Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

Peter Travers Editor • 5D Mk IV & R5 peter.travers@futurenet.com “Motorsport photography is one of my favourite genres, but it’s also the most challenging. Armed with an R7 and with some pro tips, I felt the need for speed!” PAGE 8 Dan Mold Deputy editor • R6 Mk II dan.mold@futurenet.com “Calling on my experience travelling and documenting South East Asia and Australia, I reveal my top travel tips for when you’re taking photos during summer holidays.” PAGE 28 James Paterson Technique writer • R5 james.paterson@futurenet.com “P-A-R-T-Y! It’s party time as I set up a DIY photobooth for guests to take fun selfies, using studio lights, and uploading images to the cloud for quick viewing!” PAGE 46 Matthew Richards Technical writer • R5 photoplus@futurenet.com “Summer is here, so it’s time to…

Lens Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Exposure 1/500 secs, f/5.6, ISO400 MARK’S COMMENT ”I was feeling more confident at this stage of the track day at Donington. Jakob explained that this corner was really important as drivers are trying to get good speed on the apex to carry down the back straight, this meant the cars were in an energetic position for more dynamic photos. As my skills had improved, I used a tad slower shutter speed of 1/500 sec, which gave me a wider aperture of f/5.6. As I was closer to the track here, I could capture the car bigger in the frame by shooting at 400mm on my full-frame 5D Mark IV. But still with enough space to include the track and red-and-white barrier in the background,…

YOU MAY find space is at a premium when packing, and some compromises will have to be made. If there’s a genre of photography you’re particularly interested in, such as landscapes, portraits or aerial, it’s a good idea to base your kit choices around this. A wide-angle prime could be squeezed in for astro landscapes or swapped out for a telephoto lens for wildlife. If in doubt, an optic such as a 24-70mm f/2.8 is a great jack-of-all-trades lens that is suitable for the majority of situations you’ll come across. You must aim to travel light, so bring a universal wall plug power adapter and load up your smartphone with useful photo apps such as PhotoPills – the good thing is that these useful tools don’t add to your bags…

This firework display celebrated the Tet holiday during the Lunar New Year in Vietnam. To capture all the colours, I shot several one-second exposures on a tripod and merged them in Photoshop Exposure 1.1 sec, f/5, ISO100 FESTIVALS are chaotic, colourful events where many thousands of people gather to celebrate. Before you set off, do some research into when these cultural traditions will take place in the locations you plan to visit or change your travel dates so you are in the right spot when a festival is on. They can make for incredible action-packed shots, so you won’t want to miss them. I took this image in Hanoi during Tet, the celebration of the Lunar New Year. Speaking to locals, they told me there was going to be a…

Don’t miss out on our great introductory offer Take out a subscription to PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine with a great half-price discount, plus no-hassle home delivery Reasons to subscribe today • NEW! Free digital access to 110+ issues when you subscribe to the print edition** • Subscribe to PhotoPlus for essential Canon camera techniques, tests and photography projects every month. • Pay less than in the shops. Subscribe now and enjoy a 50% saving off print issues – that’s just £3 per issue! OPTION 1: SAVE 50%!* PRINT SUBSCRIPTION EVERY 6 MONTHS FROM £19.46* • 6 PhotoPlus print issues delivered to your door • Get print issues for only £3 each OPTION 2: SAVE 50%!* DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION EVERY 6 MONTHS FROM £22.71* • 6 PhotoPlus digital issues for your device…

Photo booths have become hugely popular and you’ll often see professional setups at big events. But with a few simple skills, a DIY booth can yield results that are just as good. If you want to set one up – perhaps for a wedding or family party – you’ll find all you need to know to get started over the following pages. A photo booth could be as simple as placing a phone in selfie mode on a tripod. But there are ways to make the booth more polished and dynamic. First there’s the lighting, a couple of studio strobes allows for professional, flattering light that can illuminate groups large and small. Then there’s the user experience. A Live View monitor can make it easier for guests to get into…

