Photo Plus - UK (2019-12)

The Canon Magazine 99

CANON RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM

FEATURES

The combination of a full-frame sensor and a long focal length means shallow depth of
field is easy to achieve, even with this lens’s fairly narrow maximum aperture

The focus speed at full zoom is still pretty fast, it was able to capture this dog despite
its best efforts to avoid being photographed

0

VERDICT

It’s quite light, neat and is a good value

bundle when bought with an EOS RP. What’s

great is the optical performance in such a

long range zoom, achieved with a help

(controversially) from digital corrections.

FEATURES

BUILD & HANDLING

PERFORMANCE

VALUE

OVERALL

This is generally very good performance

for a 10x superzoom lens

SHARPNESS

2500

2500

1500

1500

1000

1000

500

500

C

e

n

tr

e

f/5.6-6.3

f/5.6-6.3

f/4

f/4

f/8

f/8

f/11

f/11

f/16

f/16

f/22

f/22

2500

2500

2000

2000

24mm 50mm 100mm 240mm

123 4 56 7

–9 –8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1234

It’s bad at short focals and wider apertures,

but improves on stopping down

Distortion looks bad at 24mm, but digital

corrections in-camera and post will fix it

DISTORTION

240mm

100mm

50mm

24mm

E

d

g

e

FRINGING (AT EDGE)

24mm 50mm 100mm 240mm

f/4-5

f/5.6-6.3

f22

f/22

f/16

f/11

f/8

At shorter focal lengths, the RF

24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM produces

visually sharp images across the

frame, and it also offers nice bokeh

at long focal lengths and wide

apertures. There is one thing to be

aware of... This lens relies on digital

and optical corrections, so although

images straight from the camera

show now distortion, uncorrected

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show strong corner clipping – yes,

clipping, not just shading. With a

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are just as ‘straight’ as the JPEGs. Is

digital correction cheating? Well, if

it means we get lenses and results

that wouldn’t otherwise be possible,

we say it’s all fair.

01

The completely

cylindrical barrel

makes this lens neat

to use and easy to

pack away.

02

The 24-240mm

zoom range goes

from a wide-angle

view to a medium/

long telephoto.

03

This custom control

ring can be used for

manual focus or

exposure

adjustments.

04

There’s a 5-stop

image stabilizer

built in, though

performance

depends on various

conditions.

05

This switch locks

the zoom at its

minimum focal

length for easier

packing.

06

The f/6.3 maximum

aperture at 240mm

is slightly smaller

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practice we found it no better, or

worse, than most stabilizers. We

wouldn’t want to rely on more than

a 2-3 stop advantage, though we’re

sure the lens can achieved Canon’s

claimed 5-stop gain in the right

conditions. The stabilizer doesn’t

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what image stabilizers are for

• you need a gimbal to smooth
  out camera movement properly.
  The image quality is good for a
  lens of this type. As usual with a
  superzoom, we saw a drop-off in
  performance at full zoom, but while
  the edges of the frame start to
  soften up noticeably at 240mm,
  the centre is still sharp.