Viltrox is moving to a four-tier lens strategy, Air, EVO, Pro, Lab.

Richard CR said:

Viltrox made 2 lenses for the EOS-M Mount, and if I were a betting man, I'd assume those would be the first ones to move over to the RF mount.

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I don't think that's super likely. Viltrox is moving everything to their Air / EVO / PRO / LAB lineups. If they do start releasing RF-S lenses, I would expect them only to do so with their current gen lenses and not older ones. As they replace the older ones, those new lenses would then arrive for RF-S.

For an undefined reason, I think of the R3 as an experimental camera, a slot to incorporate new ideas that they want to try out in the buying public but not in huge quantities.

mimbu said:

Sigma isn't great at AF on the camera side of things, at least not so far.

I think the real change in L mount will come from Chinese makers. A number of them have already joined the L mount alliance. I'd guess the first Chinese L mount camera will come from DJI who has plenty of AF experience already from Hasselblad as well as their own drone-based systems. They're already a Sony customer for sensors so that seems likely to continue. Expect extremely competitive cameras from multiple Chinese manufacturers, at prices that considerably undercut the existing big brands.

Edit: DJI might even brand a FF camera with the Hassy name. That'd be pretty cool.

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While I do not disagree with what you are saying, 2 nitpickings:

1. Hasselblad is terrible at AF - take it from me, I've been using their cameras for quite a while... and
2. DJI actually already makes a FF camera with interchangeable lenses: it's the one mounted on their Inspire 3 drones. But so far their only branded H camera is the main one on the Mavic 3 / 4 drones. They do use Hassy's color science and lens design chops

David - Sydney said:

which is unfortunate but the internet meme has a lot of truth to it
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I don't know if I find it funny or sad... but quite true regardless, even if, realistically, no one is going to make a lot of money reselling photo gear

I hope a Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark III (or G1x APS C new issue) better, and available in Europe too.

ThomasTH said:

It loses quite a bit of DR when using the electronic shutter (although it uses 14 bit in ES mode).

Photographic Dynamic Range versus ISO Setting

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There is a rumor that it does DGO in mechanical shutter mode.

David - Sydney said:

Canon/Nikon/Sony probably have more granular market segments (especially by region) but for me, there are 3 buyer categories:
1 Full time professionals whose primary business is photography ie selling images or run/gun hourly rates etc.
2 Professionals whose side hustle/part time business is photography or who needs camera gear to provide an income from other sources. They aren't fussed on brand, want simplicity and are cost conscious.
3 Everyone else who can afford some or a lot of camera gear from their disposable income and make no or minimum money from images.

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They are not so much buyer categories as marketing categories.
People buy whatever they want.

Exploreshootshare said:

Sounds very interesting! Could you please provide a link? I´d like to see some pics but I can't find any using google.

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See: https://petapixel.com/2017/04/27/canon-300mm-f1-8-yes-monster-lens-exists/

Edit: A link to a pdf document (in Italian) which has specifications and lens diagram. The 300mm is in the second part of the document.

So now we need R7ii to maximise the RF APS-C lenses.

GMCPhotographics said:

The R5's 45mp sensor gives a score of 82 against the 5DSR's score of 79, the 5Ds with a score of 67.

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Have you personally compared the 5Dsr and 5DS for ‘resolution’ ? I have, and after adding just 0.2 of a pixel USM there is naff all difference. Makes me suspicious of the quoted scores of ‘79’ and ‘67’.
From a practical photography perspective I now see mp figures as native output size rather than resolution.

neuroanatomist said:

I can see a high-MP R5s coming along at some point. I can’t see Canon putting a high-MP sensor in a gripped body. Since they amalgamated the 1-series into a single body that was essentially the 1D with a FF sensor and evolved in a very non-1Ds way, the market has made a high MP gripped body less likely, not more likely.

Look at what Fuji did when they updated the GFX 100 to the MkII:
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By the same logic a ‘high resolution’ R3 ii may not be a gripped body, just new naming for what would essentially be an R5S

pet7pelt said:

Nothing beats beautiful bokeh these lenses produce, but you need to know with these telephotos where the best range for that exists when using them. I see far too many sports photographers today shooting 400 2.8s for field sports when they’d have much better images and background blur if the had used instead a 600 4.0. In the film days we called this “cropping in the camera”. Lens choice was critical for the correct aesthetic.

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The nice thing about Sony's a1 is that photographers can approximate a 600/4 when using a 400/2.8 in crop mode and still get 21mp images.

Of course a 400/2.8 with built in 1.4x TC (like what Nikon has) is an even better solution. I expect the next generations of 400/2.8 and 600/4 from both Canon and Sony will offer this as well. Will be quite disappointing if they don't!

Exploreshootshare said:

Sounds very interesting! Could you please provide a link? I´d like to see some pics but I can't find any using google.

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It was actually a 300/1.8L. If you google for that, you'll find a number of results.

