Canon officially announces the RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM, RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM and new firmware for the EOS R and EOS RP

[yeahright]

I know it'll never happen but I REALLY wish they'd make touch AF have a "sensitivity" setting in relative mode. The cursors moves too slow. If I could adjust sensitivity I'd like touch AF better than a joystick but I hate having to swipe my finger tons of times to get the cursor across the screen.

I don't own an EOS R but may in the future, and the relative touch and drag AF method sounds very interesting to me. I did a bit of research on this sensitivity issue and there seems to be quite a divide whether people find it useful and fast or too slow. So I'd like to ask a question:

The way I would assume that it *should* work in relative mode (but maybe doesn't, maybe you could clarify), is: Say, the bottom right part of the screen is selected as touch and drag AF area, and it's set to relative mode. Let the current focus point be on the top left corner of the image, and I'd like to move it to the bottom right, which is the furthest possible distance that could ever be needed. I would then want to touch the AF focus area at the very top left corner, i.e. the center of the screen (having selected only the bottom right part of the screen for touch and drag AF), and quickly swipe to the lower right corner of the screen (= the lower right corner of the touch and drag AF area). And this should be enough to move the focus point accordingly to the lower right corner of the image. This is what I would expect and this would be (as far as I think without having actually used the R) enough sensitivity to quickly change focus point to any desired point without the need for doing multiple swipes. So my question is:

a) Does it indeed require more than one full swipe across the entire active touch and drag area on the screen to actually move the focus point over the entire image? (This would indeed be a bad implementation.)

or

b) would you simply prefer not to actually utilize the entire active touch and drag area but rather move your thumb by only a few Millimeters (just like you would with a joystick) in every swipe for not having to move your thumb around so much?
(This wouldn't bother me so much as the swiping distance covered on a current smartphone much exceeds the dimensions of a quarter screen on the EOS R)

Many thanks for clarification!

 

[Timedog]

I don't own an EOS R but may in the future, and the relative touch and drag AF method sounds very interesting to me. I did a bit of research on this sensitivity issue and there seems to be quite a divide whether people find it useful and fast or too slow. So I'd like to ask a question:

The way I would assume that it *should* work in relative mode (but maybe doesn't, maybe you could clarify), is: Say, the bottom right part of the screen is selected as touch and drag AF area, and it's set to relative mode. Let the current focus point be on the top left corner of the image, and I'd like to move it to the bottom right, which is the furthest possible distance that could ever be needed. I would then want to touch the AF focus area at the very top left corner, i.e. the center of the screen (having selected only the bottom right part of the screen for touch and drag AF), and quickly swipe to the lower right corner of the screen (= the lower right corner of the touch and drag AF area). And this should be enough to move the focus point accordingly to the lower right corner of the image. This is what I would expect and this would be (as far as I think without having actually used the R) enough sensitivity to quickly change focus point to any desired point without the need for doing multiple swipes. So my question is:

a) Does it indeed require more than one full swipe across the entire active touch and drag area on the screen to actually move the focus point over the entire image? (This would indeed be a bad implementation.)

or

b) would you simply prefer not to actually utilize the entire active touch and drag area but rather move your thumb by only a few Millimeters (just like you would with a joystick) in every swipe for not having to move your thumb around so much?
(This wouldn't bother me so much as the swiping distance covered on a current smartphone much exceeds the dimensions of a quarter screen on the EOS R)

Many thanks for clarification!

What you're describing is absolute mode --where the top left of the touch AF area on the screen represents the top left of the image, swiping it to the bottom right causes the focus point to move to the bottom right. Touching the middle of the touch AF area immediately moves the AF point to the middle. Basically where your finger is located at in the touch AF area is where the AF point will be on you image. This would work well for me if my thumb could reach all the way to all edges of the AF area, but it cannot without partially releasing the grip and taking my finger off the shutter button because my hands aren't large enough (I'm 6'5", I do not have small hands).

In relative mode you can touch the screen and move the focus point from its current position, in the direction of your swipe. Let's say the AF point is at the top left of the image. If I touch the middle of the AF area it does nothing until I swipe in a direction. If I swipe down it'll move from its current position in the top left and start going downwards. It's basically like a mouse, it doesn't matter where on the mousepad your mouse is placed, the cursor will move from its current location to whatever direction the mouse starts moving.

