Canon's RF mount has generally produced some quite impressive lenses, but the company has also been quite aggressive in stopping third-party manufacturers from creating lenses for the mount, much to the frustration of many photographers. In a recent interview, the company has confirmed that their strategy has effectively not changed.
In recent years, companies like Sigma, Tamron, and Samyang have created thriving third-party lens ecosystems, with some options filling in gaps left by first-party lenses and others offering alternatives to those made by the likes of Canon and Nikon, often at more affordable prices. While most manufacturers allow such lenses, Canon has been quite restrictive, stopping the manufacturing of essentially all lenses except those that do not have autofocus.
Canon has said that they will consider licensing the RF mount on a case by case basis, considering how a lens fits within their current lens lineup and future plans, though, for the most part, they have continued to be rather restrictive, leaving the RF mount relatively lacking compared to other mounts when it comes third-party options.
In fact, in a recent interview with Camera Beta, Canon reiterated this strategy, saying (translated):
...if we receive a request from a third-party lens company to open the mount, we will study whether to license it based on Canon's own business plan and strategy. In fact, we are now communicating with several third-party lens companies in this regard.
It seems that the company intends to continue to be restrictive in licensing the RF mount. Certainly, that's their right, but it has generated a fair amount of frustration among photographers and filmmakers who had hoped to see eventually see lenses from a variety of popular third-party manufacturers make their way to Canon's mirrorless cameras.
Do you mean the EF line or the R line? I'm guessing that a lot of the Not Canon people dislike the adapter. I remember when Sony had a rudimentary lens line up and people were buying an adapter to use CANON lenses. And that adapter was hit or miss at best. Canon has an adapter that works seamlessly but many don't want to use it. Horses for courses, I guess. I say it works seamlessly because I have EF, Tamron, and Sigma lenses from my 5D camera days and they work better now.
In all honesty i have no idea what you wanted to say here. People dont want to use adapter and then? It just works? Sorry ... confused with your entire comment.
I just made a point that adapted lenses work as good or better than they did on Canon DSLRs. It's more a point that the crying about Canon not allowing, so far, third party companies to make RF compatible lenses is a bit overblown considering the results that most users have using the adapter.
OK. There are people there that dont share your opinion and/or sentiment.
Do lenses work as good? Yes and No. Yes, they focus nicely and go to the best of their abilities when in single AF. But NO actually starts the moment we try to use adapted EF lenses in Servo mode where almost all 3rd party lenses and not all but most Canon own lenses start to hunt and present jittery behavior just so they can get a correct focus. If this was not the case, sure, works fine, but because of this I have between 45 and 50% of missed focus. This is even further exacerbated when shooting wide open on fast lens when eye is no longer in focus but someplace else. Now i know you will probably have a fit, "you should not shoot people wide open in servo" bla bla bla, but not my point. Point is that this does not happen with RF lenses, hence not same or better.
Most of 3rd party lenses made to work on mirrorless cameras of other makers dont have this behavior and also have stellar sharpness that EF mount lenses just dont have (soft corners etc etc). But this behaviour does happen when you mount a EF adapter on Sony cameras.Lenses start to hunt, move around so much, you feel dizzy. My guess is it has to do with how EF lenses work, right? If that is the case, adapted lenses just dont work as good in both terms of quality or performance.
So ... why would we want not to have better sharpness and better performance of modern lenses? I am sure that 3rd party manufactures can just slap RF mount since they have already developed lenses for other camera systems. It would not even be hard.
I'm basing my observation from my experience. My third party lenses work VERY well in servo with eye detect. I really don't care about other's opinions when my stuff works as well as it does. The very first time I had it in the field, using my $1000 Sigma 150-600 C, it locked onto the eye of a chicadee...black eye, black head. Not bad for a lens you claim shouldn't work very well using it the way I did.
But, you have your opinions which are worth no more or no less than mine. I'm basing mine on my EXPERIENCE. Good enough for me.
I see, but i did say that its exacerbated when using fast lenses? Due to how all canon lenses focus with aperture wide open? Sigma 100-600 is not considered fast lens, and at distances i assume you are shooting, its all past 10-30 meters and closer to infinity focus, where there is less hunting and less jittery action.
Now try doing the same with 85mm 1.4 lens with person standing 2 meters away and casually talking and moving their head, not much, but not being stiff either. That lens will make so much noises and you will hear it work hard to keep focus on that persons eye. RF lens is almost like its STM lens ... no effort, while adapted lens goes into forward backward ... forward backwaaard a little ... there it is ... forward ... backward, and that dance of insecure focus just keep going and going and going. This actually happens with either Canon or Sigma or Tamron lenses (ok Tamron is worst offender here, but not by much).
