Canon RF 14-35mm f4 L IS USM

The f4 aperture keeps it impressively compact for a wide zoom, and I’ve been blown away by the edge-to-edge sharpness on my landscapes. Even with the R5 II’s high resolution, it holds up perfectly from corner to corner, and the IS makes handheld architecture shots a breeze.

Rented this for a trip to the coast and ended up buying it the day I got back—the f4 aperture is plenty bright for golden hour and the compact size meant it lived in my bag the whole week. Sharp corner to corner even wide open, which shocked me for a zoom this light.

The image stabilization is fantastic for handheld shooting in low-light interiors; I could dial down to 1/8 second and still get sharp results. Focusing on the 14mm end for architecture gave me distortion-free lines without needing to correct much later.