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Is Canon shooting themselves in the foot by blocking third party lens manufacturers?

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This is something I’ve been thinking about ever since word broke that Canon essentially ordered Viltrox to stop making autofocus RF mount lenses. In response, Viltrox didn’t just stop making autofocus RF mount lenses, but all RF mount products altogether. Samyang/Rokinon also seems to have faced a similar challenge from Canon last year when they pulled all of their autofocus RF mount lenses.

Is Canon potentially stifling their own growth amongst camera users by doing so, though? I think they probably are and I’m not the only one who thinks so. In a recent and rare opinion video, Christopher Frost made a number of good points about Canon’s potential place in the future mirrorless landscape and they align quite well with some of my own thoughts over the last few weeks.

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Canon Germany issues statement – Confirms blocking Viltrox from making autofocus RF mount lenses

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Canon has previously been very quiet on the topic of 3rd party RF lenses. Last year, all of Samyang’s autofocus RF mount lenses disappeared from the market and just a week ago, so did all of the autofocus RF mount lenses made by Viltrox. Samyang didn’t say a word about why theirs left the market but Viltrox has told customers that they’ve been ordered to stop selling RF mount products by Canon.

Now, a statement from Canon indeed confirms that they told Viltrox to quit selling autofocus RF mount lenses as they believe that they infringe on their patent and design rights. Canona specifically mentions RF lenses with respect to autofocus in the statement, which is something I previously speculated upon, so it appears that we may still be able to continue to see manual focus RF mount lenses from third parties.

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Report: Canon orders Viltrox (and possibly others) to stop selling RF mount lenses

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If you wondered why major third party lens manufacturers like Sigma and Tamron hadn’t released any RF mount lenses yet, this might explain it. It seems that Canon is being a bit heavy-handed when it comes to those manufacturers that do. At least, that’s the case according to Viltrox who told a customer that Canon has told them specifically to stop selling “all RF mount products”.

The statement came from Viltrox in an Instagram conversation when a user enquired as to why he couldn’t download the firmware for Viltrox RF lenses from the Viltrox website. Viltrox said that Canon told them to stop selling RF products. A screenshot was posted to the DPReview forums by user EJ Fudd. This might also explain why Samyang’s RF mount autofocus lenses suddenly disappeared last year, too.

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Viltrox’s new EF-E5 Canon EF to Sony E mount adapter sports shiny OLED display, Eye AF, IBIS, EXIF passthrough

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Viltrox has announced a new Canon EF to Sony E mount “smart” lens adapter. As with most other “smart” lens adapters, this one allows you to pass through autofocus and EXIF information for complete data communications. This one, however, has a shiny new OLED display on top of it.

The $199 Viltrox EF-E5 Smart Mount Adapter is the fifth generation of Viltrox’s Canon EF to Sony E mount lens adapter, released over the last nine years. It makes use of that dead space between the lens and body by providing useful feedback to the photographer through its OLED display, including focal length, aperture and focus mode.

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Viltrox announces ultra-wide 13mm f/1.4 autofocus lens for Fuji X priced at $469

The third-party autofocus lens collection for Fuji is just exploding now that they’ve opened up their protocols. The latest to be added to this list is an ultra-wide and super bright lens from Viltrox. It’s the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 autofocus lens and it offers a field of view equivalent to about 20mm on a full-frame system. At f/1.4, though, for an APS-C lens this wide, that’s extremely fast, which should make it ideal for things like interiors, weddings and events.

While the lens has been announced, it’s not expected to start shipping until February. And with a $469 price tag, it’s slightly cheaper and a stop faster than the recently released Samyang 12mm f/2.0 AF as well as wider and less than half the price of Fuji’s own XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR. I can see this lens becoming very popular if it stands up to scrutiny once it gets into users hands.

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Viltrox has released their new full-frame autofocus 35mm f/1.8 lens for Nikon Z Mount

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While other third parties might not be in a rush to produce autofocus lenses for the Nikon Z mount, Viltrox certainly seems to be. With a trio of APS-C as well as 85mm f/1.8 and 24mm f/1.8 full-frame autofocus lenses, they’ve now expanded their set with a new 35mm f/1.8 autofocus lens for Nikon’s Z mirrorless format.

Priced at $399, the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 Z mount lens is pretty reasonable. But unlike many other low-budget lenses, particularly the few available for the Z mount, this lens contains a chip that passes along the EXIF data to the camera, so it knows exactly what it’s shooting and can record it in your files.

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Viltrox to announce six new Nikon Z autofocus lenses – 3 for APS-C and 3 for full-frame

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Historically known more for its lens adapters and accessories, Viltrox has been branching out into budget lenses the last few years and they’ve released a mix of manual and autofocus lenses for a number of systems, including a couple for Z-Mount already, including a 20mm f/1.8 manual focus and 85mm f/1.8 autofocus prime lenses.

Now it seems they’re about to release six more lenses for the Nikon Z mirrorless system. All of them are autofocus. Three of them will be for APS-C format and three of them will be full-frame. The six new lenses were on display at the China International Photographic Equipment and Technology Fair (China P&E) in Beijing, China. Interestingly, none of them appeared on the Viltrox lens roadmap published last year.

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2020 DIYP Holiday Gift Guide – Lenses

With your new camera picked out, it’s time to get a lens. Or maybe you’re happy with your cameras, but you fancy trying a new lens. Whichever might apply to you, here are a few of our favourites that were either announced or released this year. A couple of the lenses in this list were announced before 2020, but it took a while for them to actually exist!

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