When will Sigma and/or Tamron produce RF lenses?

MG_WPB wrote:

It would have been nice if Canon had played nice with the RF lens and released the spec for the RF just like Sony did to make more competitive glass. There are a lot of Canon EOS R and RP users who are not going to spend the kind of money that Canon is charging for their RF glass. Tamron some awesome EF lenses at fair prices. I expect based on what I see with Sony third party lenses there are some nice 3rd party out their

Canon is not in business to play nice, they're in business to make money.  And they are big enough to generate a fairly extensive lineup of native lenses more quickly than anyone else in the business.  The fact  of the matter is that Canon makes nothing when a Canon user buys a Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, etc lens.  So, since they're not in the business of helping other companies make money, they don't share protocols.  It's business.

Sony and Nikon are in a different situation.  They have the same business interests, but they (or in Sony's case, the camera division) are not big enough to ramp up a whole new lineup of lenses as quickly as Canon.  So, up to a point, having third-party lenes available might be helpful to establish a new lens  mount.  They might even be licensing the tech to third parties.

So, here's what I think is going to happen:

Canon will continue to add 8-10 new lenses per year.  They already have a pretty good lineup of some spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) lenses.  Basically, they have been showing off.  They were able to begin this way because they had their very extensive catalog of EF lenses available that work really well on this platform.  They are now starting to fill in with some lower range lenses -- they have a couple of smaller aperture zooms coming out this year that will very likely be the start of their affordable lens lineup.

Meanwhile, the EF option will continue to be attractive.  If you don't want to pay $2400 for an RF 70-200 2.8, you can adapt a EF 70-200 2.8 III for $1700.  Less if you shop the sales.

One of two things will happen with Sigma, Tamron, et al.  One possibility is that they license the tech from Canon; in that case Canon makes money on every RF lens they sell and, potentially, everyone goes home happy.  The other possibility is that they build lenses on the RF mount, using the EF protocols.  In that case, they will be producing "semi-native" lenses.  Such lenses will not need an adapter, but they will also lack some of the advanced functionality of Canon's RF glass (reduced blackout time, integrated lens + IBIS stabilization, etc).  No doubt, they will reverse-engineer whatever they can, but unless they are working under license with Canon, I doubt that they will fully match the systems integration of this generation of lenses.