I rarely shoot birds and nature, but i shoot people, sports, runways ... etc. If i used it with DSLR it does not miss, if i adapt it and put on RF camera ... percentage of missed focus is high. Then switch to RF lens ... no missed focus pictures ... at all. If there are its not because lens missed it, but because 2 people overlapped and camera got confused who to follow.
Sorry... my #1 lens is my EF 70-200 f2.8 LII which is considered a gold standard when it comes to fast EF zooms. It works great with my R5. I also have a Tamron 35 f1.8, the very first one that came out years ago, and it works very well. I had it sent back to have the firmware updated so that it could use the Tamron Dock. Old time third party lens that works with a new Canon camera. My experience. Don't know what else to tell you.
Canon 135 F2.0 ... jumpy, Canon 50mm 1.2 jumpy, Canon 300mm f2.8 oh so jumpy and unhappy. Sigma 85 1.4 jittery jumpy, Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro USM sooo jumpy. I can go on, and you will notice these are mostly Canon lenses i named here.
Don't care. Mine work fine.
In that case, since you do not qualify for this discussion, please stop participating.
You dont have problems, people do. I am not only person that have this experience, just like you are not only that has yours. Yours does not help or sheds any new light on why people dont want to purchase into RF system. You like it, it works and I am happy for you. On other hand i dont and like other people who are trying to explain why they are frustated and unhappy with Canon trying to express that feeling.
So who died and put you in charge?
Absolutely no one, but you dont have problem with either RF system nor you are affected (in your own words). Hence why would you be here then just to annoy people who have problem. Is it out of malice or just enjoy arguing?
How is my having a positive experience with my stuff annoy people? A suggestion; put me on your ignore list. You'll feel much better at the end of the day. :rolleyes:
Oh ... you are not annoying me. I find you amusing.
Oh, but I am. You're the only one in this thread that dislikes the fact that I have had nothing but good fortune with my stuff, so much so that you want me to stop posting like you've been promoted to moderator status. Either disregard my posts or continue to whine about them. But your attempt to silence me is fruitless in the extreme.
I never said good fortune. I said you have no problem and not affected with problems other people have, yet you keep posting about it like its true for everyone?
Silence you? I would think a man who has nothing to add of value too conversation would himself find out he is just bothering others (not me specifically). I admire you for standing up for yourself ... thats not the issue. Issue is you are wasting your time and watering down conversation other people are having.
If you wish to continue, please ... be my guest, but please do that by listening what people are saying. Title is "Canon continue to restrict 3rd party ... Frustrating photographers". I feel that you are not frustrated, hence my feeling you do not qualify for this conversation, but i might be wrong. If i am, please accept my apologies, but please do tell, are you?
Just adding perspective. I'm the counter to the complaints. If that bothers you, then accept my apology. But me adding my two cents does nothing to diminish this thread. I wish I had that kind of influence, but I don't. I'm just a happy Canon user.
Are you sure that your bad experience is not caused with wrong continuous AF setup (servo) and not the lenses... We don't have any of those issues with EF L 135, 85, 50 or 100 macro.. We aldo own 24, 35 and 200 L primes. What camera are you shooting with? R5?
Loss leader approach - not exactly a hard strategy to figure out. Lock up the lens market so you can lower margins on the bodies with the assurance you can make it up plus some on lens sales.
But Canon's bodies are just as expensive, or in many cases, even more expensive, than the comparable bodies from Sony. So I don't see how you think that Canon has lowered the margins on bodies. "Lowered" .... compared to what?
At the moment it is less expensive to purchase Fuji GFX with few lenses then to purchase R5 with few equally good lenses. I can get a MEDIUM format for less money !!!
Let that sink in.
Yes, that was my point I was making to K M ... that Canon has certainly NOT lowered the margins on their bodies. I still have no idea why he thought they lowered margins when every fact I see runs to the contrary. Still waiting for an explanation from him.
Just bought my R6 and love it, but Canon lenses are overpriced due to the lack of competition. Also, their software sucks and ocassionaly works. That being said, you are forced to use a terrible quality paid app for a simple RAW file USB transfer from camera to phone. Nikon is just plug in and drag and drop with no specialized app. Cornering the market is not cool and makes me think about selling this camera on ebay and going back to Nikon. Closed systems are annoying and it is a business model that works only for few brands that offer stellar performance in every aspect (hardware and software). Canon has good cameras, their software stinks, and lenses are Ok. None of the three are stellar.
Would it be possible for third-party lens manufacturers to design all the electronics to the EF specification and buy Canon EF-to-RF mount converters and incorporate them directly into the third-party lens design internally, thereby bypassing the need to license the RF design and specification?