Canon will release a trio of RF mount wide angle L prime lenses in the first half of 2023

Kit.

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1000% Canon says just use the current 50 1.4 on an adapter. They have not looked at that lens in so long they forget how shit it was.
It was the kind of shit useful in the film era.

Now, if you want to redo it to be non-shit for modern sensors, it will weight and cost 3 times as much. Given that ISO 3200 is the new ISO 400 now, the lens will have a dubious value.
 
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neuroanatomist

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It was the kind of shit useful in the film era.

Now, if you want to redo it to be non-shit for modern sensors, it will weight and cost 3 times as much. Given that ISO 3200 is the new ISO 400 now, the lens will have a dubious value.
I suspect Canon knows this, which is why there have been updates to the 50/1.8 and 50/1.2, while the 50/1.4 has languished.
 
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neuroanatomist

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All this over half a stop of light lol
Well, in fairness it's about more than that. The 50/1.8 lenses are cheaply built and don't exactly have stellar IQ, particularly away from the center of the frame. Granted, the same is true of the EF 50/1.4, but that's an old lens design. A modern 50/1.4 along the lines of the 35/1.8 and 85/2 would be better built, have IS, and likely be sharp in the center wide open and have decent corners by f/4 or so. Canon just doesn't seem to want to make one.

OTOH, there's no pleasing some people, e.g. @Kiton saying there's no RF 85/2 and when corrected on that saying he has one but it's macro and slow-focusing so, "It doesn't really count as an 85mm general purpose lens." Whatever. :rolleyes:
 
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EOS 4 Life

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We all understand how businesses work and how their purpose is to maximize profits
Businesses that maximize profits in the short term tend not to do well in the long term, see Sunbeam.
Businesses exist to increase shareholder value.
Sometimes value and profit do not even align.
Twitter was sold for $44B.
They barely broke even.
 
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David - Sydney

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No wide-angle L prime lenses.
No zoom lenses past 500 mm.
Lack of mid-priced lenses.
IMHO the non-L lens line-up is pretty much set.
Yep, Canon doesn't have any ultra wide L lenses. Their EF14L was very expensive and not great. The question for Canon is what is the volume of sales for this segment. The RF16/2.8 meets the vlogging needs and there is a lot of competition from Sigma. Perhaps this rumour will address the the missing bits in the moderately wide focal lengths.

Has Canon ever made a zoom past 500mm? Prior to the RF100-500mm, has Canon ever made a zoom past 400mm?

The mid priced 50mm is missing but aren't the f4 zoom trinity reasonably priced?

I guess my point is that Canon is still on their path to releasing new RF lenses ie they haven't stopped yet although some EF/EF-S/EF-M lenses have been discontinued so that would provide some comfort that more RF lenses are to come. That hasn't stopped people wanting more and this is natural but would seem strange that users would lose money switching for lenses that don't seem to be niche/specialty ones.
 
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David - Sydney

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Businesses that maximize profits in the short term tend not to do long in the long term, see Sunbeam.
Businesses exist to increase shareholder value.
Sometimes value and profit do not even align.
Twitter was sold for $44B.
They barely broke even.
And now Telsa's price is down significantly with Elon selling >$3B of stock to fund the refinancing of his Twitter debt. Not the richest person in the world anymore but not broke either. His current management skills are another thing.
 
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Kiton

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Well, in fairness it's about more than that. The 50/1.8 lenses are cheaply built and don't exactly have stellar IQ, particularly away from the center of the frame. Granted, the same is true of the EF 50/1.4, but that's an old lens design. A modern 50/1.4 along the lines of the 35/1.8 and 85/2 would be better built, have IS, and likely be sharp in the center wide open and have decent corners by f/4 or so. Canon just doesn't seem to want to make one.

OTOH, there's no pleasing some people, e.g. @Kiton saying there's no RF 85/2 and when corrected on that saying he has one but it's macro and slow-focusing so, "It doesn't really count as an 85mm general purpose lens." Whatever. :rolleyes:
You are right about the 50s, I have the 1.8 for now, it is an ok walk around lens, but it lacks! The focus in low light is brutal. The 85 macro is a specialty or niche lens, that is fact, all there is no doubt to that. It is a very sharp nice lens, in it targeted place. No more, no less. It deserves its place in the lineup, but so does a non macro 85. I shoot pictures every day of my life, people stop me at events and in the street to talk gear very often. I do not think I am wrong or alone in wanting a small light decent prime in wide, 50 and 85 range.

