Poll, R mount and 3ed party lenses

noggin2k1 wrote:

I'm getting a bit bored of this rhetoric now.

Yet, you're here... again

Look at Sony. When they launched FE, their in house lenses were absolute bobbins - the majority of which were simply DSLR designs shoehorned into mirrorless (some of which are still "current" designs now.

Without 3rd party support, FE mount would have been a car crash.

Absolutely. That is a fair distinction. It took years for Sony to get the capability to make consistently decent lenses.

Putting the massive RF teles to one side, Canon has given us some brilliant "from the ground up" RF lenses. All alongside having full native support for that massive EF back catalogue, which in turn also works with 3rd party EF lenses.

Yes, some. They've also made some not so great RF lenses. And denied their users any native alternatives by locking out 3rd party glass.

Much of the EF lineup is already outdated, and over time that gap will grow, on top of some of the disappointing affordable RF options.... while Canon's competitors will keep advancing their consumer grade lens lineups.

Do you really think Sony's business model is sustainable? Fast forward 5 years when the vast majority of FE lens purchases are 3rd party - where is Sony's incentive to carry on?

Do you have the historical first/third party sales % data from Sony? I'd love to see the data behind this trend you are predicting.

And like you just said, Sony FE has been leaning on 3rd party support since the beginning. But their flagship first party glass is now among the best in the business. Why would something that has worked for nearly a decade in a shrinking market all of a sudden stop working? Given where Sony started and where they've got in the camera industry I don't think it's unreasonable to say they might know what they're doing.

We're in a diminishing market. If locking in RF revenue to Canon keeps them investing in the platform, then that's absolutely fine by me. Photography is a business after all.

I honestly think Canon's RF lens strategy is penny wise and pound foolish. The market has been diminishing, but it's stabilizing and probably positioned for slow long term growth. Canon RF has some good standout lenses but system wise I just don't think there's much appeal to switch from the other systems... unless you really need cheap reach.