A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Canon UK, letting me know they were doing one of their “free road tests”, this time of Canon R cameras and RF lenses. The deal is, for a refundable deposit, you get to have any lens in the range (or camera body) for 48 hours. The whole process is done by Lens Rentals, and is handled very efficiently. I picked two days this week, and the lens arrived by courier in a very substantial flight case. In with the parcel was a bag and return label for when the gear was collected at the end of the loan.

Having sampled the RF 800mm f11, I thought I’d go for the other end of the spectrum, and chose to try the 15-35 f2.8 wide zoom. It’s a chunky beast, weighing in at 840g vs the 700g of my only other RF lens, the 24-105 L f4. That said, when partnered with my R6 body, the overall impression was of a well-balanced rig that wouldn’t fatigue you greatly in extended use. Build quality looked to be excellent, and the lens is properly weather-sealed (unlike the 800mm).

In the time I had the lens, we are of course still in “lockdown”, so special trips for photography are verboten, hence I had just to use it when I was out for my daily allowable exercise or on a visit to the other person in our “bubble”. Being February in the UK, the weather was predictably dull.

Beating about the bush no longer, let’s talk about image quality. It is spectacularly good. The images are so sharp, across the frame, that, coupled with the very shallow depth of field achievable at f2.8, they appear almost “hyper-realistic”. When I showed the first set of samples I had taken, my wife’s reaction was to exclaim “wow!”, and although I’d like to think that was due to my composition skills, it really was down to the images themselves. Another feature worthy of mention is the image stabilisation. I have very shaky hands, but I had no trouble using shutter speeds up to one second, and getting perfectly sharp shots. In my opinion, the IS with this lens is superior to that in my 24-105mm. The image quality is definitely better - it seems that all L lenses are not created equal…..

Dislikes? The lens hood is a poor design - in my time with the lens it came unclipped three times where the locking button had brushed against me whilst walking along. Losing said lens hood is an expensive error to make too; a replacement will set you back around £80, which is outrageous for a bit of plastic. At the other end of the lens (and this applies to all RF lenses), the back cap design is stupid. Changing the rear cap on an EF lens is a one-handed job that you could do blindfold. Not on the RF mount, which will only go on in one position, and takes both hands to achieve. Finally though, the elephant in the room; price. Even with their current money-off promotion, one of these will set you back £2,109.99 if you buy from Canon’s website. That’s a whole month’s net salary for someone on average earnings in the UK. In the USA I see B&H list it at $2,299, which of course is substantially cheaper, but it’s hardly impulse purchase material. Is it worth it? Only you can make that call.

I’ve put sample images below; these are not meant to be portfolio level, but rather just to allow me to test the lens. As such they’re a bit of a mish-mash, and you have to remember that I was Covid-limited on location and subject matter.

In summary, this is probably the best quality lens I’ve ever used. Scrap that, it is the best quality lens I’ve ever used. The images it produces are dramatic, sharp, with great colours, tones and contrast. If you’re a working professional, buying this is a no-brainer. For me, I think it’ll make an ideal “birthday/ Xmas/ next birthday/ birthday after that combined” present.