With Canon joining the mirrorless segment a lot later than the community might have liked, they knew they had to make quite a strong entrance.

And make a bold entrance they did, introducing a whole crop of quality glass, including a certain ultra-high-speed zoom. Canon, eager to show off their new tech, released the Canon RF 28-70mm f2.0 L to the public: the world’s first full-frame standard zoom lens that has a faster aperture than the conventional f2.8.

We first touched on the RF 28-70mm f2.0 L on our round up of the best RF lenses, where we talked about how it takes the idea of a “workhorse lens” to the extremes, and how it can replace three or more primes in your bag. So if you’re contemplating a jump into the red team and currently looking real hard at the RF 28-70mm f2.0 L, you’re in the right place. Today, we’re rounding up the pros’ thoughts on the anomaly that is the 28-70mm f2, and see if it can offer anything other than its insanely fast constant aperture.

Build Quality and Handling

The 24-70mm lens is a very popular lens. It’s such a popular piece of kit that you’ll be guaranteed to find an iteration, or an equivalent lens, across all formats and brands. We even call the 24-70mm focal range to be the “standard” zoom range. But while the Canon RF 28-70mm f2 L falls within the 24-70mm range, there’s nothing standard about this hulking piece of glass.

The Canon RF 28-70mm f2L stands at 103.8mm in diameter, and 139.8mm in length. For a little context, the outstanding Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II, a standard zoom for Canon DSLRs, is almost 20% smaller on all sides than the RF 28-70mm f2L. With 19 large elements in 13 groups, it’s also going to be a heavy lens. At 1430 grams (3.15 pounds), the RF 28-70mm f2L is almost as heavy as the EF 70-200 f2.8.

Then there’s the familiar zoom ring at the bottom end of the barrel. Right in the middle is the focus ring, which by the way has no distance scale. What’s new, however, is the addition of a “control ring” which can be programmed to let you control the aperture, ISO, shutter speed and more. This control ring doesn’t come “de-clicked” by default. If having a de-clicked control ring is important to you, especially for videographers who want smoother aperture transitions, then you can send your copy out to Canon and have it “de-clicked” for a fee.

Another thing worth noting is that RF 28-70mm f2L fits 95mm filters. So if you work with a lot of filters for the type of work you do, get ready to spend a little more on filter upgrades and step-down rings.

Absence of focus distance scale and clicky control ring aside, the biggest deal-breaker for a lot of folks considering getting the RF 28-70mm f2L is the weight and size. Because if you’re planning to get one of these, you should probably invest in a gym membership as well, because handholding this thing for an entire shooting day wouldn’t be a lot of fun.

Many Ortiz, who looks to be spending a considerable amount of time at the gym himself, found the size and weight of the RF 28-70mm f2L to be a real issue:

“This is where it gets kinda tricky… Can you imagine shooting a wedding with a three-pound lens in front of your camera? You got an EOS R, then you got a speedlight up top so this is adding weight to the camera body. This is already front heavy… this set up is heavy.”

Image Quality

Now that much weight better not be for nothing. So let’s get right into image quality. DXOMARK has always been one of the most reliable third party resource for lens tests, and we’ll take a look at what they found in the lab. Just a side note; check out our round up of the sharpest lenses for Canon, Sony, and Nikon according to DXOMARK’S data if you’re interested.

They’ve tested the RF 28-70mm f2.0 L mounted on the EOS R, against the highly acclaimed, EF 24-70mm f2.8 II, mounted on the 5D Mark IV (which has a comparable 30MP sensor as the EOS R). You can check the charts yourself, but in a nutshell, DXOMARK concludes that the world’s first full frame 28-70mm f2 zoom is a better and more consistent performer than the EF 24-70mm f2.8 across the range. The RF is even sharper at the edges at 35mm and 50mm. DXOMARK likens the sharpness and consistency of the 28-70mm f2.0 L to something that you’ll see in “highly corrected primes.”

The new RF mount’s shorter flange distance also comes into play here, with the RF 28-70mm f2 L exhibiting low chromatic aberration and well-controlled vignetting for a zoom this fast.

Its performance at f2 is another shocker. When both shot at f2, the RF 28-70mm f2 L comes eerily close at the RF 50mm f1.2’s sharpness in the center, and pretty much catches up by f2.8. Have a look at The Digital Picture’s tight crops of both premium lenses head-to-head and see how this ultra-fast zoom lens stacks up against a prime lens.

Stepping outside lab tests and charts for a minute and into the real world, we see the likes of Steve Huff raving about the RF 28-70mm f2.0 L. In his written review, he equates owning the RF 28-70mm f2.0 L to owning “the best 28, 35, 50, and 70mm primes lenses you can buy.”

