The Canon RF 24mm F1.4 L VCM ($1,649) combines a wide angle of view with a bright aperture, a versatile combination that can handle landscapes, architecture, environmental portraits, and night-sky photography, among other subjects. It's a pricey lens compared with the entry-level RF 24mm F1.8 IS STM ($599), but it delivers much faster focus, better weather protection, and minimal breathing, making it a stronger choice for video as well as outdoor photography. It doesn't quite achieve perfection, as some false color is visible in backgrounds and around specular highlights, and the optics show some flare in backlit scenes, but even so, the RF 24mm F1.4 L VCM stands alone as the best premium wide-angle prime for the Canon system. It earns our Editors' Choice award, though we also recommend the compact RF 28mm F2.8 STM ($349) for photographers sticking to a budget.

Design: Part of the Matched L VCM Prime Set

The RF 24mm F1.4 L VCM is part of the L VCM series, a subset of Canon RF lenses with matched barrel sizes, controls, and similar weight. This is good news for videographers who use gimbals, as it allows a camera operator to swap lenses without rebalancing the device. Having the controls in the same place across the set makes lens changes easier when using a follow focus system. The RF L VCM line also includes 14mm F1.4, 20mm F1.4, 35mm F1.4, 50mm F1.4, and 85mm F1.4 lenses.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Canon does a good job with this lens in terms of miniaturization; the RF 24mm F1.4 L VCM measures 3.9 by 3.0 inches (HD), weighs about 1.1 pounds, and uses 67mm front filters. It's not far off from the gold standard in svelte 24mm F1.4 primes for mirrorless that Sony achieved with its groundbreaking FE 24mm F1.4 GM (3.6 by 3.0 inches, 15.7 ounces, 67mm filters).

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Like other L-series lenses, the 24mm F1.4 is built to withstand the rigors of daily use. It uses high-quality polycarbonate for its outer barrel and includes internal seals to prevent dust and moisture from entering your camera. The front glass also includes an anti-smudge coating, fluorine, a material that repels grease and moisture. Fluorine is now an expected feature on premium lenses. It makes it easy to wipe away fingerprints with a microfiber cloth and causes water drops to bead off without leaving a mark.

Canon bundles the lens with a hood, front and rear caps, and a drawstring pouch.

Controls and Focus: No Lag, No Noise

The RF 24mm F1.4 L VCM has enough on-barrel controls to satisfy photographers and videographers alike. It has a dedicated aperture ring to set the f-stop, a flexible Control Ring, a manual focus ring, a configurable function button, and an Iris lock and AF/MF switches.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The Control Ring is a common feature on RF lenses and has been since Canon launched the system in 2018. It's positioned at the front of the lens and turns with confident click stops. The Control Ring is configurable; you can pop into your camera's menu to map it to any of about a dozen functions, including white balance, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and my favorite, EV compensation.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The aperture ring, which is closer to the lens mount, turns smoothly without click stops from f/1.4-16 and has an A position that returns f-stop adjustment to the camera body. It's a newer addition to the line, so it doesn't offer full functionality with every camera. If you have an EOS R1, R5 Mark II, R6 Mark III, or R50 V, the control works in photo mode. I don't love using it for photography in any instance, as the lack of click stops is a sticking point to me, but your mileage may vary.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

I see its utility for video, though; the silent control means that it won't introduce noise to the soundtrack, and it includes notches to work with a follow focus system for powered control. The aperture ring also works in video mode with any RF mount camera, back to the first-generation EOS R.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The lens uses its namesake voice coil motor (VCM) for autofocus. The motor is fast and powerful enough to drive focus between subjects in an instant, and is virtually silent, a plus for recording video with in-camera sound. The lens shows a slight change in angle between its nearest and furthest focus distances, an effect called focus breathing, but it's not significant enough to detract from video shots that shift focus from one subject to another for dramatic effect.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Manual focus is available if you prefer; the lens supports either linear or nonlinear response, set via the camera menu. Linear focus is a positive for video, as it works based on rotation angle, allowing the same focus change to be repeated across multiple takes. I like using nonlinear focus for photography. It changes the point of focus based on rotation speed, so I can turn the ring quickly for a quick rack from near to far subject, and use slow, deliberate movement for critical focus.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The RF 24mm F1.4 L VCM focuses to 9.4 inches, which is good enough for 1:5.9 life-size magnification. It's not as capable of capturing fine details as the RF 24mm F1.8 IS STM, which achieves 1:2 reproduction at its 5.5-inch close focus distance. You can still get some good detail shots with the RF 24mm F1.4. I took it to a neighborhood car show and was able to grab some nice, close-up shots of the shiny metal logos that adorn classic rides, for instance.

Image Quality: Great Results With Digital Corrections

I tested the RF 24mm F1.4 L VCM with the 45MP EOS R5 Mark II and Imatest software in the lab, and took it into the real world for photos to assess its character. The lens delivers excellent resolution numbers, scoring in the outstanding range around the point of focus from f/1.4 to f/5.6 (4,900 lines) and notching excellent results on a center-weighted test, too (4,300-4,500 lines). For landscape scenes where you want the best clarity right up to the edge of the frame, f/2.8-5.6 is the sweet spot for this lens, while you can get great detail for shallow-depth-of-field images at the point of focus at a wide-open aperture for off-center compositions.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The lens loses some resolution at smaller apertures, a consequence of optical diffraction, a physical effect that causes light to scatter as it passes through a narrow diaphragm. Diffraction hits this lens a little early, at f/8 (3,650 lines, which is in our very good range). This is typical of lenses that deliver impeccable resolution at a wide open aperture. Still, I wouldn't hesitate to use f/8 if a scene called for it. There's a steeper drop in score at f/11 (2,700 lines) and f/16 (2,100 lines), but you may still want to stop down that far to add dramatic 22-point sunstars to landscapes to other scenes. These diffraction spikes, commonly called sunstars, appear as small, bright points of light in scenes and can add drama to an image.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The lens does a good job of handling flare overall, but it's not immune to showing ghosts of false color caused by light bouncing around inside. It's easy enough to avoid by making a small shift in angle when taking images into the sun, however. Contrast also holds up well when shooting toward the sun, so I'd count this lens as a great tool for landscapes with the sun in frame and backlit environmental portraiture.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

I've given Canon some flak for relying too heavily on digital corrections with some of its RF lenses, but only when they take something away from picture quality, as is the case with the RF 14-35mm F4 L IS USM zoom. The RF 24mm F1.4 L VCM uses a correction profile to remove severe barrel distortion and compensate for vignetting, but it's applied transparently and doesn't detract from image quality. If you're using your camera for JPGs or movies, you won't have to do a thing. For Raw capture, though, make sure your workflow software includes a profile. Adobe Lightroom and Lightroom Classic apply corrections to images for this lens on import, and it's easy to turn the profile off if you prefer—it's just a matter of clicking a checkbox.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Wide-angle lenses aren't always the best tools for the blurred background look, but the F1.4 aperture and close focus make it possible to get some bokeh with the 24mm F1.4 L VCM. It doesn't blur the backdrop into nothing like a lens with a longer focal length, though—the 35mm F1.4 L VCM or 50mm F1.4 L VCM are better tools for that look. I see some false color, referred to as longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA) for short, around bright specular highlights in the background blur, and some onion-skin texture in highlights as well. The combination can lead to a busier background, but I'd still count the performance as good for a wide-angle lens. The RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM also shows LoCA and onion-skin effects, and since Canon doesn't allow third parties to make full-frame autofocus lenses for the RF mount, system owners don't have any alternatives to consider.