The British Isles is blessed with an eventful past that continues to fascinate. From castles to towers and manors to mansions, there’s no shortage of historic buildings to visit and photograph. And when it comes to editing, you could also aim to apply some history to your images. Silver nitrate formed the basis of early photography, so you could only create a black-and-white image of your scene. Times were also much harder, with poverty rampant and the divide between rich and poor even greater than today. You can evoke this feeling by creating a gritty look to your photo. In Lightroom, you do this using the Presence tools; Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze. For removing colour, Lightroom Classic CC has several ways to get there. The Treatment section allows the change…

00 ENGLAND FOOTBALL MANAGER AT A VERY WET TRAINING SESSION UNDER LIGHTS Gareth Southgate is all smiles, while Eddie used a slower shutter speed to capture movement in the falling rain Lens Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM Exposure 1/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO320 EDDIE KEOGH has been in sports photojournalism in the UK for over three decades. While he’s worked at the top of his game capturing the England football and rugby teams in some of their biggest sporting moments, he says he gets just as excited documenting the antics of a grassroots match on a Sunday morning. Eddie doesn’t just focus on football, and he has covered horse racing, tennis, athletics, and even shot for Rolls-Royce. There are several elements to consider in sports journalism. There’s the action and the…

Photo essays from PhotoPlus readers and professional photographers alike 01 HUNTED A kestrel lands in grass back from a successful hunt with its prey Lens Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Exposure 1/1250 sec, f/4, ISO320 To indulge my passion for wildlife photography I wanted to challenge myself and visit a different country. So I researched areas in Europe which were good for photographing birds of prey and decided on a trip to Germany, on a quest to photograph the Northern Goshawks. My adventure involved a lot of walking and armed with information from others, I headed to some wasteland and a disused airfield. To my amazement there were lots of kestrels flying around, rather than Northern Goshawks. I thought to myself they would be a great bird to try out my…

Canon’s confirmed it’s developing the EOS R1, a full-frame mirrorless camera and flagship for the EOS R system. Will it be the world’s best camera for sports photography? We can’t say as full specs are still scarce! We do know the EOS R1 will a mirrorless camera for professionals that “brings together Canon’s cutting-edge technology and top-class performance with the strong durability and reliability sought in a flagship model.” Canon also says that in comparison to the EOS R3, “the R1 will dramatically improve the performance of both still images and video for pros in a wide range of fields including sports, news reporting, and video production.” Canon has been cagey on the R1, but did say it will have a new image processor DIGIC Accelerator in addition to the…

For a really lightweight outfit, there’s a lot to be said for sticking with the tiny, retractable EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM and adding the similarly small ultra-wide EF-M 11-22mm and telephoto EF-M 55-200mm if you need to bolster your range. However, if you’re in the market for a single lens, the EF-M 18-150mm is the one. It’s not as wide-angle as the 15-45mm but gives far greater telephoto reach, with an effective zoom range of 28.8-240mm in full-frame terms. Measuring 61x87mm and weighing just 300g, it’s the most lightweight lens in the group, although it only undercuts the RF-S 18-150mm by a paltry 10g. Even so, there’s a lot packed in, including no fewer than 17 optical elements in 13 groups, a stepping motor-based autofocus system and a 4-stop…

As a Canon Club member you have access to many free benefits. Whether you’re looking to upgrade to a new Canon EOS camera, or interested in trying a new Canon lens such as those featured in our Super Test, you’re able to try a full range of Canon products, delivered straight to your door. During a six-month period, as a Canon Club member, you can Test Drive up to six products to put them through their paces. As a member, registering your Canon products gives you points and puts you into a tier. There are 3 tiers, depending on the number of points you gain – and the higher your tier, the more benefits you can access, such as Test Drives: • Tier 1: Free 48 Hour Test Drive •…

There are plenty of chunky RF lenses for Canon’s full-frame mirrorless cameras but this isn’t one of them. It’s about 60mm shorter than the obsolete EF-28-300mm full-frame superzoom and less than half the weight. Even so, it’s rather larger and heavier than the APS-C format superzooms on test. Without an APS-C format crop factor to take into account, the 240mm maximum telephoto focal length is pretty modest, but there’s good wide-angle coverage at the short end. The tables are turned if you use the lens on APS-C format EOS R System cameras, like the R7 or R10, where it gives an ‘effective’ 38.4-384mm zoom range. Like the EF-S 18-135mm lens on test, this RF lens has a super-fast and virtually silent Nano USM autofocus system, which is great for both…

