Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens Review

The RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ is an entry-level APS-C format lens that features a Canon interchangeable lens first, built-in power zoom, "PZ". This ultra-light, compact, and inexpensive lens is a good choice for still photography, but the electronic zoom feature enables smooth and remote-controlled zooming, features especially desired by videographers.

The Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens also features a smooth, fast, quiet STM AF system, with optical image stabilization smoothing out handheld camera shake and a general-purpose zoom range that includes optimal for self-recording angles of view. This lens produces image quality that surpasses its low price.

Focal Length Range

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Focal length range (or individual focal length for a prime lens) is a primary consideration for lens selection. A specific angle of view is required to acheive a desired subject framing with the optimal perspective (or from within a working distance limitation).

As an RF-S lens, the 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ provides an image circle that covers an APS-C format imaging sensor. Canon's APS-C field of view crop factor is 1.6, meaning that this lens provides an angle of view equivalent to a 22.4-48mm full-frame lens, helpful numbers for those of us who think in full-frame terms.

While this range covers most general-purpose needs, it is shifted slightly wider than the historically normal range, such as 18-55mm. This range gives up some portrait and product photography advantages of the longer focal lengths, but the wider angles favor landscape photography needs and, a key for this lens, self-recording.

At 14mm, head and shoulder framing is availed at arm's length. This range is also useful for traditional portraits framed as wide as environmentals through loose head and shoulder framing. Tighter portraits are availed, but consider the perspective distortion close distances create.

The following images illustrate the 14-30mm focal length range:

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As illustrated, this range creates beautiful landscape compositions.

Max Aperture

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A lens's maximum aperture is usually included in the product name immediately after the focal length range, reflecting this specification's next-most importance. F/4.5-6.3 is this lens's maximum aperture, the ratio of the focal length to the entrance pupil diameter.

The lower the aperture number, the wider the opening, and the more light the lens can deliver to the imaging sensor. Each "stop" in aperture change (full stop examples: f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6) increases or decreases the amount of light by a substantial factor of 2x.

Compact, lightweight, low-priced zoom lenses usually have a narrow and variable max aperture, and this one meets that expectation. While the aperture value reduction is continuous, narrowing as the focal length increases, the camera rounds the reported aperture to the nearest 1/3 or 1/2 stop. Here are the focal length ranges for the Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens's reported 1/3 stop apertures.

14-15mm = f/4.0
15-16mm = f/4.5
17-21mm = f/5.0
21-24mm = f/5.6
25-30mm = f/6.3

These narrow max apertures make this lens an unfavorable choice for photographing challenging low-light motion, such as indoor sports or outdoor sports on cloudy days. Setting the ISO to a high number is the narrow aperture option for obtaining sharp low-light in-motion images, but the increased noise is an image quality factor. A narrow aperture is detrimental to low-light autofocus performance, slowing or inhibiting focus lock.

Wide apertures create a stronger background blur than narrow ones. These examples illustrate the maximum blur this lens can create:

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This lens's short minimum focus distance enables a relatively strong blur a these relatively wide angles.

Image Stabilization

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With increasing ISO being the alternative, the noise difference this lens's 5-stop IS enables for still subjects is huge, and stabilization dramatically improves video quality.

"When paired with an EOS R-mount camera that has In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS), the Coordinated IS provides an IS effect of 7.5 at the center, and stops and 5.5 stops in the corners." [Canon]

Don't expect to obtain that much assistance in real-life shooting, but use those numbers for comparative purposes, where these numbers compete strongly. The stabilized image presented to the camera's AF system optimizes its performance.

This IS system is extremely quiet, with only a faint hum, and it has a refined performance, including when recomposing and tracking a moving subject. With no IS switch, a second-level menu option is required to check, enable, or disable image stabilization.

Image Quality

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After reviewing lenses for over 20 years, I usually know what to expect from a new lens. Cheap, ultra-light, compact, and consumer-grade, yet still featuring image stabilization (and power zoom) is a recipe for mediocre image quality. At announcement time, I added this lens model to the site's database and review queue, gave it little additional thought, and moved on to other tasks.

When other Canon gear announced at the same time began arriving, it seemed that including this lens in the workflow would gain some efficiency. My Canon rep had one available, sent it promptly, and I captured the initial lab tests to level it with the other gear already partially tested.

That's when I realized that I underestimated this lens. While far from perfect, it produces image quality that is above its price point.

