If you’ve bought into the Canon EOS M mirrorless system, the announcement of the new full-frame mirrorless EOS R system today may have had you a little worried.
If so, you can relax – Canon wants to assure you that you haven’t been forgotten about, and has done so by announcing a new EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens.
This wide-angle prime is compact and lightweight, with dimensions of 60.9mm by 50.5mm and a weight of 235g. It has been designed with portraiture in mind -- on an M-series body, its 32mm focal length works out to a 51mm equivalent in full-frame terms, providing a very ‘natural’ field of view that’s close to that of the human eye.
That wide maximum aperture of f/1.4 will allow for the creation of strongly defocused backgrounds, aided by a seven-bladed diaphragm that should produce attractive bokeh.
Constructed of 14 elements in eight groups, including a glass-molded aspherical element, the EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens also has Super Spectra Coating technology and optimised lens element placement to help minimise flare and ghosting. It has a wide, tactile focusing ring for comfortable manual control, and maintains the usual EF-M diameter for optimal feel while shooting.
It has a magnification factor of 0.25x and a closest focusing distance of 23cm, which is impressively tight for a lens of this class. Its quiet, smooth autofocus, which uses a lead gear-type STM stepping motor, means it’ll also be useful for capturing video.
Pricing and availability
The Canon EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens will be available from October 2018, carrying a recommended retail price of £499.99 / $479.99.
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