What to look for Canon EOS camera ranges Canon splits its EOS range into mirrorless cameras and DSLRs. Its older DSLR line-up includes beginner, enthusiast and pro ranges; the EOS 4000D is the most basic, the 850D for intermediates, the 90D and full-frame 6D Mk II for advanced enthusiasts, and the full-frame pro-level 5D and 1D lines. Over the page are the two EOS mirrorless ranges: Canon’s smaller, older APS-C EOS M cameras, and Canon’s EOS R System APS-C and full-frame cameras that offer the very latest digital technology. The APS-C crop-sensor EOS R50, R10 and R7 are smaller, affordable entry-level options. While the EOS R8 up to the R6 Mark II, R5 and flagship R3 are full-frame for serious enthusiasts to professionals. Canon’s EOS R cameras are packed with…

Is Europe responsible for delaying Canon’s new cameras and lenses? A report is circulating online that new cameras and lenses launches from the world’s major manufacturers are being delayed by European red tape… Read more on this and other news at DigitalCameraWorld.com at bit.ly/eu_delay Canon launches first laser rangefinder with built-in camera for golfers… fore! Canon hits the green in the golf market with new PowerShot Golf, a sophisticated laser golf rangefinder with an added camera function to help golfers take their game to the next level. More info at our site via link bit.ly/canon_golf This new photo book shows Bavaria as you have NEVER seen it before! Ellen von Unwerth captures her homeland of Bavaria in her signature tongue-in-cheek style, in a new coffee table book. Find out more…

01 WINNER FUNKY BY SABRINA GAROFOLI Sabrina’s fantastic shot of this snowboarder caught our eye and takes the top prize in this month’s A Sense of Speed in Sports competition. We love her clean composition with the bold colours of the snowboarder and ‘Funky’ text standing out clearly from the clear blue sky behind. She’s nailed the timing to catch an interesting pose and expertly dialled in settings for a super fast shutter speed of 1/1250 sec to freeze the moment, while an aperture of f/11 ensured that all of her subject is in sharp focus. Lens Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM | C Exposure 1/1250 sec, f/11, ISO400 All the images in this issue’s gallery were entrants to the PhotoPlus ‘A Sense of Speed in Sports’ competition hosted on Photocrowd…

DO YOUR RESEARCH Failure to plan is planning to fail, so make sure you do your homework before you head off It might not be the best part of travelling but planning ahead is essential to help you have the smoothest possible, stress-free journey and get the best photos you can. 01 PLAN ROUTES IN ADVANCE Booking your flights and trains well in advance can often be a lot cheaper. Read up on travel guides to find the locations you want to visit and photograph, and put them in order of preference so you can stick to a travel schedule. 02 APPLY FOR ANY VISAS REQUIRED Check to find out if your destinations require a visa. You can usually apply online or by post to the relevant embassy. 03 CONSIDER…

THE FEELING of exploring a new city and capturing the day-to-day moments and hustle and bustle on camera is hard to beat. I found myself going out to take photos after dark when night markets open and the cities come to life. It’s a good idea to go out with a friend, not only for your own safety but also because it can be more enjoyable! Look for those unique experiences that make extraordinary photos and use reflections and artificial lighting to add contrast to street scenes. Many modern digital cameras offer excellent stabilization and can record brilliant image quality at high ISO values, which makes night street shots like these easier than ever. TOP TIP Famous locations When visiting iconic landmarks that have been photographed millions of times, such as…