In the center of the frame, the wide-open 14mm test chart results are reasonably sharp, and the longer focal length results are slightly sharper. Stopping down produces a minor center-of-the-frame sharpness increase, and the EOS R7 test camera is already encountering the softening effects of diffraction wide-open at 30mm.

Moving out to the periphery of the image circle, where light rays are refracted to a stronger angle than in the center, lenses typically produce decreased sharpness. This one shows only a minor decline from the center to the corner. At 14mm, the extreme corners are slightly soft, and again, the longer focal lengths perform even better. The primary peripheral image quality gain from stopping down is the reduction of peripheral shading, which enhances contrast.

Overall, this performance is very good for this lens's price point. For reference, here is a comparison agains a best available option.

The resolution chart is merciless on image quality, and the outdoor test results appear more favorable. Below is a series of center-of-the-frame 100% resolution crop examples. These images were captured in RAW format by a Canon EOS R7 and processed in Canon's Digital Photo Professional (DPP) with the Standard Picture Style applied and sharpness set to 1 on a 0-10 scale. Note that images from most cameras require some level of sharpening, but too-high sharpness settings are destructive to image details and mask the deficiencies of a lens.

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These results are nice.

Next, we'll examine a series of comparisons that show 100% resolution extreme top-left corner crops captured and processed identically to the above center-of-the-frame images. The lens was manually focused in the corner of the frame to capture these images.

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Samples taken from the outer extreme of the image circle, the corners, will show a lens's weakest performance, however, these results are nice. The 14mm samples show slight softness, and the longer results are slightly better.

Corner sharpness is not always crucial, but it can be important, especially when photographing landscapes and architecture. This lens works nicely for those needs.

When used on a camera that utilizes its full image circle, a lens is expected to show peripheral shading at the widest aperture settings. Wide open at 14mm results in just over 2 stops of corner shading. Shading diminishes as the focal length increases until about 1 stop of shading remains in the 30mm corners.

Want less corner shading? Select a narrower aperture. The 14mm f/5.6 corner shading is about 1.5 stops, and f/8 yields about 1 stop, with narrower apertures showing only minor brightening. The 20mm results are similar, and the 30mm results are slightly better.

One-stop of shading is often considered the number of visibility, though subject details provide a widely varying amount of vignetting discernibility. Vignetting is correctable during post-processing, with increased noise in the brightened areas the penalty, or it can be embraced, using the effect to draw the viewer's eye to the center of the frame. Study the pattern shown in our vignetting test tool to determine how your images will be affected.

Lateral (or transverse) CA (Chromatic Aberration) refers to the unequal magnification of all colors in the spectrum. Lateral CA shows as color fringing along lines of strong contrast running tangential (meridional, right angles to radii), with the mid and especially the periphery of the image circle showing the most significant amount, as this is where the most significant difference in the magnification of wavelengths typically exists. Lateral CA is usually easily software correctable (often in the camera) by radially shifting the colors to coincide.

Color misalignment can be seen in the site's image quality tool, but let's also look at a set of worst-case examples. The images below are 100% crops from the extreme top-left corner of EOS R7 frames showing diagonal black and white lines.

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These images should only contain black and white colors, with the additional colors indicating a moderately strong lateral CA presence.

A relatively common lens aberration is axial (longitudinal, bokeh) CA, which causes non-coinciding focal planes of the various wavelengths of light. More simply, different colors of light are focused to different depths. Spherical aberration, along with spherochromatism, or a change in the amount of spherical aberration with respect to color (looks quite similar to axial chromatic aberration but is hazier) are other common lens aberrations to observe. Axial CA remains somewhat persistent when stopping down, with the color misalignment effect increasing with defocusing. The spherical aberration color halo shows little size change as the lens is defocused, and stopping down one to two stops generally removes this aberration.

In the real world, lens defects do not exist in isolation, with spherical aberration and spherochromatism generally found, at least to some degree, along with axial CA. These combine to create a less sharp, hazy-appearing image quality at the widest apertures.

The wide-open aperture examples below compare the fringing colors of the defocused specular highlights in the foreground to the background. The lens has introduced any differences from the neutrally colored subjects.

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This color blur is strong, especially for the narrow max apertures.

Bright light reflecting off lens elements' surfaces may cause flare and ghosting, resulting in reduced contrast and sometimes interesting, usually objectionable visual artifacts. The shape, intensity, and position of the flare and ghosting effects in an image are variable, dependent on the position and nature of the light source (or sources), selected aperture, shape of the aperture blades, and quantity and quality of the lens elements and their coatings. Additionally, flare and ghosting can impact AF performance.

