Canon RF 24-50mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM review

The featherweight Canon RF 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM standard zoom is full-frame but definitely not full-fat

Canon RF 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM
(Image: © Matthew Richards)

Digital Camera World Verdict

If you’re walking the city for street snaps, trekking into challenging terrain for landscape opportunities, or jetting off on your travels, a small lightweight camera is the order of the day. Full-frame compatible zoom lenses don’t get any smaller than this and while it doesn’t stretch into telephoto territory, wide-angle and standard focal lengths are covered in style, complete with effective optical stabilization and snappy, near-silent autofocus. It’s a lens that truly punches above its weight, although the modest aperture rating can be a limiting factor.

Pros

  • +

    Super-small when retracted

  • +

    Weighs in at just 7.4 ounces (210g)

  • +

    Good stabilization and image quality

Cons

  • -

    No weather-seals

  • -

    Plastic mounting plate

  • -

    Hood sold separately

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The Canon RF 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM is designed to take a load off. One of the big attractions of many mirrorless cameras is that they’re small. For travel and walkabout photography, that advantage is largely lost if you hang a big hefty lens on the front of it. This not-so-standard zoom is fairly short on actual zoom range and has a modest aperture rating but it packs wide-angle to standard focal range coverage, effective optical stabilization and ultra-quiet autofocus into an amazingly compact package that weighs in at just a few ounces.

The FR 24-50mm is super-small for a full-frame compatible standard zoom when retracted (Image credit: Future)

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Matthew Richards

Matthew Richards is a photographer and journalist who has spent years using and reviewing all manner of photo gear. He is Digital Camera World's principal lens reviewer – and has tested more primes and zooms than most people have had hot dinners! 

His expertise with equipment doesn’t end there, though. He is also an encyclopedia  when it comes to all manner of cameras, camera holsters and bags, flashguns, tripods and heads, printers, papers and inks, and just about anything imaging-related. 

In an earlier life he was a broadcast engineer at the BBC, as well as a former editor of PC Guide.