topic Re: Canon RP lenses in Gear Guide

EOS RP lens recommendations for macro and landscape photography

Sunnybrooke — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 14:26:28 GMT

I'm new to Canon cameras. Not familiar with Canon lenses. I bought a Canon RP. What are some good lenses that are not in the L line of lenses. I like to do macro and landscape photography. Is there a site I can look at that will evaluate Canon lenses that are compatible with the RP. Thxs in advance.

Re: Canon RP lenses

deebatman316 — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 01:14:35 GMT

The EOS RP natively mounts Canon RF Mount lenses. There are currently no Full Frame 3rd Party lens options for it only APS-C. Older EF Mount DSLR lenses can be adapted with the EF-RF Mount adapter from Canon. But since you're starting out new with Canon. I would suggest looking into native lens options. A lot of EF lenses are out of service life now. The remaining lenses that are still under support don't have much more time on it. A good standard zoom lens that is not an L lens is the RF 24-105mm F/4-7.1 IS STM lens. A good Multiple purpose lens would be the RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS STM lens. Though neither of the lenses I mentioned are macro lenses. A true Macro lens would have 1:1 magnification. Do you have a budget in mind to spend on a lens. Generally longer lenses are favored for Macro work.

Re: Canon RP lenses

Sunnybrooke — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 01:33:28 GMT

I actually have the Canon 24-105 mm f4 L lens which is a great lens. At this point it's the only lens for the RP I own. Is there a 100mm macro lens that is good but not in the L line? I'm also looking for a wide angle lens which is not in the L line. I do understand how the macro lens works as I have been a Pentax camera user for years. Pentax does not make a mirrorless camera that's worth purchasing. Thxs for your expertise.

Re: Canon RP lenses

deebatman316 — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 01:58:40 GMT

Canon doesn't offer a non-L 100mm Macro lens for the RF Mount unfortunately. They did make older EF Mount DSLR 100mm Macro lenses. Though those would have to be adapted but many features of your camera will not be useable. Are L lenses out of budget for you? Canon makes an RF 85mm F/2 Macro IS STM lens though it doesn't focus down to 1:1. It focuses down to 1:2 but it uses a slower AF motor and is NOT know for fast AF its quite slow to focus. For a wide angle lens Canon does offer the RF 15-30mm F/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens or the more expensive constant aperture zoom lens the RF 16-28mm F/2.8 IS STM lens. STM (Stepper Motor) lenses are NOT the fastest at focusing but will work. Nano USM, Ring Type USM (Ultrasonic) & VCM (Voice Coil Motor) lenses are know for fast AF. In Pentax world PLM is the equivalent to STM and SDM is the equivalent to USM. Canon does NOT have an equivalent for screw drive AF in the EF Mount. Instead the decided to put the AF motor in every lens instead of in the camera body like Pentax. Most Pentax lenses still rely on an in body camera motor for AF. Or some lenses have a hybrid system that supports an in lens AF motor or in body AF motor for compatibility with older cameras. Old cameras fall back to screw drive to focus the lens. Then new cameras will instead only use the in lens AF motor for AF.

Re: Canon RP lenses

March411 — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 02:54:00 GMT

Hi Sunnybrooke, welcome to the forums.

I can't add a lot more then deebatman316 has already posted, there is a ton of great information, I would simply duplicate his recommendations.

I can offer some thoughts on macro since I dabble a bit with macro photography. I own the RF100mm F2.8 L Macro IS USM ($1250 US) and also have the LAOWA 180mm f/4.5 1.5X Ultra Macro APO ($500 US). The Laowa is an EF mount so an adapter is required, I only us Canon adapters as I tested many third party adapters and most had issues. You can pick up a Canon adapter for $150 and it's worth the investment. Both can be found at BH Photo.

So the Laowa is a bit larger than the RF 100mm but honestly the Laowa has been mounted much more the RF100mm.

It has auto functionality but for macro I haven't used it, I always go manual.

I can tell you that at the combined price of $650 (lens and adapter) it was an outstanding purchase.

Here are a couple frames with the Laowa.

Re: Canon RP lenses

SignifDigits — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:17:23 GMT

I'll just add a couple things to my colleagues' excellent posts. First, the control ring EF adapter is on sale currently for the same $150 price as the regular adapter https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/control-ring-mount-adapter-ef-eos-r?color=Black&type=New

Second, I just purchased a "like new" (was in the box and unregistered) used Canon EF 100mm f/28 L Macro IS USM for about half of the price of the RF version. The EF version gives up the softness control and the EF lenses that I have appear to not support the "Lens Electronic MF - One-Shot -->Enabled (Magnify)" feature on the R series of cameras (at least not the R6 Mark ii that I have, thus I suspect not others).

There is the non-IS version of this lens used as well. That lens is no longer supported by Canon, however, so proceed at your own risk.

As I plan to use the lens for both macro and astrophotography it was notable that the EF lens was actually judged better than the RF version for that purpose in at least one side-by-side test online. Thus the savings was a no-brainer for me as I don't care about the softness feature.

Just got this lens and haven't used it other than functional testing. I notice that the lens also has beautiful bokeh at f2.8 - great for portraits as Marc had mentioned elsewhere.

I got mine from MPB and have been very happy with them lately, but you could also shop at various authorized Canon dealers that carry used products - B&H, KEH, Adorama, and perhaps others, but I can personally recommend those for consideration. By the way there is certainly NO guarantee that you'll be able to register your used product as someone may have already done so and not released it from their account. I recommend that whoever you purchase from you investigate their warranty, and you can consider purchasing a third party warranty. Some of those warranties only cover breakage.

I consider a used Canon EF 100mm f/28 L Macro IS USM a huge bargain for my purposes. That Laowa offers 1:1.5 versus 1:1 of the Canon 100mm and I am guessing that 180mm will allow (perhaps require?) a bit more distance between lens and subject, so there are definitely advantages to that lens. f/4.5 puts it out of the running for astrophotography for me though.

Thanks for visiting. Please let us know what you decide!

Re: Canon RP lenses

SignifDigits — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:26:39 GMT

I noticed you also mentioned wide angle. For a low-price wide angle the RF 16mm F2.8 STM is good because Canon does such a good job in digital correction. I took this picture in Iceland with that lens on an R8 The RP was my first full-frame camera and I loved it - hope you enjoy it.