Canon RF-S 18-45mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens review with samples 

Thanks Christopher for this honest review. This lens is an insult to all who are still loyal Canon customers! In regards to your upcoming RF-S 18-150 review, it would be great to see a comparison with the nice EF-S 18-135 IS USM, as many of us already posess this lens and it might outperform the RF-S 18-150 in some areas (e.g. it has wider max apertures at given focal lengths).

Can’t wait to see your review of the RF 24mm 1.8. Such mixed reviews on that one out there

Nice video as usual! This was an odd release by Canon. Considering Christopher's tests show how bad it is on the wide end, I guess if it were at 15mm then it would have been a lot worse. Maybe there was some type of quirk dealing with the flange distance differences between EF-M and RF, presuming it's basically the same design.

Hi Chris. Thank you for the review and for saving me some money. I got my R10 but decided to swap this kit lens for a EF-S adapter. I recently got RF-S 55-210 and am very impressed with it. Having see this review I am going to stick to using my trusty EF-S 18-55 with the adapter.

Chris pretty much summed it up at 7:40 ...I'm grateful I went body only with my R7.

I absolutely loved using my canon cameras, felt at home with the perfect grip, the perfect touch display, the great ergonomics overall … and got those great colours. But I had to leave Canon, because again and again they decide to punish and humiliate users of non pro equipment: omitting the lens hood, using plastic mounts, crippling functionality (remember cameras without spot metering?), card slot in the battery compartment in a fullframe camera (EOS RP) etc. Parting hurts but sometimes you have to respect yourself.

ah yes, we're giving up 3rd party for *this*. oh canon...

Some engineers at Canon: "Guys listen up. For our next kit lens for the RF-S, let's combine the wide end of the EF-S 18-55mm kit lens and the long end of the EF-M 15-45mm kit lens. While we're at it let's make the aperture horribly dark to make the lens body small. But not too small that our dumb customers would think it's a flimsy lens." Honestly, the Sony 16-50mm PZ is my least favourite kit lens of all time, not so much with the IQ, but the experience of PZ. But I'd go with that rather than this horrible nonsense.

Indeed as mentioned at 1:07, widest is 28.8 mm equivalent, as Canon APS-C has a 1.6 crop factor. And not 27 mm as shown on screen.

I have just been on a video watch bender of all your reviews for the RF range. I came here last as I knew it was the worst. Here is where this lens lands.... It was free with my R10.... I have not owned a camera for 13+ years and am basically starting again. It is good enough for me to practice around the house getting used to the camera settings while I wait to buy a 35 Prime.

Thanks Chris for doing a review of this. Got my R7 last month

You know, I had a joke typed out about Canon not making this cover a full APS-C frame at 18mm like they did with the 24-240 and it only covering APS-C at 24mm, but then I watched, and that's precisely what they did, just not as badly. I also think it's hilarious how Canon went right along with Nikon in saying that the larger mount meant smaller lenses that Sony couldn't do, and you'd think that would have applied to APS-C lenses too. Yet here they are with what should be one of the smallest lenses on the mount and it's substantially bigger than Sony's option.

This is yet another reason why I want to move on from Canon. I would be interested in seeing this compared to the EF-M 15-45mm version. I owned the M50 II and absolutely loved that lens. I purchased this lens with my R10 and immediately regretted it. The R10 is an amazing camera for what it is but with no support from the Canon's lens lineup and of course Canon's refusal to open the lens catalog up, I've already planned my Sony replacements.

Very good kit lens

Hi Chris, Eagerly waiting for a video of R7 coupled with Sigma 18-35 and Sigma 50-100 because I really feel those lenses can resolve the 32MP high resolution of this sensor. Thanks for all your honest reviews...

Thanks for reviewing the RF-S 18-45mm. I have the R7 and have been looking forward to you reviewing the RF-S 18-150 that came with my R7 kit. I enjoy the lens IQ and boy is the lens compact. I have better L grade lenses and the RF 24-240mm as an alternate to the 18-150 but with more bulk/weight and changing lenses in the field.

I don't understand why Canon even bothered with this lens. They already had an equally meh EF-M 15-45mm with a slightly wider f/3.5. Canon should have just glued an RF mount on that thing and called it a day

This lens tells us exactly what Canon think of their customer base unless they have the financial resources to buy over priced R FF glass. When it comes to APS-C Fuji is the boss.

Hi Chris. Thanks for another great review. Are you going to review the new RF 24mm 1.8 any time soon? I'd love to see a review of that (and I think it's one you'd really like, judging by how much you liked the 35mm 1.8!).

Dear Chris, thank you a lot for this review. For me, it would be nice, if you could make a comparison to the EF-S 18-55 F4-5.6 STM. And, saying that: It would be even more nice, if there would be a comparison between the RF-S 18-150 and the EF-S 18-135 USM on the same sensor in the 18-150 review. Then it is better to decide, if the adapted 18-135 is as good as possible for a superzoom, or if the 18-150 is better. And if you could say that, in the following review: Is the 18-150 as good on the R7, as the 24-240 USM is on the old "R" (nearly same resolution)? Thank you! 🙂

Why I´m not at Canon today? This happens with almost every RF lens compared to Sony´s and Z´s lenses. Plus not as high standard sensor as Sony and Z ones too. Not choosing the R system made me earn 3000 dollars in 3 years. Also Dinamic range, AFocussing against sunlight (not good with R6, R7, and R3), sharp lenses lose less detail at high Isos, and more... are real use influence to me as a professional Photographer. Thank Chris for your unbiased time once again.

F4.5 to start with?? 🤮 Hope R7 and R10 buyers know that it's nearly impossible to purchase affordable third party RF mount lenses. Either buy expensive RF lenses or adapt old EF lenses.

Look forward to what you are saying about the 18-150, using at the moment then efs 18-135 which I do like on my R7. Have a great week, cheers mate

That funny moment when you're editing photos from Tenby and meanwhile seeing photos from Tenby in the video :)

Honest review and try to the point. This lens isn't anywhere on my list to get...

Edges are not that bad for this class. Maybe with more gentle manually correction, they will look even better. And this distortion also does not look as bad as 24-105 or 24-240. It is interesting to look at the comparison with the best of the EF-S kits. Maybe with IS or 4-5.6 stm. In general, I would not demand honest resolution from 24+ mp aps-c cameras. Not with canon noise and dynamic range. I take it just as additional data for downsizing.

I would literally rather have an iPhone 7 as a main camera over this lens

I bet this is actually a rebranded EF-M 15-45mm, with the wide end intentionally locked from 18mm It shows similar deficiencies to the EF-M lens, including distortion, vignetting and poor close up at 45mm

Lens is an insult. I have the R7 (great camera) and am sticking with my old EF-S 15-85 lens with the adapter. Results have been really surprising.

Good. And check about z kit lens. Both ff and crop got much better result.

Yea this was a dumb move by canon I think. New photographers are going to buy their first canon camera with this lens, go out and use it, and think, ya know my iPhone takes better photos than this... and then never use a camera again. They should have made a good kit lens like Fuji that sucks new customers in and makes them loyal.... sell it at a loss even... they'll buy more camera stuff eventually. I think they went cheap thinking people will want to go out and upgrade their lens sooner... short sighted logic.

I have this lens and quite like it!

canon has already accustomed us with its bad decisions, this lens honors the 18-55mm paperweight

Nikon kit lenses are so much better than canon ones.

I've seen higher quality looking bottle tops. Probably optically superior ones too.

Looks like they designed this with the opposite formula from most zoom lenses, it's like they took a 45mm Prime and made it zoom wider, whereas most other lenses use the wide end for their best image quality and zoom longer.

A distinct lack of effort from Canon. The 15-45 kit lens that came with my EOS M6 is better than this both in performance and maximum aperture. It’s a shame that 3rd party lenses from Sigma and Viltrox won’t be available as they make some very good and affordable high aperture primes.

Wow, this lens is DoA and PiTA , too! 🙂 My 18-55/4-5.6 STM is better, but EF-S. The 15-45 Canon M Mount was already with all kind of optical flaws, according to Ming Thein, Review is online still, since his EOS M6 review. It's funny, this plastic drastique starts at F4.5, and goes to F6.3 (!), this is much worse than usual F3.5-4.5, or F3.5-5.6 Kitlenses of that kind. This lens looks like it's being 99 bucks literally, but not 300... especially with the horrible distortion, which is in-camera digitally corrected, but costs some resolution. A clearly underdesigned, underperforming Kitlens...just enough to sell the EOS R10, i'd feel sorry for buying into a closed RF-S System, whereas no 3rd party lenses being avialable...

As it is my R50 kit lens. IMO, This lens has a very strange usable focal length and darker aperture compared to the EF-S version. The only advantage of this lens is that it has a very fast focusing system and amazing optical image stabilization. Although I don't have any problems using this lens as a kit lens, I definitely won't buy it separately.

Is this Canon’s way of saying: “if you shoot APSC, go with Fuji” ?

This makes me think my M50 will be my first and only Canon. M line is essentially dead and there's no other Canon I want to upgrade to given the poor lens selection.

Ugh, I have been waffling on the R50, but like most who buy this camera I do not plan on buying a bunch of different lenses for it, so I was hoping the kit lens was not mediocre.

Am looking forward to 18-150 review

The z mount kit zooms are very impressive. Canon only cares about the high end with rf mount

To be fair this should have been done with the 24MP R10 body which is more realistic as it’s best suited to it!

Canon's APSC lenses are terrible. they never believed in the crop sensor but they have always been a lark to push you to buy the full frame.Fujifilm is the only company that truly believes in APSC

Lmao Nikon offers a 16-50mm really sharp kit lens. What is this? What casual/consumer photographer would love a canon kit over a Nikon?

I hope you can bring the new rf 15-30mm. It would be great. Cheers

The EF-M equivalent has better maximum aperture values.

another reason why i will never, *ever* use canon. they just make horrible decisions for build quality and value on their Non-L equipment. Look at their prime lenses. the 35mm macro and 85mm macro have AF systems that are about as loud as screwdrive autofocus technology was back in the SLR days.. those lenses are very plasticky too, and don't include lens hoods! and shame on canon for still using plastic mounts in 2022, even for kit lenses this is a low that nobody else is reaching anymore.

When will the review for the RF-S 18-150mm come out? I am waiting for the EOS R7 body to become available maybe next month since I have a good selection of RF glass including the F4L trinity and RF 100-400mm for my EOS R already but if your review of the RF-S 18-150mm is favorable I might bite the bullet and buy that bundle now so I don't have to wait. I can get the bundle in a matter of two days. :)

Seems like a downgrade when the EF-M kit lens is the 15-45mm f3.5-6.3...

They're doing EOS-M again or what? Holding their users hostage is just part of the aps-c experience.

01:08 29 or 27 Which is right? You saying 29 but 27 on subtitles

This lens is embarrassing in 2022.

I was led to believe that mirrorless lenses would be way better than their DSLR counterparts because of the larger mounts and shorter flange distance. You'd think even kit lenses like this would be pretty good given they should be easier to design. This lens is frankly an embarrassment for Canon. I get that it's an entry level model but this is bad in pretty much every way, Canon have gone backwards in my opinion. I was starting to believe that at this point there wasn't any really truly horrendous modern lenses anymore, this Canon lens suggests I was wrong.

This kit lens is probably intended for the future lower cost mirrorless cameras.

And this is how they disappoint anyone who wanted to jump from a phone to a 'real camera'. What a shame.

Kind of sad that this is the quality of it's kit lens. I actually miss the days when the starting aperture for a zoom lens that starts at F3.5 was considered budget or part of a kit. Looks like when I do make the jump to mirrorless AND if I decide to stick with Canon. I'll be buying a EF-to-RF converter instead of buying new lenses while holding on to my DSLR lenses. Canon's marketing decisions this year has been disappointing to say the least. I like using my Tamron and Sigma lenses - I replaced my original 18-55mm kit with a Sigma 17-70mm not too long after I bought my first DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel T6. My lens line up for my 6D MkII comprises of mostly Tamron lenses with my F4 24-105mm being the only L lens I own. I hope Canon will change their marketing strategy to include 3rd party lenses.

so they aren't able to keep the maximum f5'6 as standard in kit lenses? That's something worrying from new mirrorless lenses, they are becoming bigger or not fast enough.

Glad I switched to Sony!. Is this the nail in the coffin? Looks like the M mount kit lens

I don't like it because it honestly seems way too expensive. You can get the EF-S 18-55mm f/4-5.6 IS STM for $100 less, and it has a wider aperture and zooms farther!!!

Can’t believe it would be over £300 to buy. That’s like paying £3.50 for a packet of crisps.

guys i cannot rotate my lens to shooting position what can i do?

Still waiting for the old school sigma 17-50 2.8 + r7 combo 😘

Aren't those have the same design as the eos m kit lens?

I'm sure 3rf party lens makers can do better at the same price

Thanks but no idea why everyone picked the R7 for this. Who is buying a $1,500 32 megapixel camera and using a kit lens on it? Pretty much no one. Would have preferred to see this on the R10. I bet it performs much better. Kit lenses have come a long way over the years.

How long do u have that empty Pepsi bottle ? I always see it in your video 😀

Is this lens compatible with EOS R5?

Considering the sensor size the lens is slower than top end phones. People often asked when will phones beat interchangeable lens cameras I have always said never. Well Canon proved me wrong with this. S23 Ultra has f/1.7 and crop 3.54 i.e. equivalent aperture of f/6.0. This has f/7.3. EOS M50 still has slightly better than the phone f/5.7. Yes, you can get additional lenses but most users never buy them so this lens is why I cannot recommend Canon even though I personally have never and any other brand.

