Can you tell the difference between the 24-70mm EF and RF lenses? Take a look at yourself and prepare to be shocked

I upgraded my camera to Canon EOS R5 last year and since then I have been shooting with the adapter ring and EF lenses. If this sounds like jargon to you: let me catch you up to speed. Canon released its first mirrorless camera in 2018, and the mount on mirrorless cameras is different from the mounts of previous DSLRs. To solve the problem you can use adapter ring to shoot with your older EF lenses on your new mirrorless camera.

After shooting for a year with the adapter ring, I finally bit the bullet and bought my first RF lens for $2,399. In this article, I’ll give you a side-by-side comparison of the images as well as my surprising discovery as I scrutinized the upgrade.

I have to be honest: the 24-70mm is not my go-to lens. In my mind, it’s kind of the focal point of all trades and no one has mastered, ironically that’s why I have it. It does a great job at everything. Great. Not the mind, but also never disappointed. I have a product to work on, 100mmmy sports goals, 16-35 mmmy portrait photography purposes, 70-200mm, and such. The reason I decided to upgrade to the 24-70mm is that while it’s not my quintessential glass or anything, it does everything well. In many jobs, I need to capture many images at a fast speed. For example, when I’m shooting races, I can capture the passing athletes at a wider angle, but then I notice details and need to zoom in. With the 24-70mm, I was able to quickly zoom in to capture a fleeting moment, then return to full-body shots again. It is a favorite lens for wedding and event photographers for that same reason. It allows photographers to capture wide and narrow images, and it always delivers a good shot. Everyone needs a jack of all trades in their tool bag.

I’ve been shooting with the EF 24-70mm and the word converter ring for a while. I love these images, but sometimes, I find myself frustrated that it seems to struggle to focus and track, so I take the plunge and buy a new RF version.

As I prepare to shoot for this article, I am confident that I know where I will fall on this issue. Even as I took these images and imported them for a closer look, I found myself sifting through the headline idea: “save money on gas…” The images looked the same. Big surprise. I am not a leader. I never. I am interested in such equipment because I can produce the quality of work that I want. I’m not one to buy the newest shiny toy every time B&H drops their weekly newsletter in my inbox. But then something happened. I zoomed in. One of the reasons I never use the 24-70mm for product photography is because the focus falls on the edges of the frame even with a narrower aperture. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at all my images from this series and noticed the same results again and again: edges were not out of focus. Although I took meticulous care to keep all the settings the same, including my focus, I’m sure the obvious difference was because I made a mistake in focusing. The next day, when I got back to the studio, I did the test again with my product of the day. I was surprised to see the same result again: sharp edges. Aside from being surprised by the improved edge performance, I didn’t experience any focusing issues that I found myself annoying. Fast, quiet and precise focusing. Some of the upgrades that Canon boasts about RF upgrades are hard to measure in the studio. However, to name a few, they have upgraded the sealing rings on the lenses, which keep your lenses from being damaged by water, and they are more resistant to shake, meaning the lenses are more durable. better. If you are a sports or event photographer, this is something that will be very useful to you. Canon also claims that the lens offers up to five stops of image stabilization correction, bringing it to a significant eight stops if combined with the R5’s in-body stabilization.

Is it worth dropping more than $2,000 in? I can’t answer that for you.

Everyone has different needs, budgets, and different levels of supervision over their work. Is it a big deal if you miss a few shots when the camera is struggling to find focus with the adapter ring? Do you have a degree of scrutiny of your images? If the answer to both is no, you should probably save up for something that better suits your needs. However, if you feel awkward shooting, struggling to focus, or sitting in Lightroom, flagging too many images for the trash, this is a well-invested upgrade. For me it’s been a much better experience, I’m thinking of putting website blockers into B&H so I don’t buy the whole RF kit. That’s impressive because I’m not the frontrunner.

Have you purchased any RF lenses? If so, leave a comment and let us know your upgrade experience. If you liked this article and want to read more, you can click “Follow” below next to my name for more details.