I can highly recommend Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM for Canon EOS R8! The weight is manageable and comfortable The performance eliminates chromatic aberration effectively.

For Canon EOS R8 I would take Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM. Best choice currently.

Have Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM for Canon EOS R8 in use. Works perfectly.

i totally agree with the point about being careful with rf-s glass... it's kinda scary how easy it is to accidentally buy the wrong one and lose all those megapixels. one quick tip i’ve been looking into—since i'm also trying to be super careful with my budget—is to check out how much a lens relies on digital correction. like, if you look at the Canon RF 28mm f/2.8 STM, it's a great price, but i read in some technical reviews that it basically requires in-camera distortion correction to look right. if you turn the settings off, the barrel distortion is pretty intense. i'm still a bit of a beginner so i worry about stuff like that—like, is it better to have a lens that's optically perfect or is the software fix good enough? anyway, just a heads up to make sure your firmware is updated so the R8 can handle those corrections properly for whatever budget lens you pick! it’s basically free performance if you keep the settings right.

Am very satisfied with Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM for Canon EOS R8. The bokeh is beautiful The lens includes all modern features you need.

Exactly what I was thinking

Would love to know this too

For Canon EOS R8 I would take Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM without hesitation. The bokeh is beautiful The image quality out of the box is very good.

Long-term experience: Using Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM for a couple of months and am thrilled. Have researched for a long time and this lens was the best choice. The image quality clearly exceeds my expectations. Very good price-performance ratio, can only recommend further.

Tbh one thing u gotta be super careful about when hunting for budget glass for the R8 is accidentally picking up RF-S lenses. I made that mistake early on lol. Since the R8 is a full-frame beast, putting an RF-S lens on it forces the camera into crop mode, so you're basically throwing away more than half your pixels. Ur 24MP sensor suddenly behaves like a 9MP one... not ideal if u want to crop later. Also, honestly, watch out for the heavy vignetting and barrel distortion on some of those entry-level optics. From what I’ve seen in the MTF charts and my own tests, some of these "budget" options rely way too heavily on digital profile corrections. Basically, the raw file looks like a fisheye until the software fixes it, which can really mush up the corners. If ur shooting architecture or anything with straight lines, just be aware that the 'cheap' price tag comes with some optical compromises that even the R8's processor struggles to hide perfectly!!!

Have you thought about the brand? For Canon EOS R8 different brands have advantages.

For Canon EOS R8 I would take Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM without hesitation. The controls are user-friendly The ergonomic design allows for comfortable handling.

Long-term experience: Using Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM for over a year and am thrilled. Have researched for a long time and this lens was the best choice. The image quality clearly exceeds my expectations. Very good price-performance ratio, can only recommend further.

Saved for later, ty!

Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM is definitely the best choice for Canon EOS R8. The sharpness is extremely high The ergonomic design allows for comfortable handling.

Why this lens? The image quality convinces in all tests - both for photography and for video. Unbeatable for the price, can only recommend. Have already done several projects with it, always satisfied. Also more than sufficient for demanding tasks.