This lens features Canon's SSC (Super Spectra Coating) to combat flare and ghosting, and the low 10-element count decreases that challenge. Minor flare effects were produced at f/16 in our standard sun in the corner of the frame flare test, which is a good performance.

Flare effects can be embraced or avoided, or removal can be attempted, though that process can be challenging.

Two lens aberrations are particularly evident in images of stars, mainly because bright points of light against a dark background make them easier to see. Coma occurs when light rays from a point of light spread out from that point instead of being refocused as a point on the sensor. Coma is absent in the center of the frame, gets worse toward the edges/corners, and generally appears as a comet-like or triangular tail of light that can be oriented either away from the center of the frame (external coma) or toward the center of the frame (internal coma). The coma clears as the aperture is narrowed. Astigmatism is seen as points of light spreading into a line, either sagittal (radiating from the center of the image) or meridional (tangential, perpendicular to sagittal). This aberration can produce stars appearing to have wings. Remember that Lateral CA is another aberration that is apparent in the corners. The images below are 100% crops taken from the top-left corner of EOS R7 images captured at the widest available aperture.

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While a narrow max aperture lens is not ideal for star photography (unless on a tracking mount), these corner stars maintain reasonably good shape.

This lens has extreme barrel distortion at the wide end. The geometric distortion is so strong that Canon forces correction in the camera (EVF, LCD, JPEG & HEIF images, movies) and in DPP, regardless of the lens correction settings. The barrel distortion is still strong at 20mm, and the geometry is considerably better at 30mm, but noticeable cropping with resizing is still performed on all images.

Every lens is a compromise, and the reasons for designing a lens with uncorrected geometric distortion include lower cost, smaller size, lighter weight, reduced complexity, and improved correction of aberrations that are not software-correctable. Geometric distortion can be corrected, including in-camera, using software and a correction profile, and once properly corrected, it is no longer a differentiator between lenses. However, the stretching required for correction can affect the final image quality. Base your evaluation on the corrected image quality. Certain is that this lens's peripheral image quality is aided by the capture distorted and software correct strategy.

As seen earlier in the review, it is easy to illustrate the strongest blur a lens can create. Due to the infinite number of variables present among available scenes, assessing the blur quality, bokeh, is considerably more challenging. Here are some f/11 (for diaphragm blade interaction) examples.

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The first examples show defocused highlights rather smoothly filled. The blades of a narrow max aperture lens are not closed much to create f/11, and the highlight shapes stay nicely rounded.

In the second set of examples, the first two images are 100% crops, and the third is a full image reduced in size. All appear normal — nice.

Except for a small number of specialty lenses, the wide aperture bokeh in the frame's corner does not show round defocused highlights, instead showing cat's eye shapes due to a form of mechanical vignetting. If you look through a tube at an angle, similar to the light reaching the frame's corner, the shape is not round. That is the shape we're looking at here.

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The shape truncation shown here is minor. As the aperture narrows, the entrance pupil size is reduced, and the mechanical vignetting diminishes, making the corner shapes rounder.

A 7-blade diaphragm will create 14-point sunstars (diffraction spikes) from point light sources captured with a narrow aperture. Generally, the more a lens diaphragm is stopped down, the larger and better-shaped the sunstars tend to be. Unfortunately, a narrow max aperture lens does not afford much stopping down before reaching apertures where diffraction causes noticeable softening of details, and these lenses typically do not produce the largest or most well-shaped sunstars.

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The examples above were captured at f/16. The 14mm star has some character, but the 30mm result shows weak flaring.

The design of this lens features 1 UD element, and 2 PMo aspherical lenses.

The Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens's image quality lacks refinements found in higher-end lenses, but it delivers sharp images for its price point.

Focusing

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"The lens features a leadscrew-type STM focus drive system which provides smooth and natural AF. This is especially beneficial to video users because of its combination of quiet operation and outstanding smoothness of focus changes during actual recording." [Canon]

This lens internally focuses fast, smoothly, and quietly, with excellent accuracy.

The narrow max apertures hinder this lens's low-light AF performance. Plan to rely on an AF assist lamp in dark venues.

Non-cinema lenses typically require refocusing after a focal length change. As illustrated in the 100% crops below, the reviewed lens does not exhibit parfocal-like characteristics. When focused at 30mm, zooming to wider focal lengths continues to produce sharp results until a strong focus blur shows at 14mm.

