Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM Review
Summary Verdict
The Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM is the fifth in Canon’s series of RF-mount hybrid prime lenses, designed with the needs of both photographers and video creators in mind. It’s compact and lightweight compared to the RF 85mm F1.2L (£2,999.00 / $3099.00), but faster and better-built than the Canon RF 85mm f2 IS Macro STM (£669.99 / $689.00). Furthermore, it delivers sharp images and fast, quiet and smooth autofocusing with minimal focus breathing, making it an excellent choice for hybrid shooters. With an f/1.4 aperture and 11-blade diaphragm, it’s particularly well-suited for portraiture, offering attractive bokeh and subject separation.
Its bright maximum aperture, solid build and consistent results across the frame mean it’s a capable and versatile option that’s particularly appealing for portraits, weddings and creative storytelling.
Score: 4.5/5
For
Quiet and smooth autofocusing with Voice Coil Motor
Bright f/1.4 aperture and 11-blade diaphragm for attractive bokeh
Compact design with standardised size
Against
Slightly heavier than other hybrid primes in the series
No image stabilisation in the lens
No option to turn on ‘clicks’ for the aperture ring
The Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM balances nicely on the Canon EOS R5 Mark II.
What is the Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM?
The Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM is a fast short telephoto prime lens designed for Canon’s RF mount full-frame mirrorless cameras. It’s the longest in Canon’s line of VCM hybrid prime lenses, created for both photography and video production. These lenses share an identical physical design to make them easy to swap in and out on gimbals or rigs, however, the 85mm lens is heavier than the others. The 85mm focal length is a classic choice for flattering portraits; however, the lens also features technologies specifically designed for videographers, such as a clickless iris ring and suppressed focus breathing.
Read our Canon EOS R5 Mark II Review
Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM Price and Availability
The Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM is priced at £1,679.99 / $1,649,00 / €1,899.99. It went on sale on 30th September 2025.
As we’d expect with a Canon L-series lens, the Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM has a metal mount.
Key Features
The Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM is part of Canon’s hybrid prime lens series, a growing family of optics tailored to meet the needs of both photographers and filmmakers. These lenses are united by a consistent size and design, making them well-suited to gimbal and rig work where balance and quick swapping are important. However, at 636g, the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM is the heaviest in the series, weighing 56g more than the second-heaviest, the RF 50mm F1.4L VCM, and 121g more than the RF 24mm F1.4L VCM, which is the lightest.
This full-frame lens has a focal length of 85mm, making it a natural fit for portraiture and storytelling. The wide f/1.4 maximum aperture enables strong subject separation and promises soft backgrounds, while the 11-blade circular diaphragm is designed to deliver creamy, rounded bokeh. It’s also a useful option for working in low light without raising ISO too high.
The RF 85mm F1.4L VCM is compatible with the ET-73C lens hood and accepts 67mm filters.
Internally, the optical design consists of 14 elements arranged in 10 groups, with one Ultra-low Dispersion (UD) element and one glass-moulded (GMo) aspherical element. This combination is designed to keep chromatic aberration and distortion under close control, ensuring sharpness and clarity from edge to edge. The lens also benefits from Canon’s Air Sphere Coating (ASC), which helps to reduce ghosting and flare, especially when shooting in backlit conditions. Meanwhile, the front element is treated with a fluorine coating to resist fingerprints, moisture and dust.
As its name implies, Canon has given the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM a Voice Coil Motor (VCM) for autofocusing. This is designed to be both quiet and quick. Focus breathing is also suppressed to maintain consistent framing as the focus distance changes.
There’s a de-clicked iris ring for fluid aperture adjustments during recording, and Canon has enabled iris control in stills mode too, although this is currently only supported by Canon cameras released in 2024 and onwards. This ring cannot be switched to click when it’s rotated.
The closest focusing distance is 0.75m, with a maximum magnification of 0.12x, making this more of a portrait or general-use lens than one for tight close-ups.
Rounding out the feature set is a custom function button and Canon’s familiar control ring, both of which can be programmed via the camera’s menu to suit your preferences. The control ring clicks when rotated and there’s no switch to de-click it. However, it can be made to operate smoothly by a Canon service centre.
Canon now has five lenses in its f/1.4 VCM prime lens line-up, starting with the 20mm on the left, followed by the 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm.
Build and Handling
Canon has designed the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM to match the physical characteristics of the other hybrid primes in the series, including the 20mm, 24mm, 35mm and 50mm lenses. This means it shares the same 67mm filter thread and a virtually identical barrel profile, making it especially convenient for filmmakers who rely on rigs, follow focus systems or matte boxes. It means you don’t need to recalibrate your gimbal dramatically or adjust your lens supports when switching between focal lengths; that’s a time-saver on fast-paced shoots.
Although it has the longest focal length in the set, the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM measures just 99.3mm in length and 76.5mm in diameter, keeping the lens portable and discreet. It weighs in at 636g, which is slightly more than the 50mm VCM lens but still comfortably under half the weight of the Canon RF 85mm F1.2L. That makes it much easier to manage over long periods of handheld use or when carried all day at a wedding or event.
The build quality is in keeping with Canon’s L-series standards. The barrel feels robust and is weather-sealed, giving you confidence when shooting outdoors or in less-than-ideal conditions.
I found that the manual focus movement is smooth, giving precise control, and the addition of both a function button and Canon’s clicking control ring allows for intuitive customisation. These controls fall naturally to hand and are recessed enough to avoid accidental changes.
I love using an aperture ring, but I have to keep an eye on the setting display in the viewfinder more than I would with a ‘clicked’ ring. It would be nice if Canon had given the lens a click/de-click switch, but none of the lenses in this series have that functionality.