CJaurelius said:

This was the last thing I was waiting for before I passed judgement on the A7V. More recently the increased sesnor speed has been coming at the expense of dynamic range. With the A7V having an increase in both speed and dynamic range I think this will be a pretty good seller.

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It loses quite a bit of DR when using the electronic shutter (although it uses 14 bit in ES mode).

I had the Nikkor 300 2.0 in the early 1980s. It was only made for a few years and was only manual focus. With its special included TC-14C 1.4x teleconverter it was actually sharper than the Nikkor 400 2.8 prime lens that came out about the same time. With the compatible 2x it wasn’t super sharp (pretty common for all 2x converters), but still very usable. Ironically, the 300 2.0 was also heavier than both the Nikkor 400 2.8 and 600 4.0. The 300 2.0 lens itself was very versatile, but obviously will still likely be pretty hefty even with today’s with modern construction techniques and materials.

Nothing beats beautiful bokeh these lenses produce, but you need to know with these telephotos where the best range for that exists when using them. I see far too many sports photographers today shooting 400 2.8s for field sports when they’d have much better images and background blur if the had used instead a 600 4.0. In the film days we called this “cropping in the camera”. Lens choice was critical for the correct aesthetic. A 300 2.0 I found was great for most indoor sports. With the 1.4x it was good for little league baseball or women’s softball, too. Again, not super great for football, soccer or baseball unless you were shooting closer action in relatively dark conditions

I truly hope Canon builds one. It’s been many years since photographers had such a useful tool. With today’s autofocus this would be a nice piece of kit.

Brown said:

If it was then they would have used a non-numerical name, like the R, Ra or the RP.

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Makes sense, but at the time the R3 was released the naming scheme with numbers was already in place. It would have been really, really awkward going back to non-numerical name such as RS (sports).

mimbu said:

Canon had an EF 300/2 many years ago, but it wasn't sold to the general public. There are a few photos around online. Interesting lens.

But price... Price is the big question. Probably above the $15k of a 600/4L as it would be a very niche product. $18k or so would not be surprising to me.

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Sounds very interesting! Could you please provide a link? I´d like to see some pics but I can't find any using google.

Yes the Blue Tilt photo is really good.

Chig said:

The 300mm f/2 is one of my dream lenses which I've posted about here more than once but my version also has 2 builtin T.C.s:
1.4x for 420mm f/2.8 and
2x for 600mm f/4

My other dream lens is 200mm f/1.4 with again 2 builtin T.Cs:

1.4x for 280mm f/2 and
2x for 400mm f/2.8

These 2 could replace the 600mm f/4 & 400mm f/2.8 and be much more versatile too.

Also would like to see an RF version of my EF200mm f/1.8 too

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I don't think we're going to see lenses with dual TCs any time soon, unless the concept of a zooming TC ever comes to fruition. It's too much bulk on the lens to have two TCs built into it.

Also, a 200/1.4 would have the same front element size as a 400/2.8. Talk about an unwieldy lens to use. I doubt we will see such a thing.

Eloniel said:

That's what Sony does, if the range start at 70 make it up to 180mm. If it's start wider you can stop at 135 or 150mm.
I guess Sony offering starting at 50mm and Tamron 35mm forced Canon to change their plan.

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Sony does overlap their 28-70/2 and 50-150/2, but the upcoming 16-28/2 doesn't overlap. Wish it did, a 16-35/2 would be incredible. Regardless, a full trinity of f2 lenses seems very surreal, the stuff of dreams not so long ago.

Also an upcoming 100-400/4GM, not related to this discussion but should be an interesting lens.

Bob Howland said:

Wild guess: Sigma is more than "thinking" about introducing a professional L-mount camera. I think they are actively working on it and it'll (update: be FF, )cost about $3000, and have about 30MP and world class focusing. Will they also introduce a cheaper version with an APS-C sensor? Who knows but they should.

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Sigma isn't great at AF on the camera side of things, at least not so far.

I think the real change in L mount will come from Chinese makers. A number of them have already joined the L mount alliance. I'd guess the first Chinese L mount camera will come from DJI who has plenty of AF experience already from Hasselblad as well as their own drone-based systems. They're already a Sony customer for sensors so that seems likely to continue. Expect extremely competitive cameras from multiple Chinese manufacturers, at prices that considerably undercut the existing big brands.

Edit: DJI might even brand a FF camera with the Hassy name. That'd be pretty cool.

The 300mm f/2 is one of my dream lenses which I've posted about here more than once but my version also has 2 builtin T.C.s:
1.4x for 420mm f/2.8 and
2x for 600mm f/4

My other dream lens is a 200mm f/1.4 with again 2 builtin T.Cs:

1.4x for 280mm f/2 and
2x for 400mm f/2.8

These 2 could replace the 600mm f/4 & 400mm f/2.8 and be much more versatile too.

Also would like to see an RF version of my EF200mm f/1.8 too