Has Canon stated they will open RF (FF) mount?

[SteveNunez]

Hello friends, I'm new to the RF world and wanted to know if Canon has announced when/if they will release RF (FF) mount to 3rd parties?

 

[Interpol]

Yes they did. However, it's not fully wide open. Third parties must manufacture their products under license from Canon.

 

[Myles Baker]

Yes they did. However, it's not fully wide open. Third parties must manufacture their products under license from Canon.

There is no restriction on manual lenses, or 3rd party EF / EFS lenses adapted to RF.

On native RF AF lenses, Canon has said they are looking at it on a case by case basis.

To date, Tamron has announced 1 x RFS zoom lens & Sigma has announced 2 x RFS zoom lenses & 4 x RFS prime lenses.

There have been no annoucements to date from 3rd parties for RF FF lenses other than the aforementioned manual focus lenses.

That's not to say that there wont be, but it's better ro look at what is available now, rather than what might be available in the future.

 

[drsnoopy]

Hello friends, I'm new to the RF world and wanted to know if Canon has announced when/if they will release RF (FF) mount to 3rd parties?

 

[Andy01]

Yes they did. However, it's not fully wide open. Third parties must manufacture their products under license from Canon.

There is no restriction on manual lenses, or 3rd party EF / EFS lenses adapted to RF.

I don't think this is quite correct. I think there is no restriction on fully manual lenses - that is, lenses with no communication to the camera body because no contacts.

The MF lenses that have electronically controlled aperture (like my Samyang 14mm f2.4 XP) do not currently work with newer R bodies (R3, R7, R10, R8, R6 ii, R5 ii & R1).

 

[Myles Baker]

Yes they did. However, it's not fully wide open. Third parties must manufacture their products under license from Canon.

There is no restriction on manual lenses, or 3rd party EF / EFS lenses adapted to RF.

I don't think this is quite correct. I think there is no restriction on fully manual lenses - that is, lenses with no communication to the camera body because no contacts.

The MF lenses that have electronically controlled aperture (like my Samyang 14mm f2.4 XP) do not currently work with newer R bodies (R3, R7, R10, R8, R6 ii, R5 ii & R1).

What I meant was full manual lenses.

Electronic communications is the area that Canon has restricted to license agreements.

There is a list of RF lenses from 3rd parties here https://lesdeuxpiedsdehors.com/en/canon-rf-lenses-list/

 

[Franz Kerschbaum]

The https://www.voigtlaender.de/objektive/rf-mount/50mm-11-nokton/

works flawless on any R camera with focus confirmation!

 

[Franz Kerschbaum]

... as well as two others! https://www.voigtlaender.de/objektive/rf-mount/

 

[spec68]

It's kind of a "yes," but "not really" situation. Bottomline is that Canon has opened up the mount to 3rd parties for lenses it gives low priority too but still support the brand -- specifically speciality manual and crop sensor. To date zero 3rd party FF lenses have been announced or even teased and I would not expect them in the near or mid-term.

 

[bodeswell]

It's kind of a "yes," but "not really" situation. Bottomline is that Canon has opened up the mount to 3rd parties for lenses it gives low priority too but still support the brand -- specifically speciality manual and crop sensor. To date zero 3rd party FF lenses have been announced or even teased and I would not expect them in the near or mid-term.

Of course, no one expected the licensing deals with Sigma and Tamron for aps-c … until they were announced. I suspect that extending the licenses to FF may depend on whether the aps-c lenses actually sell well. The first of them, the Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 is just about ready to ship. Anyone gearing up to buy?

 

[mclewis]

The first of them, the Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 is just about ready to ship. Anyone gearing up to buy?

I already have one. It arrived last week.

 

[bodeswell]

The first of them, the Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 is just about ready to ship. Anyone gearing up to buy?

I already have one. It arrived last week.

How do you like it? Which camera are you using it on?

 

[spec68]

It's kind of a "yes," but "not really" situation. Bottomline is that Canon has opened up the mount to 3rd parties for lenses it gives low priority too but still support the brand -- specifically speciality manual and crop sensor. To date zero 3rd party FF lenses have been announced or even teased and I would not expect them in the near or mid-term.

Of course, no one expected the licensing deals with Sigma and Tamron for aps-c … until they were announced. I suspect that extending the licenses to FF may depend on whether the aps-c lenses actually sell well. The first of them, the Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 is just about ready to ship. Anyone gearing up to buy?

