Manual exposure with auto ISO is the most practical exposure mode that most photographers leave unused. The RF 35mm f/1.8 IS Macro STM — Canon’s modest, versatile nifty-enough-fifty-equivalent for the R system — is the lens where this mode earns its keep, because the lens covers such a wide range of use cases in a single shooting session that fixed manual settings cannot follow it. The setup: set the camera to M mode, ISO to Auto, aperture to whatever the scene requires (f/4 for general use with context in the background, f/1.

Focus peaking is an EVF overlay that highlights in-focus edges in a selected color — typically red, yellow, or white — as you rotate the focus ring. It is a mirrorless-native feature, unavailable on optical viewfinders by definition, and it changes the character of manual focus work on modern cameras in ways that make the technique accessible where it was previously a specialist skill. The RF 35mm f/1.8 IS Macro STM has a smooth, well-damped manual focus ring with enough rotation travel to be used precisely.