Not just any prime lens, mind you. Steve thinks the RF 28-70mm f2.0 L renders similar, if not better, images than the $4,000, manual focus Zeiss Otus 55mm f1.4, or the $8,000 similarly manual focus only Leica 50mm APO f2. He continues:

“This lens is for those who want the best of the best when it comes to squeezing every ounce of IQ from their EOS-R camera. It may be too large for some, and it is not recommended as a daily shooter unless you do not mind using a canon sized lens day to day. Some will prefer a smaller lens with decent IQ over a huge lens with astonishing IQ, and vice versa. I can see many pros clamoring to this lens, when and if Canon releases a PRO R body.”

AF & Video Performance

Veterans in the field may still be getting flashbacks of the horrendous autofocus performance on larger, faster lenses, just like the EF 50mm and 85mm f1.2s primes of old. If you’re an old-timer, you can rest easy knowing that the RF 28-70mm f2L is born of today’s tech and is as zippy as any new modern lens.

It’s an engineering marvel how this lens just grabs focus whenever you give the command, especially with the ginormous elements the USM motors are driving around. At f2 when there’s razor thin depth of field, accuracy will be as, if not a lot more crucial, than just sheer speed. Fortunately, the RF 28-70mm f2L will still latch on to subjects without any issues even in low light conditions, provided it gets just enough contrast.

Focusing noise while on stills mode, is pretty quiet, but not completely silent. It’s in video mode, especially when tracking subjects, where it slightly whirs as it micro-adjusts while on continuous AF.

Here’s Christopher Frost super handy AF demonstration of the RF 28-70mm f2L for your reference:

Wedding photographer Katelyn James, who by the way is contemplating whether to get rid of her primes and replace everything with the RF 28-70mm, can vouch for the lens’ performance in terms of AF speed:

“There’s one part of the night where everyone was dancing, it was like the party dancing, I had my off-camera flashes set up, and I was shooting, and the speed of this… the focus and the speed of this lens during party dancing, I think I remember walking up to Michael and being like ‘This thing’s amazing,’ and it is.”

For videographers, and there are a lot of you out there, who are considering getting this lens for video work, there’s a couple of things you should know. First, focus breathing on the long end is pretty significant. Christopher Frost’s testing reveals that it behaves more like a 60mm, when you get to 70mm and then rack the focus closer. Second, if you can get over the focus breathing, then RF 28-70mm f2 is probably the best, most versatile native lens you can get for your EOS R-series camera.

Sam Holland thinks the RF 28-70mm is the best all-rounder lens for videography work, especially if you don’t want to mess about on location with different primes:

“This is perfect for wedding videographers or photographers. Because you got that nice range, you get some nice wide shots and tighter shots as well. You don’t always know where you’re going to be stood, sometimes you’re not allowed to get so close to the couple when you’re in the church, so it’s nice to be able to stand further back without having to swap lenses. You can literally just turn up with this one lens and cover the whole wedding.”

Is the Canon RF 28-70mm f2 for You?

Now whether the Canon RF 28-70mm f2 L is the perfect addition to your camera bag or not depends on a lot of factors. First, do you see yourself possibly working with a 3-pound 24-70mm lens for an 8 to 10-hour shooting day? Because it doesn’t matter that this lens is practically 3-4 primes crammed together in a beastly barrel, if it’s going to be too heavy for you, you won’t be taking it out of the bag. And that’s just you wasting $3,000 of your cash right there.

Second, are you willing to let go of prime lenses that overlap with a potential zoom replacement? If you mainly shoot primes and don’t really see yourself downsizing your gear, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to own the RF 28-70mm f2 as a back up from a practical and financial standpoint. If you have the cash to burn, by all means, get it just in case something happens to your precious primes. But for mere mortals working on a budget, you’re going to have to decide to let go of some of your beloved lenses to make way for this behemoth of a lens.

If you can’t get past two of the most critical questions to ask yourself before pulling the trigger on the RF 28-70mm f2L, then perhaps the more conventional RF 24-70mm f2.8 is a more suitable option. Otherwise, you’re in for one of the photography industry’s latest wonders. There’s literally nothing out there like the RF 28-70mm f2L. It injects a certain quality — a distinct character — to the images that you won’t find all that much on a lot of zooms.

This lack of “character” on older standard zooms is exactly why Pye Jirsa had a love-hate relationship with his 24-70mm lenses: because while it did get the job done, nothing about the rendering and the look of the images stood out to him. The Canon RF 28-70mm f2 L, however, changed his view on standard zooms:

“The advantages and benefits that this lens provides, especially when compared to its 24-70 predecessor, far outweigh the limitations and drawbacks of this lens. If I could only buy and use just one lens, it would be the Canon RF 28-70, without a doubt in my mind.”