Lens Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Exposure 30 secs, f/8, ISO800 Islay, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. 21:10pm. 11 August 2021 I think it’s fair to say that all of us dream of escaping to an island, at some point in our lives. I have a real obsession with islands, and in my time as a photographer I have been to many of the most photogenic islands around the British Isles. In the summer of 2021, Rachel and I headed off on an island-bagging trip to Scotland. The mission was to visit eight in total in my camper van, simply to keep costs to a minimum and also to have a lot of fun. The van has a great collection of photography and musical equipment, including a 1920 Clifford Essex banjo about…

Music festival season is upon us and this presents the perfect opportunity to experience your first taste of live music photography. Short of donning denim and leather and screaming into a microphone, nothing gets you closer to rockin’ out on stage than gig photography. You might consider it an inaccessible genre that requires professional access, if you hope to photograph headline acts such as Rod Stewart, Metallica or Taylor Swift. But you may well find that smaller venues and fledgling music acts will welcome you and your Canon with open arms, while you can also spend your time honing your craft. Some festivals may allow you to bring your camera along and shoot from the crowd. And since daytime shows provide less-challenging lighting than dingy, indoor venues, the learning curve…

For a long time Curves has been one of the best tonal tools in Photoshop CC and Lightroom. Whether you want to boost contrast, tweak the brightness, experiment with creative colour shifts or make any number of other adjustments, Curves is the tool for the job. As one of the Photoshop old guard that has been around for decades, many of us simply couldn’t do without it. However, it isn’t the easiest of tools to master and there are plenty of other simpler options. But avoiding Curves would be a mistake as it quickly becomes the most versatile of tonal tools. You’ll find Curves in lots of different image-editing apps. As well as Photoshop and Lightroom, Curves features in Adobe Premiere, InDesign and more. What’s more, for Adobe Camera Raw…

Become a Canon Club member to keep pursuing your passion. Don’t miss out on a chance to receive added support, training and inspiration. With Canon Club, you’ll find a passionate community space that provides you with everything you need to improve. Exclusive benefits include Priority Video Chats – you can book a personalized video consultation with a Canon expert and take your creativity to the next level. As a Canon Club member, you can get up to 90 minutes of expert EOS advice with a live video consultation to help answer your queries. It can be dedicated to a specific genre, or for discussing any new camera techniques you’re keen to get to grips with. So why not join Canon Club today at: www.canon.co.uk/canon-club Check out the website for more…

01 CRAVINGS – LAURA My client brought some fun and life into the photoshoot by adding in her food craving. Who knew eating fries could look so good? Lens Canon EF 35mm f/2 USM Exposure 1/160 sec, f/11, ISO100 I capture the elegance of creating life through the female body. Pregnancy can be different for every woman, some experiencing the amazing highs and an everyday glow, while for others it can feel like an illness with severe sickness among many other issues. Something that a maternity photoshoot can offer families is a moment of the simple beauty that pregnancy offers. By using good lighting, creative editing, comfortable posing and glamorous outfits, I’m able to highlight the baby bump to represent the beauty that comes with it. I often pose my models in…

Processing RAW burst images RAW burst mode captures photos at 30fps, storing them in a single RAW file Many of the EOS R System mirrorless cameras and the EOS 90D feature RAW burst mode. It is used for capturing fast paced action at high frame rates. RAW burst mode can capture pictures before the shutter is pressed and saves all the sequence in a single RAW image file. Post processing requires RAW images to be taken from the RAW burst. RAW burst mode is available when using one of the creative shooting modes; P, Tv, Av, Fv or M. It is simple to activate from the camera menu, with an option for pre-shooting which captures shots in the half-second before your actually press the shutter. The maximum number of frames in…

Meet Canon’s second ‘hybrid’ lens for its RF system, the new RF 35mm F1.4L VCM. Canon’s first hybrid lens was the RF 24-105mm F2.8L IS USM Z lens, launched back in December 2023 and is now accompanied by this new RF 35mm prime. As a hybrid optic, it’s aimed at both Canon photographers and videographers that like to mix and match between stills and video, and boasts a wide maximum aperture of f/1.4 to aid low light shooting and bolster shallow depth of field effects too. A spokesperson for Canon said, “It’s our sharpest 35mm lens to date” and that “the 35mm was one of the focal lengths most highly in demand.” “Not only is it over 200g lighter than the EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM for DSLRs, it’s also…

