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Will Canon allow EF lenses to work on future RF bodies?

Started 1 month ago | Discussions thread
Sittatunga Veteran Member • Posts: 5,406
Re: Will Canon allow EF lenses to work on future RF bodies?

EmotionBlur wrote:

He obviously meant RF mount (and even wrote it in his reply to you). The moment EF lenses aren't supported anymore, neither would be Sigma nor Tamron, and the adapter alone doesn't make it an "open system". Like you I don't think the EF system will be locked out any time soon if ever, but making a system more "open" only thanks to old lenses and old systems doesn't seem the way to go to me. Eventually Canon will have to lift the ban, license the AF patent or something.

Ef lenses are supported on Red and other video cameras, micro four-thirds, Fuji X and G, Nikon Z and Sony E etc., so Canon won't be in any hurry to be the only manufacturer apart from Pentax to make cameras that can't use EF lenses.

Having said that, I can't find an instance where Canon have ever licensed the EF lens patents for stills camera lenses; all the third-party manufacturers have had to reverse engineer their lenses.  So I'm sure that "something" is one of them managing to produce an RF mount lens that doesn't infringe Canon's patents.  Or the patents expiring.  There are quite a few third party RF mount lenses available if you don't need EXIF data or AF, so there doesn't seem to be an actual enforceable ban.

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