Canon’s budget-friendly RF 16mm f/2.8 STM lens has sparked debates about whether or not you really want to spend over $2,000 on skilled glass. The query turns into much more urgent when you think about that this $300 lens guarantees to ship a lot of what photographers want for extensive angle work.
Coming to you from Shane Lengthy Images, this revealing video places the Canon RF 16mm f/2.8 STM lens via rigorous testing towards the premium Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. Lengthy carried out in depth side-by-side comparisons taking pictures the identical scenes at varied apertures, analyzing every little thing from heart sharpness to excessive nook efficiency. The outcomes may shock you, particularly while you see how the finances lens performs within the heart of the body. What turns into instantly obvious is that each lenses ship similar sharpness within the heart, however the variations emerge as you progress towards the sides and corners of the body.
The testing reveals some predictable compromises with the cheaper lens, together with noticeable vignetting and distortion straight out of digicam. Nonetheless, Lengthy demonstrates how Lightroom’s profile corrections can handle these points nearly fully, making the lens far more usable than preliminary uncooked information may counsel. The nook sharpness tells a extra advanced story, with the finances lens displaying some softness and colour shifts in excessive corners, notably at wider apertures. Lengthy’s chromatic aberration exams present purple fringing in high-contrast areas, although once more, post-processing corrections deal with most of those points successfully.
What makes this comparability notably helpful is Lengthy’s real-world wedding ceremony images expertise with each lenses. He shares trustworthy insights about when the zoom vary of the 15-35mm turned important throughout household portraits, forcing him to change again to the costlier lens. The crop mode performance on Canon’s R5 supplies an fascinating workaround, successfully turning the 16mm right into a 24mm lens whereas sustaining wonderful sharpness edge-to-edge. The dimensions and weight benefits grow to be clear when taking pictures video or throughout prolonged handheld periods, although Lengthy notes some stability points when utilizing flash.
Key Specs
Focal Size: 16mm
Most Aperture: f/2.8
Minimal Aperture: f/22
Lens Mount: Canon RF
Protection: Full Body
Minimal Focus Distance: 5.1″ / 13 cm
Magnification: 0.26x
Optical Design: 9 Components in 7 Teams
Filter Dimension: 43mm
Dimensions: 1.6 x 2.7″ / 40.1 x 69.2 mm
Weight: 5.8 oz / 165 g
Picture Stabilization: None
The video does not simply concentrate on technical measurements however addresses sensible issues that matter in actual taking pictures eventualities. Lengthy’s expertise utilizing the lens at an precise wedding ceremony supplies insights you will not discover in lab exams, together with whether or not the burden financial savings really translate to much less fatigue throughout lengthy taking pictures periods. His trustworthy evaluation of when to decide on every lens based mostly on particular taking pictures necessities affords sensible steerage for photographers making an attempt to make this resolution. Try the video above for the total rundown from Lengthy.