Naturally, a key feature of any EOS interchangeable lens camera is that you can mount the ideal tool for the job at hand to your camera body. Sometimes, however, the best lens is one that enables you to react quickly to different shooting scenarios, switching between expansive wide-angle perspectives to good telephoto reach at the twist of a zoom ring. Lenses with a generous zoom range really come into their own when you’re on your travels. Whether you’re pounding city streets, trekking into the wilds, or venturing to foreign climes, the last thing you want is to be weighed down by a hefty bag full of different lenses. If you’re using a full-frame camera, a zoom range of 24-105mm gives excellent versatility. A 24mm focal length will do you proud…

The RF-S 18-150mm superzoom for mirrorless R-system cameras has an identical zoom range and aperture rating as its EF-M forebear. It’s 8mm wider due to the relatively oversized RF mount, but 2mm shorter and only 10g heavier, measuring 69x85mm and 310g. It’s a very compact and lightweight lens that’s ideal for the journey, wherever that takes you. Unlike with EF-S lenses on full-frame DSLRs, you can use this lens on a full-frame R-system mirrorless camera in APS-C crop mode, where it has the same ‘effective’ zoom range of 28.8-240mm as mounting it on an APS-C camera like the EOS R50 and R100. The optical image stabilizer is slightly more effective than in the EF-M lens, rated at 4.5 stops and rising to a combined 7 stops when mounted on a…

Available as part of a kit with various EOS R system camera bodies, this lens takes advantage of the RF mount’s wide flange and close proximity to the image sensor, compared with EF lenses for DSLRs. It’s a little shorter and lighter than the EF 24-105mm f/4L, at 84x107mm and 700g, making it an ideal match for slim-line mirrorless bodies. It has great build quality with extensive weather-seals and a hood. Optical highlights include aspherical and UD elements, a nine-blade diaphragm and fluorine coatings. There’s a 5-stop image stabilizer that outperforms anything in Canon’s range of travel zooms for DSLRs, and is further boosted by cameras that feature in-body stabilization. Like the EF-S 18-135mm on test, this lens has Nano USM autofocus, which is rapid for stills and enables super-smooth…

One of Sigma’s first ‘Art’ line lenses, this one is built for quality and goes toe-to-toe with Canon’s 24-105mm L-series lenses in both zoom range and constant f/4 aperture rating. Similarly, it features optical stabilization and high-end build quality, as well as up-market glass, in this case including FLD (Fluorite-grade Low Dispersion), SLD (Special Low Dispersion) and aspherical elements. The Sigma is a little heavier than its Canon counterparts, and has a larger physical diameter, complete with a bigger filter thread of 82mm compared with the Canon’s 77mm. In our tests, vignetting was a little less evident when shooting wide-open. Like other Sigma ‘Global Vision’ lenses, this one is compatible with Sigma’s optional USB Dock, for applying firmware updates and adjusting parameters like autofocus fine-tuning. A 3-position focus mode switch…

FREE VIDEO GUIDES! In the next Canon Skills chapter… ◼ Canon’s EOS R7 and RF 100-500mm killer combo for wildlife ◼ Miniature warhammer scenes ◼ Aerial acrobatic photos ◼ New Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity Photo tutorials PLUS ALL THIS… ◼ Canon Tips: 25 Canon EOS camera features you should be using more! ◼ Canon Profile: Alisa Roberts, the great newborn, family, maternity and wedding photographer ◼ Super Test: We test the best budget lenses from Canon, Sigma and more ISSUE 220 ON SALE 18 JULY 2024 * Content subject to change…

CANON PRO NAME: JAKOB EBREY CAMERA: CANON EOS R3 & R5 JAKOB, 46, is one of the UK’s best motorsports photographers. He established JEP in 1999, now the leading national motorsports photography agency in the UK. The multi award-winning JEP team specializes in coverage of events for championships, manufacturers, teams, drivers, sponsors and suppliers. Since at 2003, he’s been based at Silverstone racetrack. He was the top man to teach our PhotoPlus Apprentice how to capture a broad range of motorsports photos on a practice day at Donington Park race circuit. Learn more about Jakob and his team at www.jakobebrey.com APPRENTICE NAME: MARK SEARLE CAMERA: CANON EOS 5D Mk IV MARK, 63, is a retired lecturer who worked in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. He travelled extensively overseas and to…

