The photo below is an example of what I mentioned in a previous entry regarding faded capture of LED lights. The lens “saw” the lights on the upper half of the hearts as red, blue, and white, when in fact there were other colors as well. And it didn’t capture the lights on the lower halves at all.

As I mentioned, the 50mm Summilux-SL got banished for this offense, while recent outings show that both the APO-Summicron-SL 75mm and 50mm SL ASPH capture the lights as I see them. So what lens shot the below photo, you ask? A de-kitted RF-S 18-45mm plastic lens that I picked up for about $60 a few days ago. Yes, it’s forgiven for the offense.

Of all R lenses, the 135mm Elmarit (usually v. 1) is the one that appears most often in B&S listings. It’s also the cheapest R lens, generally by a long shot. Now I understand why. Finally with a chance to spend some time with the near mint v. II E55 copy I got as an impulse add-on at Porto last year, I can see it’s really a bit of a niche lens.

It is neither as sharp nor are colors as saturated as the 135mm Tele-Elmar-M. There are better lenses of all brands for either total or contextual background blur. While it does have a very nice vintage look about its captures, its 752-gram heft obviates its presence in the bag “just in case.”

Finally, with the R7 fast becoming my “wearable” camera, I’m a bit disappointed by Canon’s choice to provide only overpriced plastic lenses with plastic mounts for their APS-C line. The R7 deserves better, and maybe there’s hope for better glass, with rumors saying that the Mark II version may be a more upmarket body.

Third-party manual focus lenses? Sure, one can adapt almost anything to RF. But another intentional cripple by Canon is that focus peaking won’t work when focus magnification is activated. The fact that they try to herd their users into buying their overpriced, software-corrected RF glass was exactly why I ditched Canon as my main brand a few years ago.

I guess when Sony ultimately takes their #1 spot away, maybe they’ll learn that sunshine gets people to shed jackets more willingly than a stiff wind does.

R7/RF-S 18-45mm . . .