Canon has been designing and releasing some crazy lenses lately, and it seems they have no intention of slowing down, with a 135mm f/1.4 lens popping up in a recent patent application.
The Canon 135mm f/2L is an absolute gem of a lens (and I consider it probably Canon's best kept secret), but it is definitely getting a bit long in the tooth as it nears 25 years of service. Since then, Canon has introduced a new lens mount with exciting new features, and they have been pushing the limits of optical design. It seems they have no intention of slowing down, with Canon Rumors reporting on the recent uncovering of a patent for an RF 135mm f/1.4 lens by Canon News.
Currently, the longest focal length with a maximum aperture of f/1.4 is 105mm, a title shared by both Nikon's AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED and Sigma's 105mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art, so a 135mm f/1.4 lens would be quite a leap beyond current standards and would certainly be a rather unique portraiture lens that would make a lot of bokeh fanatics excited. It is important to remember that companies file patents for extreme designs all the time, and often, we never see these make it to the market, but in this case, I would not be surprised to see an RF 135mm f/1.4 eventually find its way into stores.
What's "Crazy" about it? Looks to be pretty Impressive to me. ;-)
That isn't a picture of the 135mm f1.4....that's the f2 - like it says on the barrel!
I know that. I meant the title. ;-) But that f2 looks pretty too!! :-)
"Currently, the longest focal length with a maximum aperture of ƒ/1.4 is 105mm, a title shared by both Nikon and Sigma"
What about the Zeiss? They the same but manual Focus.
Also Mitakon seems to have had a manual focus 135m ƒ/1.4 out for a couple years now. There is even a sample page in dpreview.
The Zeiss is 100mm, while the Mitakon was limited run, but fair point.
I was off by 3/16 of an inch! That's nothing! Also the Mistaken looked huge! Dwarfing even the Sigma 105. You think Canon will mi like that? Or more like Nikon's 105mm?
It will definitely be quite large just because of the physics involved, but I'm sure they'll try to keep it at least reasonably sized given that it's a tailor-made portrait lens.
Canon's clearly cleaning out the closet; they've already stated there won't be any more EF lenses (unless the market demands it).
Not really crazy !
With a good RF FullFrame mount (not a APSC adapted to FF) such apertures should be the modern standard professional lenses.
We can expect from Canon a modern lineup like 14L1.4, 24L1.2, 50L1.2, 85L1.2, 135L1.4 =>this will allow to play between good shuttering speed and adapted DOF for any subjects any time of the day indoor or outdoor.
It's really time now to elevate the standards for Bodies and Lenses which mean 32MP APSC and 75MPFF with F1.2 lenses sharp from corner to corner at any apertures.
I just got an EOS R. I just had my first session with it and an adapted 85mm f1.8. It so nice to compose and THEN focus (using eye AF). I can’t want yo see what Canon does with the AF mount!
I wonder if they’ll add stabilization.
I owned the original and found it to be an outdoors only lens because it required such a high shutter speed AND a lot of working distance.
It produced beautiful results, but I never used it because it was just too inconvenient.
I shot these with my 135mm and will never get rid of it. It really IS magical.