Travel photography is a wonderfully varied genre, encompassing everything from landscapes and cityscapes of the beautiful places you visit to street portraits of the characters you meet along the way. If you’re going further afield, your trip may include photographing the native wildlife in that region. Regardless of whether you’re planning on taking an epic road trip over several months in some far-flung corner of the globe or simply taking a long-weekend break in your home country, you will want to take your Canon camera with you to capture the adventure and the fantastic memories and moments along the way. Travel photography covers a plethora of disciplines so some preparation can help you become a more well-rounded and smarter photographer. A while back, I was lucky to go on an…

It’s our nation’s favourite sport, and netting great football shots can feel like a win too! Successful images capture a moment in time and help tell the story of the match; scoring a goal, battling in a tackle, the jubilance of victory or the pain of defeat. While pitchside access at bigger games will be limited, there are plenty of lower league options available to photographers looking to practise their craft, so head to a local game and get permission to take some action shots. There are, however, a few techniques you can incorporate into your photo game to improve your chances of taking winning photos. Some of these elements are kit-based, but most are focused around EOS skills. By selecting the right focus and drive modes, you are giving…

Layers are one of the most powerful features in Serif’s Affinity Photo, yet for many they can be rather a tricky feature to master. In this project we’ll explore a host of essential layer skills, from tonal adjustments to compositing, masking, retouching and more. We’ve crafted a simple composite image here, replacing the rather dull sky in the original image of Lindisfarne with a more dramatic sky from another shot. Like pieces of clear acetate stacked on top of one another, layers allow you to build up an image from several different elements. These could be pixel elements – like the separate sky and land blended here – but they can also be other things like tonal adjustments, which affect all the layers below. So they’re not just essential for…

Sports photojournalist Eddie Keogh’s career spans over 35 years of sports photography and he’s covered thousands of major events from the Olympics to World Cups. He’s the England football team’s official photographer via Getty Images and shoots international rugby for England’s sponsor O2. As well as photographing sports at the highest level, Eddie loves capturing the theatrics of grassroots football, which he shares on his @sundayleaguephotos Instagram account. His images end up in daily newspapers, and increasingly, the social media feeds of famous sportspeople. He’s received numerous commendations, including best Portfolio at the Sports Journalists Awards and the Premier League Football Photographer of the Year Award. Eddie has shot with Canon gear for over a decade and is part of the Canon Ambassadors Programme. He believes that practice, practice, and…

Access our amazing discount offers on our digital editions. Scan the QR code to get the app today! It’s easy to get PhotoPlus for your iPad and iPhone Wherever you are in the world, you can get new issues when they go on sale in the UK! 1. GET THE APP Scan the QR code (left) or go to the App store on your Apple device and search for ‘photoplus’ and then install the app. Now you can open the app on your iPad and/or iPhone. Any issues you buy will be stored in My Library. 2. USE THE APP In the app you can then buy any single issues, preview the current issue, scroll to find and buy any previous issues, as well as buy a selection of our…

“Is it possible to display an RGB histogram in the viewfinder of the EOS R6 Mark II?” Shane Edwards, Ellesmere Port BRIAN SAYS… It is possible to display a histogram in the electronic viewfinder and you can choose brightness or RGB histograms. The EVF and LCD screen have different options for what can be displayed and cycled through by pressing the INFO button. Navigate to Shooting info.disp in the camera menu, then select VF info/toggle settings. There are three possible displays with the second and third further customizable as to the additional info displayed. You can select any or all from detailed shooting info, histogram and electronic level. While looking through the EVF, press the INFO button to cycle through the available displays. If the histogram is not visible, check…