Sure, but OP was looking for a lay of the land as currently exists, not a historical overview. But, in that view my take is Canon had no intention of licensing RF period and were happy to leave APS-C lenses on the back burner. Then Nikon opened up its Z mount and they were kinda "pressured" into developing the token licensing policy that now exists. It's definitely possible Canon will open up FF in the future but I doubt it will be for any lens that would eat into Canon lens sales.

 

[mclewis]

The first of them, the Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 is just about ready to ship. Anyone gearing up to buy?

I already have one. It arrived last week.

How do you like it? Which camera are you using it on?

I have a R7. I have only taken a few test photos so far and they looked just fine.

 

[David Franklin]

The https://www.voigtlaender.de/objektive/rf-mount/50mm-11-nokton/

works flawless on any R camera with focus confirmation!

That 50 f/1.0 looks very interesting. Do you know much it will be in the U.S., what dealers will sell it and when it will be available? It may have a different "look" that will be a valuable addition to what you could expect from Canon's own lens lineup.

 

[Andy01]

Yes they did. However, it's not fully wide open. Third parties must manufacture their products under license from Canon.

There is no restriction on manual lenses, or 3rd party EF / EFS lenses adapted to RF.

I don't think this is quite correct. I think there is no restriction on fully manual lenses - that is, lenses with no communication to the camera body because no contacts.

The MF lenses that have electronically controlled aperture (like my Samyang 14mm f2.4 XP) do not currently work with newer R bodies (R3, R7, R10, R8, R6 ii, R5 ii & R1).

What I meant was full manual lenses.

Electronic communications is the area that Canon has restricted to license agreements.

There is a list of RF lenses from 3rd parties here https://lesdeuxpiedsdehors.com/en/canon-rf-lenses-list/

That list appears to be only RF mount lenses (which is the title of the list), not the EF mount lenses (like the Samyang XP I was referring to), and even then the list is not accurate (AFAIK) for anyone wanting to buy a lens for newer R bodies. For example, the list of Samyang/Rokinon lenses shows a few, but as far as I know all or most of them ceased being compatible after the R5/R6 bodies.

 

[Andy01]

It's kind of a "yes," but "not really" situation. Bottomline is that Canon has opened up the mount to 3rd parties for lenses it gives low priority too but still support the brand -- specifically speciality manual and crop sensor. To date zero 3rd party FF lenses have been announced or even teased and I would not expect them in the near or mid-term.

Of course, no one expected the licensing deals with Sigma and Tamron for aps-c … until they were announced. I suspect that extending the licenses to FF may depend on whether the aps-c lenses actually sell well.

I suspect the difference between RF and RF-S might be similar to EF vs EF-S or EF-M. Canon focused very heavily on EF and left third party to fill in the gaps for EF-S and EF-M (both of which had very limited line-ups).

I am doubtful that Canon will open up FF RF to third party until they have a much more comprehensive line-up and have achieved a degree of market saturation, but I would like to be wrong.

 

[Myles Baker]

Yes they did. However, it's not fully wide open. Third parties must manufacture their products under license from Canon.

There is no restriction on manual lenses, or 3rd party EF / EFS lenses adapted to RF.

I don't think this is quite correct. I think there is no restriction on fully manual lenses - that is, lenses with no communication to the camera body because no contacts.

The MF lenses that have electronically controlled aperture (like my Samyang 14mm f2.4 XP) do not currently work with newer R bodies (R3, R7, R10, R8, R6 ii, R5 ii & R1).

What I meant was full manual lenses.

Electronic communications is the area that Canon has restricted to license agreements.

There is a list of RF lenses from 3rd parties here https://lesdeuxpiedsdehors.com/en/canon-rf-lenses-list/

That list appears to be only RF mount lenses (which is the title of the list), not the EF mount lenses (like the Samyang XP I was referring to), and even then the list is not accurate (AFAIK) for anyone wanting to buy a lens for newer R bodies. For example, the list of Samyang/Rokinon lenses shows a few, but as far as I know all or most of them ceased being compatible after the R5/R6 bodies.

Adapted lenses that I have work fine. Both Canon & 3rd party. That said, I obviously havn't tried everything on this list.

The thing about 3rd party lenses, even in EF times was because many of them are reverse engineered any changes in firmware in a camera may require a firmware update of the lens to maintain compatability. That doesn't affect fully manual lenses but can affect any lens communicating with the camera. That's on the lens maker to update the lens, not Canon.

For lisensed 3rd party lenses I doubt that will be an issue.

 

[Franz Kerschbaum]

I bought the lens already last year from my german dealer https://www.achatzi.de/voigtlaender-nokton-50-1.0-canon-rf-mount