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Especially with the RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens being highly optimized for video recording, it seems that Canon should electronically correct the focus distance during the focal length adjustment.

This lens does not have an AF/MF switch, requiring this setting to be changed via the menu system (or using a switch on some camera models).

FTM (Full Time Manual) focusing is supported in AF mode with the camera in One Shot Drive Mode, but the shutter release must be half-pressed for the focus ring to become active. Note that FTM does not function if electronic manual focusing after One Shot AF is disabled in the camera's menu. The lens's switch must be in the "MF" position and the camera meter must be on/awake for conventional manual focusing to be available.

The RF-S 14-30 has a knurled plastic manual focus ring that shares functionality with the control ring. The front-positioned, small MF ring is immediately adjacent to the zoom ring, which makes it slightly challenging to use. Still, this ring is large enough to be useful, and it functions well, with ideal resistance and smooth adjustments.

STM utilizes a focus-by-wire or electrical manual focus design (vs. the older direct gear-driven system), with the manual focus ring electronically controlling the lens's focus. The non-linear implementation creates a full extent change with a 110° fast rotation. The same change happens with a slow 180° turn at 14mm and 520° rotation at 30mm.

It is normal for the scene to change size in the frame as the focus is pulled from one extent to the other. This effect is focus breathing, a change in focal length resulting from a change in focus distance. Focus breathing impacts photographers intending to use focus stacking techniques, videographers pulling focus (without movement to camouflage the effect), and anyone critically framing while adjusting focus.

This lens produces a moderate, normal change in subject size through a full-extent (worst-case) focus distance adjustment.

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The distortion difference in the 14mm examples is interesting.

This lens has a minimum focus distance of 5.9" (150mm), and at 30mm, it generates a high 0.38x maximum magnification spec.

Model	Min Focus Distance		Max Magnification
Canon RF-S 10-18mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens	5.5"	(140mm)	0.23x
Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens	5.9"	(150mm)	0.38x
Canon RF 15-30mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens	5.1"	(130mm)	0.52x
Canon RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens	7.9"	(200mm)	0.26x
Canon RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM Lens	6.7"	(170mm)	0.44x
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens	4.6"	(116mm)	0.25x
Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens	4.8"	(121mm)	0.36x

At 14mm, a subject measuring approximately 3.2 x 2.1" (81 x 54mm) fills the imaging sensor at this lens's minimum MF distance. At 30mm, a 1.8 x 1.2" (46 x 31mm) subject does the same.

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The individual USPS love stamps measure 1.19 x 0.91" (30 x 23mm).

While this lens produces sharp center-of-the-frame details at minimum focus distance with a wide-open aperture, expect the image periphery to be soft due to field curvature. F/11 brings on increased depth of field that significantly improves corner image quality, and 30mm corners are considerably sharper than 14mm corners.

While this lens's 5.0 - 5.5" (127 - 140mm) tested minimum focus distance sounds comfortable, the minimum focus distance is measured from the imaging sensor plane, with the balance of the camera, lens, and lens hood length taking their space out of the number to create the working distance. At 14mm, this lens's minimum focus distance working distance is only about 1.2" (29mm) in front of the lens without the hood mounted, and the lens obstructs most subject lighting. The 14mm working distance is reduced to 0.8" (20mm) with the hood attached. At 30mm, the working distance increases only slightly to 2.2" (56mm) hoodless and 1.8" (46mm) with the hood installed.

This lens is not compatible with Canon extenders.

Design & Features

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The Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens features a simple, clean design with a fixed size that eliminates the need for gimbal rebalancing after a focal length change.

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Utilizing engineering plastic construction, the 14-30 PZ's slightly textured exterior barrel looks and feels nice, as does the straight exterior diameter of this design. The plastic ribs on the zoom ring give it a slightly differentiating texture from the control/MF ring.

The 14-30 PZ's zoom ring does not function conventionally. Instead, it is a two-directional switch that controls the motor for the built-in power zoom feature. Partially rotating the zoom ring counterclockwise (from behind the camera) slowly zooms the lens to a longer focal length, and a clockwise rotation slowly does the opposite. A full rotation (only a handful of degrees) in either direction switches the motor into its higher speed mode for quick adjustments.

The lens does not indicate the selected focal length number, but the camera can display this number.