Canon has announced the successor to its 430EX III RT Speedlite with the EL-10. Sitting between the entry-level EL-100 and mid-range EL-5, the new Speedlite boasts Canon’s latest 21-pin Multi-Function foot which allows for a trio of custom modes to be linked to a Canon body. The EL-10 has dimensions of 70.6x116.3x98.3mm and weighs just 287g (without batteries). Power can be set to full 1/1 and down to 1/1024 and it boasts a Guide Number of 40 which is 50% more powerful than the entry-level EL-100, though this is no surprise as it’s powered by four AA batteries, while the EL-100 takes just two. It’s also almost four times faster at recharging with a time of just 1.5 secs at full power. The EL-10 shares the same head bounce rotation…

Four years on from the launch of the 18-135mm IS STM, Canon announced this ‘USM’ edition in 2016. However, the autofocus system isn’t based on either of the usual ring-type or motor-based ultrasonic mechanisms. It’s rather different. Indeed, whereas the previous edition was the first Canon lens to feature stepping-motor AF, this is the first to have ‘Nano USM’, subsequently utilized in a number of other Canon EF and RF lenses. Aiming for the best of both worlds, Nano USM enables super-fast autofocus for stills, along with incredibly smooth and virtually silent autofocus tracking during movie capture. It’s based on an ‘elastic metal’ body with a ceramic voltage element and drive unit. The direction and speed of autofocus can be controlled in a very linear fashion, without noticeable start and…

Launched back in 2005, the original version of this lens was available as part of a kit with the first three editions of the EOS 5D, as well as the 6D. However, it wasn’t sharp enough to make it onto the approved list of lenses for use with the high-resolution 5DS and 5DS R, and this revamped Mark II edition of the lens was launched in 2016. Top of the agenda for the Mark II was a redesigned optical path, which also gains high-tech ‘Air Sphere Coating’ for keeping ghosting and flare to a minimum. Keep-clean fluorine coatings are added to the front and rear elements, and the build-quality has been enhanced for greater resistance to vibration and shock. The image stabilizer is also improved, rising from 2.5-stop to 4-stop…

Much smaller and more lightweight than the up-market RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM zoom, this one is particularly travel-friendly. Naturally, it has a slower, variable aperture rating compared with its constant-aperture sibling, shrinking to f/7.1 at the long end of the zoom range, but that’s certainly not a deal-breaker. Canon’s EOS R-system cameras have fast and consistently accurate autofocus in dark conditions, and deliver impressive image quality at high ISO settings. And you can still get a reasonably tight depth of field at fairly close range For extreme close-ups, the lens features an impressive 0.5x magnification ‘Centre Focus Macro’. Other neat features include a 5-stop image stabilizer, and the same ‘Focus/Control’ switch as fitted to a number of other budget-friendly RF lenses, along with the same range of customizable functions…

THE WINNER IS… CANON RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS USM This Canon travel lenses delivers 10x zoom serious stretch and winning RF tech The Canon RF 24-240mm has a huge 10x zoom range that makes it very versatile and an ideal travel lens. Sharpness is very good throughout the entire zoom range and, while the lens is an under-achiever in terms of colour fringing and distortions, these are fully taken care of by automatic in-camera corrections. It’s our top choice for full-frame EOS R-system cameras, although both of the RF 24-105mm lenses have a lot to offer in their own different ways. The Canon RF-S 18-150mm is the best buy APS-C format R-system bodies, whereas the Canon EF-M 18-150mm is the obvious choice for EOS M-system cameras. For APS-C format DSLRs,…

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Letter of the Month Towards the end of last year, reviews of the new Canon RF 200-800mm superzoom lens began to appear, all of them rating the lens very highly and an ideal companion for Canon’s mirrorless cameras. Having just acquired a Canon EOS R5, this seemed like a marriage made in heaven and all my Christmases had come at once. I put a deposit on the new lens back in December, deliveries were expected in February… but in early May it still hadn’t arrived. As if to rub salt into the wound, you focused on using the Canon RF 200-800mm to photograph owls in a photo project in the May issue! Thankfully my lens arrived at the end of May (delayed due to worldwide demand), and just in time…