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Now, here’s how you announce that you’re making cine primes. You don’t tease and drip-feed us every 6-12 months for a few years until the lineup’s complete. You announce the whole lot at once, and that’s what Canon’s just done.
The company has unveiled its new line of RF mount cinema primes (buy here). There are seven in the complete set ranging from 14mm up to 135mm, with all the common focal lengths in between.
In a remarkable achievement, Canon Inc. proudly announced two of its latest production milestones. The camera brand manufactured over 110 million EOS Series interchangeable-lens cameras as of March this year and 160 million RF/EF series interchangeable lenses in May. That’s a lot of cameras and lenses.
The 110 millionth EOS series camera was the EOS R6 Mark II, released in December 2022. The 160 millionth interchangeable lens to roll off the production line was the RF100mm F2.8 L MACRO IS USM, launched in July 2021.
Nikon might not see value in transitioning the D3x00 DSLR series over to mirrorless, blaming smartphones, but it seems they don’t speak for everybody. Canon sure sounds like they want to target that market with today’s announcement of the Canon EOS R100 (buy here). It’s an entry-level APS-C RF mount camera with a price tag that puts it well and truly in the beginner market.
Despite Nikon’s suggestion that smartphone users want more from their entry-level cameras these days (with a higher price tag), Canon doesn’t appear to share the sentiment. The new Canon EOS R100 entry-level camera is targeted directly at newer photographers and usurps the EF-S DSLRs and EF-M mirrorless cameras that came before it. Sort of.
Meike has announced a new 85mm f/1.4 lens at NAB 2023 this week. This in itself is not really big news. Neither is the fact that it’s a full-frame lens nor that it’s an autofocus lens. What is big news, though, is that they’re saying it’ll be available in a Canon RF Mount. Yes, that’s right, an autofocus lens with a Canon RF mount (as well as E, Z and L mounts). Is this the first 3rd party autofocus RF lens to be approved by Canon itself?
Canon has a bit of history when it comes to 3rd party AF lenses. They’ve shut down a number of manufacturers including Samyang and Viltrox, and after the Viltrox news broke, Canon confirmed it. In a recent interview with DPReview, Canon did suggest they’d be open to third-party lenses using the RF mount, but has that happened here? Is this small Chinese lens company beating the likes of Sigma and Tamron to the punch?
It seems that Yongnuo is the first company to figure out a way around Canon’s RF mount autofocus lens licensing issues. Well, it’s either that or they’re going to be next in the line of companies that Canon shuts down for producing unauthorised, patent-infringing, RF mount autofocus lenses. Either way, it seems that Yongnuo has announced a new 85mm f/1.8R DF DSM lens for Canon RF mount.
According to Asobinet, the lens comes with a new design, new optical configuration of 9 elements in 8 groups, a 7-blade aperture, 58mm filter thread and a minimum focus distance of around 80cm. It is an autofocus lens featuring a built-in stepper motor, which means it presumably communicates with RF-mount camera bodies. All I want to ask is… How? This isn’t the first time Yongnuo’s tried to release this.
Meike has announced a new 25mm f/0.95 lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras. It’s a manual focus lens, which means it’s coming in Canon RF mount as well as Canon EF-M, Fuji X, Nikon Z, Sony E and Micro Four Thirds. This isn’t the first 25mm f/0.95 lens on the market, but it is Meike’s first at this focal length and aperture, which should keep Meike lens fans happy.
Being an APS-C lens, it offers a field of view similar to 37.5mm on full-frame. When used on MFT cameras, it’s equivalent to 50mm on full-frame. It has a 13-blade aperture for as round a bokeh as possible with 11 elements in 9 groups and a minimum focus distance of only 25cm. The Sony E mount version has already been released, with the others coming later in December.
Meyer Optik Görlitz has announced the addition of Nikon Z and Canon RF mounts. The two new mounts will be applied to the company’s entire existing family of lenses, including the two models that are yet to be released.
It looks like Canon is about to announce a couple of new lenses according to a couple of reports from Asobinet and Photo Rumors. Both of the lenses are RF mount lenses and it appears as though they’ll be full-frame lenses, given that they’re specifically named “RF” and not “RF-S”. One is an ultra-wide-angle 15-30mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM zoom while the other is the fast 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM.
It’s been over a year since either of these lenses were first rumoured but now it seems like the announcement may be imminent. Tomorrow, in fact, according to a post on Photo Rumors. Other than the names, though, there’s no other information on these lenses at all. Not even leaked photos.
Canon recently published its annual financial results and presentation for 2022. In it, Canon Chairman & CEO, Fujio Mitarai talks about the effect of the pandemic on sales and how they’ve been dealing with them. Despite the pandemic still putting pressure on sales, as a result of shutting down production facilities, parts shortages and logistical constraints, they managed to “significantly exceed” Canon’s pre-pandemic profit level in 2019.
He also talks about last year’s reorganisation that aided in this profit boost as well as where things go from here, including the potential release of 32 new lenses by 2016. This is extrapolated out based on the fact that Canon wants to “expand lens lineup at same pace” as previous years. In 2020, there were 18 RF lenses and in 2021 there were 26. 8 lenses per year for four years, is 32 lenses.
Well, we knew there was a big announcement coming from Canon today and we were pretty sure we knew what it might be. well, Canon has now made the announcement official, bringing us the Canon RF 800mm f/5.6 L IS USM and Canon RF 1200mm f/8L IS USM super-telephoto lenses. With price tags of $16,999 and $19,999 respectively, these lenses sure ain’t for the faint of heart (or wallet) and are absolute monsters designed for sports and wildlife.
Both lenses feature two focus presets with the ability to instantly swap between memorised focus distances. Very handy if you’re covering sports with a goal or wildlife with a nest. A circular nin-bladed aperture, Canon says, provides “exceptionally beautiful and soft blurred backgrounds and bokeh” and both offer the L series durability and weather sealing you’d expect from lenses at this price point.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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