Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM Review

There’s a lot to like about the Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L. It’s sharp, well-built, and handles like a professional lens should. Chromatic aberration, distortion, and flare are kept to impressively low levels, even best-in-class. Although the price and weight are on the high side, neither is out of line compared to the competition. Canon has delivered a lens that is impressive almost anywhere you look.

The one big downside with this lens is vignetting. The Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L has extremely high vignetting, with well over 3 stops of corner darkening when shooting at 15mm and f/2.8. Although stopping down or zooming in improves this performance, it’s little consolation. Few photographers would buy a 15-35mm f/2.8 lens for $2400 only to shoot it at 35mm and f/8.

Here’s how I’d sum up the pros and cons.

Pros:

• Best-in-class distortion, chromatic aberration, and flare performance
• Strong sharpness throughout the zoom and aperture range
• Very fast autofocus with good low-light focusing capabilities
• Excellent build quality with good weather sealing
• Advanced handling features befitting a professional lens

Cons:

• Horrible vignetting, especially at 15mm and f/2.8 – among the worst we’ve seen
• The extending barrel when zooming is not especially well-built
• Heavier than most comparable mirrorless lenses

The price of the 15-35mm f/2.8 L is neither a pro nor a con – it’s high, but so is the price of the competition. We’re left with a lens that is really strong almost everywhere you look, but difficult to categorize because of the vignetting.

If you can work around that one issue, this lens is a worthy addition to any camera bag. Some photographers won’t mind the vignetting after some modest corrections. It depends on your personal style and the type of photography you do. Personally, as a landscape photographer, I used narrow apertures most of the time and only saw a lot of vignetting when shooting the Milky Way. For the rest of my time with this lens, I enjoyed its silky-smooth build quality, handling, sharpness, and flare resistance.

I hope that you found this review of the Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L to be helpful in making your decision! If you want to purchase the lens, you can thank us at Photography Life for the work that went into this review by using the links below:

• Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L at B&H – Current Price and Sales
• Used/Worldwide: Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L at eBay

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The next page of this review has some more sample photos from the Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L, followed by reader comments on the final page. So, click the menu below to jump to the section you want: