CANON RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS STM

The RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS STM is an excellent everyday enthusiast lens for EOS mirrorless – but is speed an issue?

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The Canon RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS STM is a smaller, lighter and more affordable alternative to the Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM – the ‘kit’ lens that released with the Canon EOS R mirrorless back in 2018.

The L-series version performed better than its kit lens designation might suggest, and it remains a formidable all-purpose optic – so much so that it sits at the top of our best Canon RF lenses guide. But where does the new non-L version come in? And the biggest question – why the move to f/7.1, and what effect does this have on the way the lens functions? Let’s take a look…

Build and handling

The first thing you notice about the new 24-105mm is the form factor. Compared to the f/4L it feels sleek and slender, though no less sturdy. Unsurprisingly, the f/4-7.1 seems to have been designed to pair with the RP in mind – and it has to be said that they make an ideal pairing.

The zoom ring doesn’t have quite the feathery glide as the one on the f/4L, though it achieves just the right balance between tightness and smoothness. It lacks a LOCK button to stop the mechanism telescoping open, but creep isn’t an issue. Where the f/4L featured three rings to accommodate manual focus, zoom and control, the f/4-7.1 only has two. This means the control ring does double duty as a customizable input (aperture, shutter, ISO, white balance or exposure compensation) and manual focus, which is toggled by flicking the FOCUS / CONTROL switch on the side of the lens.