For stills and static focal length video recording, I prefer a conventional, non-motorized zoom design. However, the power zoom creates a far more consistent focal length adjustment during video recording than most of us are otherwise capable of.

Additionally, the power zoom can be remotely controlled, including via the Canon BR-E1 Wireless Remote Control, available individually or with the appropriate-for-this-lens Canon HG-100TBR Tripod Grip. This lens is compatible with the built-in camera zoom lever on select EOS camera models, initially the Canon EOS R50 V, and the low and high speeds are configurable in that model.

The not-clicked control ring is configurable for fast access to camera settings, including aperture, ISO, and exposure compensation. The lack of a switch means that a camera menu option is required to switch between control and MF ring functionality.

Weather sealing is not a specified feature of this lens, and the mount is not gasketed. Fluorine coatings are omitted.

While an ultra-light lens does not provide a robust feel, the build quality of this lens appears good, with tight tolerances maintained between parts. The light weight of this lens is greatly appreciated during carry and use. It joined me on multiple trail runs, making that time more fun without extra burden.

Model	Weight oz(g)		Dimensions w/o Hood "(mm)		Filter	Year
Canon RF-S 10-18mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens	5.3	(150)	2.7 x 1.8	(69.0 x 44.9)	49	2023
Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens	6.4	(181)	2.7 x 2.4	(69.6 x 62.0)	58	2025
Canon RF 15-30mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens	13.8	(390)	3.0 x 3.5	(76.6 x 88.4)	67	2022
Canon RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens	4.6	(130)	2.7 x 1.7	(68.9 x 44.3)	49	2022
Canon RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM Lens	10.9	(310)	2.7 x 3.3	(69.0 x 84.5)	55	2022
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens	9.0	(255)	2.8 x 2.5	(72.0 x 64.0)	67	2023
Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens	10.2	(290)	2.5 x 2.9	(64.5 x 74.5)	55	2017

View and compare the complete Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens Specifications.

Here is a visual comparison:

Positioned from left to right are the following lenses:

RF-S 10-18mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM
RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM
RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ
RF 15-30mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM

The first three lenses are shown below with their hoods in place.

Use the site's product image comparison tool to visually compare the Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens to other lenses.

This lens is compatible with small, light, affordable, and relatively common 58mm filters. With the barrel distortion correction, the captured corner image details are stretched out of the frame, and a standard-thickness circular polarizer filter does not increase wide-aperture peripheral shading. Still, I recommend a slim model such as the Breakthrough Photography X4.

The Canon EW-63C Lens Hood is optional. I recommend getting and using (reversed does not count) the hood for front element protection from impact and flare-inducing bright light.

The semi-flexible plastic EW-53's petal shape is optimized to block as much light outside the utilized image circle as possible, at least at the wide end of the zoom range. The matte interior avoids reflections. A release button is not featured on this hood.

The Canon LP1014 Lens Case (pouch) is also optional.

Price, Value, Compatibility

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The RF-S 14-30mm is cheap, with its balance of features, performance, and usefulness making it easily worth the price.

As an "RF-S" lens, the Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens is compatible with all Canon EOS R-series cameras, including full-frame and APS-C models. However, full-frame imaging sensor models will automatically switch into their APS-C mode when this lens is mounted. Canon USA provides a 1-year limited warranty.

The reviewed RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens was on loan from Canon.

Alternatives

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The Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens has no direct alternative at review time. However, the Canon RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM lens maintains the compact, lightweight, low-cost, general-purpose spirit.

The image quality comparison shows that the 14-30 is slightly sharper in the periphery in the wider focal length range overlap and sharper in the center at the longer focal lengths. The 14-30 has less peripheral shading.

The Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ vs. 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM lens comparison shows that the 18-55 is smaller and lighter. The 14-30 has power zoom, 5-stop-rated IS vs. 4, and a higher maximum magnification, 0.38x vs. 0.26x. The 18-45 uses 49mm filters vs. 58mm, has a wider max aperture at equal focal lengths, has a shifted-longer range of focal lengths, and is modestly less expensive.

Use the site's tools to create additional comparisons.

Summary

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The entry-level RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ is an ultra-light, compact, and inexpensive general-purpose lens that is a good choice for still photography. With its built-in power zoom feature enabling smooth and remote-controlled zooming, it is optimized for video recording and is especially suited for self-recording. The Canon RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ Lens features a smooth, fast, quiet STM AF system, with optical image stabilization that smooths out handheld camera shake, and image quality that surpasses its low price.