Once Canon brought the EOS R5 and RF 28-70mm f/2L USM to the market, they showed they were extremely serious about mirrorless innovation, and they have not looked back since. And it looks like they plan on keeping their foot on the gas, as more patents have emerged for interesting lens designs sure to please a lot of photographers.
The patents, discovered by Northlight Images, detail four new supertelephoto zooms lenses:
- Canon RF 150mm-600mm f/5-6.3
- Canon RF 200mm-400mm f/4
- Canon RF 200mm-500mm f/4
- Canon RF 300mm-800mm f/8
Now, of course, just because a patent is filed doesn't mean the product will come to market, but I would be very surprised not to see at least one of these designs eventually make its way into the hands of consumers. There are existing or comparable models of all but the 200-500mm f/4 from various manufacturers, and supertelephoto zooms have exploded in popularity in the last few years, so it is to be expected that Canon will get in on the action, particularly with the flagship EOS R1 waiting in the wings and the EOS R3 now available, making natural pairings with such lenses. Check out Canon Rumor's thoughts on the lenses and where they might fit in the lineup.
The 200-500 f4 and 300-800 f8 are very interesting sounding lenses. Let’s hope they don’t go the way of the 28-70 f2 in terms of weight and price!
I would be surprised to see both a 200-400mm f4 and a 200-500mm f4.
Interesting that there is no mention in this article about any of the details contained in the patent applications, such as whether or not the 200-X00 applications have verbiage about a built-in tele-extender. I would have thought that anyone reporting on these patents would at least read the patent applications and provide us with such details.
I would love to see the 150-600mm lens become a reality and weather seal it as an L lens.
got to admit the white and black lens with the red stripe brings back memories.
Haven't almost all of Canon's L telephotos over the past 20 years been white with black and a red stripe? I mean, every Canon tele I've owned has had this same coloration. Am I missing something? Or are you missing something? LOL
where does it say that normal people with cameras find big lenses "exciting"
if you can productively use a monster telephoto, fine. Otherwise, it's just more excess baggage
None of these proposed lenses are "monster" telephotos. They all fit within the "moderate to economy long telephoto" classification.
The true supertelephotos are 600mm f4, 300-800mm f5.6, 500mm f4, 800mm f5.6, 400mm f2.8, etc.
I have a 120-300/2.8 that weighs over 8 pounds. It has 105mm filter threads. Any 400/4 and 800/8 requires at least a 100mm wide entrance pupil, a 500/4 requires 125mm, so even larger than my "bowling ball" lens. They're also zooms, which add weight. The EF 200-400/4 weighs eight pounds. The EF 400/4 DO prime weighs only a little more than half that at 5 pounds. Both require 100mm entrance pupils. Any of these zoom lenses will weigh 8+ pounds, compared to the 400/2.8 that weighs less than 7, even though it requires an e.p. of 140mm. Primes can be that much lighter than zooms with the same max focal length and max aperture.
It doesn't say that, you said that. And, you answered your own question. :P
OF COURSE long telephoto zooms are designed for and marketed to people who can use telephoto lenses productively. D'oh.
Where did you get the idea that you expressed about what "normal" people find exciting? The author never said anything about normal, everyday photographers thinking that these are exciting lenses. It's like you just made it up!
Still use my Sig Monster 300-800 F5.6 on my Nikon D850. Works perfect with full AF. I'm now over 70 so an F8 version seems like it might be substantially lighter.
I also use the Sigmonster 300-800 f5.6 as my everyday lens. Small world!
And I agree that an f8 version would be much lighter and smaller, which would be great for those outings when I'm going to be hiking for hours on end, where the 13 pound Sigmonster is cumbersome.
So weird you and Michael Dougherty mentioned that lens. I just wrote and scheduled a post about it an hour ago. I’ve been wanting one for years!
That's cool! I look forward to seeing that post.
If you want to spend a bit of time using one, I'd be glad to loan you mine for a bit. I'll be driving from WA to PA in a week and a half, and could stop to drop it off to you along the way. You're in the upper midwest, if memory serves me correctly ..... is that right?
Alex ..... I did a small write up on it 2 decades ago. There is also a link to a 2-decade old Pop Photo writeup (at bottom).
https://www.mdougherty.com/100-THEPHOTOEXPERIENCE/170-EQUIPMENT/8-equipm...