So strange to come out with such poor lens after making one of best kit lenses on EF-M mount. I own 2 copies of 15-45 for M and i have to admit that quality control is not at its best when it come to that lens. Some copies are much sharper then others so i wonder if this lens is affected by that as well? Seems almost too bad to be true. 😅

Not defending this lens, but it is not made for a 32MP sensor for sure…should not be as bad in the R10, hopefully Chris will run a quick test with that camera

I bought in on the EF-M mount not long after it came out. How did they manage to mess this up. The EF-M 15-45mm has been a lens I always keep in my bag. It is a kit lense but it is pretty sharp and useful. Also while being plastic it feels good. How did Canon manage to fall on this one? Also Christopher Frost's review of the 15-45mm: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vF-sYxVBeF8.html

The image quality is better than the original EF kit lens and a lot smaller. Too bad the build quality of this seems so cheap. Should have another bigger kit lens that has at least an extra stop of light and better build quality for an extra $100

1 🙂 Thanks Chris for this as always excellent review... Definitely not buying this lens. I'd rather buy a used ef 24 105 f4l is usm mki for a couple hundred bucks and get better results, even though I lose 6*1.6=10mm at the wide end.

Canon needs a Sigma RF 17-55 2.8 soon..

Dziękujemy.

this lens support on eos rp?

not impressive. i cant be sure but my M lenses dont seem to be worse than this.

I think the awful specs are due to canon trying to make their Rf-s lenses skinnier at the base, pushing people to buy the larger RF lenses for the style points. It's the whole "red ring" thing but even more pronounced, cut oit the 3rd party market, make the budget options awful AND ugly as sin and then hope to rake in the cash after low-end adoptors are led to buying big money glass...

is this lens worth 80$ used?

Waiting for rf fullframe small kit zoom lens like this one.

No surprises here. Worst Canon rf lens to date. What's even more ridiculous is that nikon's 16-50 is both smaller and better in image quality, yet first time camera buyers will probably queue up to buy the R10 instead of a Nikon Z30 or Z50. Imagine Canon launching the R100 later this year, only for that very camera to be borderline unusable for vlogging because of this lens + 1.6x crop factor. Unless you don't mind having your face filling in the entire frame of your video. And then you'll have to buy, maybe, a second 11-22mm lens (which I'm guessing will launch together with the R100 by then) making the cost higher because you're forced to buy a second lens, just to vlog. I just don't know what Canon was thinking, they could have just tweaked and converted the EFM 15-45 into rf mount. Maybe this was intentional to begin with - Canon wants to sell you a second lens.

Fuji got the 15-45 and sony 16-50. So canon wnats to compete with 18-45 and a lower aperture lolz

Invest in Sony it’s the Future :)

Sounds like it should've been a £150 lens at best! Really poor from Canon.

Aperture and range🤒 my efs 18-55 is a luxury lens 😎 Bad decisions I think.

This lens is the answer to the question, why more and more people would buy a smartphone instead of a real camera.

Imagine if Canon cared about its users instead of worrying about making money. Then this lens would not even exist. This is frustrating, uncomfortable, and makes you feel helpless. The only reason I haven't switched to Sony yet is because I prefer to use my Sigma 18-35, but that's not enough to stick with it.

18mm with 1.6x crop factor is stupid

The combination of Canon not encouraging openness with their RF mount and things like this high price and low quality for what should be an appealing entry point like this is causing me to not want to move to Canon any time soon.

I think Canon wants people to either go the M route or else buy RF lenses even on APS-C bodies. It's to limit self cannibalisation.

This lens performs worse than some of the cheapest Chinese lenses I own. It feels like a middle finger to people on a budget. And this is coming from one of the top glass manufacturers... Nothing much more to say TBH...

Thank you for your review - I should have seen it earlier. This canon lens is by far the worst I have ever used.

I'm at the beginning of the video and my hopes it will certainly not come "highly recommended".

Canon? Arrogant? Perish the thought! 😂😂😂

Thx for the review Chris. What a cheap looking, insulting piece of plastic crap! Performance per £ is terrible. It's like something that fell out of a Christmas cracker! I don't even own a mirrorless Apsc and I wouldn't want to if that's the standard of rubbish that fits to it!

¡Hola Christopher me encantaría que probarás el lente Meike 50mm f0.95!

First throw the cheaper competition off the market and then market pure junk at an overpriced price. Canon should be deeply ashamed.