The Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM has a large manual focus ring complemented by the standard customizable control ring, along with – again in common with the rest of the family – a smooth manual Iris Ring to control the aperture.

Bear in mind that these Iris Rings were designed for video, and they have a strange relationship with photography; currently they only control stills apertures on Canon’s cameras from 2024 and onwards (namely the EOS R1 and R5 Mark II).

While all the hybrid primes are weather-sealed, being as they’re L-series lenses and adorned by the coveted red ring, they are not stabilized – which is worth bearing in mind if you own a camera without in-body image stabilization (IBIS) and you plan on filming without a gimbal.

Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM: Performance

We didn’t have as much time as we’d have liked with the Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM, and primarily used it for video in conjunction with the new Canon EOS C50, so it’s far too early for us to give a proper evaluation on its performance.

However, while we need to put the lens through our battery of lab tests and give it a more exhaustive test drive (particularly to shoot portraits), there are already some obvious takeaways after our initial hands-on time.

As usual, the voice coil motor (the VCM in the name) does a superb job of providing quick, quiet, accurate autofocus. Like other members of the family, the VCM technology isn’t just there to shunt around the larger internal elements faster – it also facilitates smooth focus transitions while filming. Again as expected, breathing is also well suppressed while focusing with this lens.

Canon told me that the 85mm f/1.4L “comes very close to delivering the same quality” as the 85mm f/1.2L. While our lab tests will tell the tale of just how close it comes, the rest of the hybrid f/1.4 range have earned their stripes as premium performers – the 35mm in particular being a spectacularly sharp lens.

What’s clear is that for a fraction of the size, weight and price the RF 85mm f/1.4L offers optical quality worthy of its heritage – both in terms of the other hybrid primes in the range, as well as the beloved Canon EF 85mm f/1.4L for DSLRs.

In addition to being shorter and much lighter, the RF version seems to be notably sharper at the corners and edges – and it might just be my eyes (again, we still need to lab test the lens) but it also seems to be a bit crisper in the center. Point being, we're looking at a lens that betters one of Canon's best portrait lenses.

Portrait photographers will no doubt be wondering just how big a difference there is between f/1.4 and f/1.2L. Well, in terms of rendering it’s not as dramatic as you might think. Yes, shooting at f/1.2 will always create superior subject separation, but f/1.4 still gives you sublimely shallow depth of field that makes portraits look very special.

And again, when it comes to low light performance, shooting at f/1.4 still enables you to shoot in incredibly challenging conditions. And today’s sensors are so good that bumping up your ISO (or, indeed, slowing your shutter if you have IBIS to rely on) is a perfectly acceptable compromise.

Really the biggest difference between the two lenses is how they handle – particularly on Canon’s smaller RF-S cameras. As much as I love my 85mm f/1.2L, it's monstrously big even on chunky bodies like the EOS R5, it dwarfs the EOS R7 (even though the IBIS means it’s still possible to shoot with) but it becomes completely impractical on the R8 or anything smaller.

The 85mm f/1.4L, by contrast, is small and light enough to make a decent dance partner for any EOS R camera – especially these smaller APS-C bodies. In fact, with its equivalent 136mm focal length, this becomes a very compelling option for R7 shooters in particular.

Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM: Sample images

Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM: Early verdict

The Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM carries the torch for the hybrid prime lineup, offering the crossover characteristics and optical performance the range is renowned for, but arguably its greatest strength is in offering EOS R photographers a long-awaited middle ground for portrait lenses.

While I’m lucky enough to own the RF 85mm f/1.2L, and love using it for professional work, I’ve been longing for something smaller yet similarly capable to use as a walkabout and more casual lens. The RF 85mm f/2 lacks the speed and sealing for high-end use, but the RF 85mm f/1.4L offers premium performance but without breaking the scales or the bank balance.

As such, I imagine this will be just as attractive to the APS-C crowd. With an effective 136mm focal length in a form factor that doesn’t dwarf smaller RF-S bodies, this is a practical pro-grade option for smaller sensor shooters.

For videographers, it fills the crucial short telephoto gap in the hybrid lineup – 85mm isn’t something that’s top of the shopping list for most creators or filmmakers, but it’s nonetheless an important one for those who do need it. And particularly with the concurrent launch of the EOS C50, it’s great to see Canon finally fleshing out its cinema (or at least, cinema-friendly) RF optics.

While I’d certainly prefer these hybrid primes to possess stabilization, and it’s galling that only those who own one of Canon’s latest (and most expensive) cameras are able to use the Iris Ring for photography, in every other respect the Canon RF 85mm f/1.4L VCM looks to be every inch the sweet spot optic that people photographers and videographers have been waiting for on this system.