Canon Lens Review: RF-S 18-45mm Zoom

How does this Canon zoom lens stack up?

A comprehensive overview – Canon zoom lens review 18-45mm.

In this tutorial, Christopher Frost reviews the specs, features and pros/cons of this new Canon lens.

Canon Zoom Lens Review: 18-45mm F/4.5-6.3

Understanding Zoom lenses

A zoom lens has a range of focal length at which you take photos. This zoom lens has a minimum focal length of 18mm which is short and gives a wide angle to the photos. The maximum focal length that this lens zooms to is 45mm which lets you zoom in and get closer photos of the subject.

The maximum apertures for this lens is unusual because it’s smaller than other lenses. Aperture is the pupil-like opening you can adjust on the end of the lens, which changes how much light is let into the camera sensor.

A large aperture like 1.2 is a nearly fully open end of the lens which lets in all of the light. Smaller apertures like 4.5 mean that the pupil is more closed and the light opening is smaller.

Less light enters the lens sensor at these apertures.

F4.5 is the maximum aperture at the 18mm focal length, and F6.3 is the maximum aperture at the 45mm length.

Specs & Features of this Canon Zoom Lens review

It’s small and light, and less expensive when purchased with the camera in a kit!

The lower aperture makes it a bit darker than usual, and the lower zoom level doesn’t allow for very wide shots or telephoto images.

There is at least a very good image stabilization built into the lens which helps the photos come out more clear and sharp. This wil help for both images and video!

This Canon 18-45mm f4.3-6.5 lens is compact and light weight, although the competition by Sony and Nikon do come in a more compact size.

This lens is great for travel or landscape photography, and is great as an everyday taking the camera out lens. 

There is no weather sealing, and the lens feels quite plastic. But the focus ring moves very smoothly and can be customized to control different settings such as aperture.

The autofocus motor for this lens is quick and sharp, which you want in a lens.

Canon Zoom Lens Review: Image Quality Tests

The image quality from this lens is pretty good. Photos look soft and and contrast is able to be captured nicely.

You get a bit of diffraction at different aperture levels but overall the image quality is decent enough. It’s not the best lens ever made but it’s a great lens to get you started.

You will want to make sure your camera’s image correction setting is on if shooting raw images at wide angles.

There’s no glaring or loss of contrast when shooting at or around lights. This is really nice for nighttime photos or video.

The dark maximum apertures makes it more difficult to get nice looking out-of-focus backgrounds (or bokeh) but when you can capture it, they look nice and soft.

Overall Canon Zoom Lens Review

This Canon lens is small, light and inexpensive if bought in the kit. Overall, this lens feels a bit cheaply made an may only be worth the money in the kit and for beginners.

The zoom range is quite limiting, the darker aperture is mediocre and the image quality isn’t the best. However, for a small lens with some zoom range and at the price when bought with the kit, this lens can be quite usable. 

It is definitely a great way to get your lens collection started especially if you bought it with the kit.

If you wanted to try a similar lens but a slightly higher quality, check out theSony 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 or the Nikon 24-70mm f2.8. 

This Canon zoom lens will be great for beginners in the kit to get started with pretty good photo quality!

Want to get better as a photographer? Read this comprehensive guide!

Which of these features are you looking for in a good zoom lens?

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