The knurled customisable control ring is closest to the front element, with the broader manual focus ring just behind, near the centre of the barrel. Then comes the iris lock switch, customisable button and teh AF/MF switch, followed by the stepless aperture ring.
Performance
Having had the opportunity to examine images from the Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM on a large screen, I’m even more convinced of its capabilities than I was at its launch. This lens is impressively sharp across its aperture range and I’d have no hesitation in using any of the available settings. That’s especially reassuring when shooting wide open at f/1.4 – something most portrait photographers will be keen to do to maximise background blur and subject separation.
Centre sharpness is excellent at f/1.4, and it’s maintained very well across the frame. There’s some softness in the corners - but only at the extreme edges, and that clears up as the aperture is closed. By f/4, sharpness is excellent from corner to corner. At the smallest aperture of f/16, there’s just the vaguest hint of diffraction-related softening, but it’s really only noticeable when pixel peeping and certainly nothing to worry about.
Out-of-focus areas look lovely and soft at f/1.4, with a smooth, natural fall-off from the point of focus. Small highlights take on a rounded appearance with a slight suggestion of what I’d describe as ‘beetroot rings’ – not onion rings – along with a slightly defined outer edge. There's also sometimes a few highlights that are a bit rugby ball (or cat's eye) shaped. That said, the overall effect is very attractive and adds a pleasant character to portraits.
Canon’s correction profiles do a good job of managing distortion and vignetting. If you turn those off in raw processing software like Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, there is a tiny touch of pincushion distortion visible, but nothing extreme. I wouldn’t hesitate to use this lens for images that include straight lines – there’s no risk of anything looking banana-shaped. Without the correction profiles, vignetting is noticeable at f/1.4 but fades away by about f/4 and is wa non-issue when the lens corrections are applied.
I’ve scrutinised my images with high-contrast edges at 100% on screen and, after some hunting, I did spot a few minor instances of chromatic aberration – a touch of coloured fringing here and there – but they’re not a problem at normal viewing sizes and can be dealt with very easily using the Defringe tool in software. I was really impressed with how well the lens handles flare too. I only saw it when I was shooting directly into the low sun at sunrise, which is to be expected with any lens.
Autofocusing with the Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM is fast and almost silent. It’s also accurate and confident, especially when paired with the Canon EOS R5 Mark II. The Eye Detection system makes it very easy to keep a subject’s eyes sharp even when shooting at f/1.4, where the depth of field can be incredibly shallow. I found it locked on reliably and tracked subjects smoothly.
There is some focus breathing, but it’s minimal and not something I think would cause concern for most video shooters.
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed using the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM. It’s not just a technically capable lens, it’s one that inspires confidence – the kind of lens you can put on your camera and know it will deliver strong results. It fits beautifully into Canon’s growing hybrid prime lens line-up and I think it’s going to become a firm favourite with women photographers who need a fast, flattering focal length without the bulk of the f/1.2 version.
From left to right, the Canon RF 85mm f2 IS Macro STM Lens, the new Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM and the Canon RF 85mm f1.2L USM lenses.
Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM Sample Images
These images were shot using the Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM on the Canon EOS R5 Mark II. Follow the link to see full-resolution versions of a selection of images shot using the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM.
This low-level image shows the creative potential of the bokeh captured by the Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at wide aperture settings.
Image Credit: Angela Nicholson, Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Lens: Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at 1/8000 sec, f/3.5 and ISO 100.
Paired with the R5 II, the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM captures an excellent level of sharp detail across the frame.
Image Credit: Angela Nicholson, Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Lens: Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at 1/800 sec, f/1.6 and ISO 125.
Using the maximum aperture setting ensured a fast shutter speed at ISO 100 to freeze the movement of the stormy waves.
Image Credit: Angela Nicholson, Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Lens: Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at 1/500 sec, f/1.4 and ISO 100.
I used a neutral density filter and f/16 aperture to extend the shutter speed to 30 seconds so the water would blur in this image. The pier is nice and sharp.
Image Credit: Angela Nicholson, Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Lens: Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at 30 sec, f/16 and ISO 100.
Even at a distance for a 3/4-length portrait, the Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM gives excellent subject separation at its widest aperture.
Image Credit: Angela Nicholson, Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Lens: Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at 1/640 sec, f/1.4 and ISO 100.
Going in close for a head and shoulders portrait really throws the background out of focus, but there’s lots of sharp detail in the eyes and skin.
Image Credit: Angela Nicholson, Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Lens: Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at 1/640 sec, f/1.4 and ISO 100.
The Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM is compatible with Canon’s Eye detection AF, which makes it easy to get the most important part of your sharp.
Image Credit: Angela Nicholson, Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Lens: Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at 1/1250 sec, f/1.4 and ISO 100.
Shooting near the 75cm closest focusing distance really mits the depth of field when you shoot at f/1.4.
Image Credit: Angela Nicholson, Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Lens: Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at 1/1250 sec, f/1.4 and ISO 100.
Closing down to f/4 extends the depth of field while still producing pleasing background blur.
Image Credit: Angela Nicholson, Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Lens: Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at 1/160 sec, f/4 and ISO 100.
Out of focus highlights are round with only slight distortion twoiards the corners of the image.
Image Credit: Angela Nicholson, Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, Lens: Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM at 1/1250 sec, f/1.4 and ISO 100.
Verdict
With its balanced blend of speed, optical performance and size, the Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM fills a gap between Canon’s existing 85mm lenses. It’s particularly appealing for women photographers and hybrid creators who need a versatile, compact prime that performs just as well for video as it does for stills. While the price reflects its L-series status, the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM delivers professional results in a more manageable package.
