Friday rant: The future of Canon RF and 3rd party lenses

jwilliams wrote:

Lisa Horton wrote:

My #.02

Sales of interchangeable lens cameras have dropped precipitously since their peak. Camera makers have no choice but to adapt to that reality. In the past the pie was big enough that the camera makers could "let" the third party lens makers have a piece of it and there was still enough for the camera maker to be healthy and profitable.

The pie is so much smaller now. Even taking more of the pie, it's still a lot less than their share of the larger pie was. I think that they 'need' those lens sales more now than they did in the not so distant past.

The counter to that is that the end user has even less of a selection of lenses to choose from since they are not only being limited by lack of 3rd party lenses, but Canon itself will now put out even less in the way of lenses due to the shrinking market.

I'm not saying your statements are wrong, but if they are correct, the end user is getting hit twice. That will make it hard to stay in a brand with such limited options.

First of all, nobody but Canon has any idea what their plans are concerning future deals with 3rd party players. So folks continually stating otherwise are doing a disservice to the entire Camera industry.

Exactly how many folks other then apparently those in select forums and threads, actually buy more than the kit lens? So unless somebody can a true read on the market for 3rd party lens, regardless of brand, it's nothing more than just talk.

If may be hard for you to stay with Canon, but others might feel the exact opposite. Canon has plenty of lens options, and for those that can't find what they need from within Canon, I strongly suspect Gear isn't the real problem. Barring Rare exceptions. Very rare.