Canon has finally released information about their RF lens control ring modification that was announced alongside the EOS R last year.
The service is a reasonable $79 USD. This service would likely benefit some video shooters. There's no mention of what it would cost to put a modified lens back to its stock form.
From Canon USA:
What is the Control Ring's Clicking Sound Modification Service?
Canon’s control ring’s modification service offers RF lenses and Control Ring Mount Adapter EF-EOS R owners the opportunity to remove/reapply the control ring's clicking sound.
Why might this be needed?
The click action of the control ring allows the user to have a sense of how much it is being turned. However, if used during video shooting, the sound of the control ring operation may be recorded.
Pricing
Model | Price* |
RF Lenses | $79.99 |
Control Ring Mount Adapter EF-EOS R | $59.99 |
*Tax and freight fee are NOT included *All pricing is subject to change
The price ist 3250 € here for the 28-70, so this modification should have been added without extra payment....
They could have designed the ring with a switch to let anyone chose, if they want it to be declicked or not. But then they wouldn't get 79 additional $$.
That's like the ring around the lens of the G7X II. Some things still seem to move in discrete steps even with the clicks off. But I'm not sure, since I haven't tried it in a while. Whatever I wanted to do, maybe a smooth zoom, didn't work as I had hoped. So I don't bother with it.
There must be another reason for the service, such as, "Whoops, our growing number of video customers aren't going to like that sound. We'll offer to correct it for those who want, and in the meantime figure out a better way to implement the control ring feature."
But your main point, that to click or not click should be a simple user choice, is right on.
Really it is "Whoops we have done this over and over again with our DSLR's ever since video has been introduced. We keep finding out that people want lenses that do not make noise and we we never pay attention, we learned nothing and need to put out a fix".
EOS R
While the R supports a higher granularity of f-stops for video I do not know if it is also supported with the "clicking" ring or not. But Canon thought to implement a finder granularity.
In an interview Nikon mentioned a nice feature: the Z zooms use the AF motor to fake being parfocal when zoomin, it keeps to the set focus distance at all zoom settings.
It would be amazing if they could get a reasonable approximation of a smooth aperture pull.