One of the most often asked questions is, when walking around with a 70-200 f4, why I do not have a 2.8. I have both, but if walking around in daylight with no assignment, I take the 4.
 
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neuroanatomist

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The 85 macro is a specialty or niche lens, that is fact, all there is no doubt to that. It is a very sharp nice lens, in it targeted place. No more, no less. It deserves its place in the lineup, but so does a non macro 85.
Canon disagrees: "With a focal length of 85 millimeters and a bright, maximum aperture of f/2 for beautiful bokeh, this versatile lens is a great choice for portraits and street photography, as well as low light scenes or during concerts, and with the addition of macro capability, even close-up and macro photography will provide stellar results."

The current RF 85/2 is the non-L 85mm. There are two versions of the L-series lens. I very much doubt there will be another RF 85mm lens from Canon.
 
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Jethro

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The 85 macro is a specialty or niche lens, that is fact, all there is no doubt to that. It is a very sharp nice lens, in it targeted place. No more, no less.
Well, yes, there is quite a bit of doubt about that. The RF 85mm f/2 only magnifies up to .5x. In years gone by it would barely even be considered a 'macro' lens (ie there is a certain amount of marketing hype in so doing), as a traditional specialist macro lens magnifies 1x. That's not to say it's not useful to macro photographers - for a number of years I used the EF 24-70 f/4L, whch has an excellent .7x macro magnification. But that was an all-rounder lens with a useful macro function as the cherry on top, and so is the RF 85 f/2.
 
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Kiton

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Well, yes, there is quite a bit of doubt about that. The RF 85mm f/2 only magnifies up to .5x. In years gone by it would barely even be considered a 'macro' lens (ie there is a certain amount of marketing hype in so doing), as a traditional specialist macro lens magnifies 1x. That's not to say it's not useful to macro photographers - for a number of years I used the EF 24-70 f/4L, whch has an excellent .7x macro magnification. But that was an all-rounder lens with a useful macro function as the cherry on top, and so is the RF 85 f/2.

Well, if you guys are right, I can't wait for sigma to be permitted by the canon gods to make glass for RF. The 85 f2 is really nice in some applications and really shit in others. It totally stinks for video too. I guess it is true what they say, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can not please all of the people all of the time. the 50 1.8 is mediocre hold over lens and so is the 85 f2.
 
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Jethro

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The 85 f2 is really nice in some applications and really shit in others. It totally stinks for video too. I guess it is true what they say, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can not please all of the people all of the time. the 50 1.8 is mediocre hold over lens and so is the 85 f2.
I think you're being very hard on this lens (which is not an L, I should add) - Hans at Optical Limits is enthusiastic (Highly recommended) about it's optical performance:

"... the Canon RF 85mm f/2 STM IS macro is capable of delivering outstanding image quality. It's already very sharp at f/2 - even on a high megapixel body - and it's about as sharp as it gets at f/4. Lateral CAs are negligible. There's a slight degree of pincushion distortion but image auto-correction can eliminate the traces without significant side effects. A vignetting of 2 f-stops at f/2 is in line with other lenses in this class so an activated auto-correction is a good idea here."

I can't comment on it's video performance, but for a lens of this price and specs, it looks pretty impressive to me.
 
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koenkooi

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I think you're being very hard on this lens (which is not an L, I should add) - Hans at Optical Limits is enthusiastic (Highly recommended) about it's optical performance:

"... the Canon RF 85mm f/2 STM IS macro is capable of delivering outstanding image quality. It's already very sharp at f/2 - even on a high megapixel body - and it's about as sharp as it gets at f/4. Lateral CAs are negligible. There's a slight degree of pincushion distortion but image auto-correction can eliminate the traces without significant side effects. A vignetting of 2 f-stops at f/2 is in line with other lenses in this class so an activated auto-correction is a good idea here."

I can't comment on it's video performance, but for a lens of this price and specs, it looks pretty impressive to me.
To quiet down the STM motors, the body slows down the focus in video mode to "let's have a coffee break while it racks focus" type of speeds.

Personally, I like the lens very much for the stills it delivers. My main gripe is the working distance needed for full-body shots, I have to keep running ahead of my kids. But that's a generic 85mm issue :)
 
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