Canon 24-240

travelinbri_74 wrote:

I am oddly excited about this lens. If this lens is decent - and most recent Canon entires have been - this plus the RP could make an excellent travel addition (and might cost less combined than the Sony 100-400 does alone).

Will be interesting to see the quality of a superzoom. I feel like there hasn't been a first party superzoom released for quite a few years.

Ironic; Sony has an equivalent lens, the 24-240 f/3.5-6.3 I believe? If you note on DXO, it performs well for a superzoom and is a FF superzoom for mirrorless mount.

Canon also has an EF-M little brother, the EF-M 18-150 f/3.5-6.3 IS STM which is also notable as it's a really good performer for a superzoom.

Some conclusions I'll draw from them and the specs...

It doesn't have to stink. The Sony performs well, and Sony isn't a major optics manufacturer IE they don't have all the hat tricks of say Canon / Nikon / Carl Zeiss and they managed to pull off a decent superzoom in the same range.

Since the Canon starts at f/4, not f/3.5, I suspect that 4mm flange distance does play a factor. 1/3 stop isn't big potatoes, but that may be due to Canon choosing a more conservative flange distance which will limit their options on the wide / fast end of the lens, which it has.

However, in the same vein, Canon has a wider throat and this is a newer optic. Both have bearing on the IS capability of the lens. The EF-M 18-150 f/3.5-6.3 IS STM sports a healthy 4-stops of IS. This lens should match or surpass it as the EOS R, both of them (R and RP) support dual sensing IS that is an added 1/2 stop of IS efficiency by tying in sensor data feedback to the lenses IS gyro and the added throat width permits more room for IS gyro presence.

Canon also does have more experience with optics, compared to Sony's lack of. Odds are it'll be somewhat sharper/better optically.

The EF-M 18-150's STM motor is really decent. Just because it's STM (not USM) doesn't mean it's slow. My RF 35mm f/1.8 IS STM is plenty speedy.

Now, what isn't telling, the price.

It's not an L lens, so it doesn't have to be as much as a car. But, Sony's own 24-240 for FF is a grand. Market is usually a good predicator. Canon could be aggressive here and launch it sub-$1000, but by how much? Canon's optics are cheaper than Nikon/Sony historically on the plus side, so it should be cheaper. But, I'd be shocked if this thing landed at $499. It's probably somewhere in between if I had to guess, which makes the total ownership of the RP, less desirable.

I do suspect you get what you pay for. A 24-240 that's probably superior in almost every regard than Sony's, except the maximum wide aperture operational spec, that costs less, is hard to loose sight of. But, the target crowd of the RP is low end.

Maybe Canon will do a bundle deal during Xmas when this thing should show up? Hard to say.