Relative mode only has one default speed. It takes several swipes to move the AF point from one side of the image to the other. It is way too slow for me. If I could change the speed so that it would take 1 or 1.5 swipes to traverse the entire AF area it would touch AF would go from barely usable to the perfect AF system for me.

 

[neuroanatomist]

I take it the RF70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM will ship in the second half of FY19 - ie first half of 2020.

You take it wrong. I'm sure they mean the calendar year, but it's irrelevant because Canon's fiscal year corresponds to the calendar year, so the second half of 2019 means before December 2019 whether you are talking about the fiscal year or the calendar year.

 

[6degrees]

Who will buy these at the prices?

 

[jvillain]

Question for R users since I’m curious: is there a way to set up a custom button that engages/disengages Eye AF (à la Sony)?
Thanks!

Not that I've found. I'd love a simple 'in/out' option like I can set with One Shot - Servo mode.

Tab 4 of the brown section is where customize buttons is. Pick the button you want to remap in there and then pretty well every selection in the camera is possible to assign including the IAF on/off feature. Customization is possibly the best feature of the R. I do love the ergonomics of the R.

The AF improvement in the future firmware looks insane

I don't know about insane. It looks like it will take it to the same level as the Nikon,Fujis and not far behind the Sonys. I definitely look forward to trying it. If it works as well as it appears to in the video it will be a real nice improvement. Who ever they hired to massage that code has been earning their keep as they allready did servo IAF as a firmware upgrade.

 

[jvillain]

Who will buy these at the prices?

The price on the 24/70 is about $500 above the existing Canon 24/70 and adds IS. Expect a price drop in about 6 months. The pros especially wedding shooters that need Canon Profesional Servrices will be looking at it really hard.

 

[Jonathan Thill]

Who will buy these at the prices?

Guess that is me.

Pre-ordered the 15-35 ($3359 Canadian after taxes) and will pre-order the 70-200 when I can. I offset the cost by selling my EF glass as I am all in with Mirrorless owning both the R and the RP.

 

[twoheadedboy]

You take it wrong. I'm sure they mean the calendar year, but it's irrelevant because Canon's fiscal year corresponds to the calendar year, so the second half of 2019 means before December 2019 whether you are talking about the fiscal year or the calendar year.

And even if they did have an off-kilter FY, say starting July 1st, that would mean Canon is in FY 2020 already, not FY 2019.

 

[PGSanta]

Who will buy these at the prices?

I preordered the 15-35. I’ll wait for some deals on the 70-200, and the 85 (I have the 35, and 50), and then I’m done with lenses for a little while.

 

[Viggo]

It's interesting that both lenses are no smaller than their EF variants...but have IS...which doesn't have any size impacts. So from a technical point of view...there was no technical reason that IS couldn't be added to a future EF lens....only marketing reasons.

I’m not so sure, it may not be a size issue, I don’t know, but it could be a cost issue. And these new lenses may either be better in IQ and that maybe because with the RF it’s easier to make them great so they can include IS without adding cost or weight?

 

[yeahright]

What you're describing is absolute mode --where the top left of the touch AF area on the screen represents the top left of the image, swiping it to the bottom right causes the focus point to move to the bottom right. Touching the middle of the touch AF area immediately moves the AF point to the middle. Basically where your finger is located at in the touch AF area is where the AF point will be on you image. This would work well for me if my thumb could reach all the way to all edges of the AF area, but it cannot without partially releasing the grip and taking my finger off the shutter button because my hands aren't large enough (I'm 6'5", I do not have small hands).

In relative mode you can touch the screen and move the focus point from its current position, in the direction of your swipe. Let's say the AF point is at the top left of the image. If I touch the middle of the AF area it does nothing until I swipe in a direction. If I swipe down it'll move from its current position in the top left and start going downwards. It's basically like a mouse, it doesn't matter where on the mousepad your mouse is placed, the cursor will move from its current location to whatever direction the mouse starts moving.

Relative mode only has one default speed. It takes several swipes to move the AF point from one side of the image to the other. It is way too slow for me. If I could change the speed so that it would take 1 or 1.5 swipes to traverse the entire AF area it would touch AF would go from barely usable to the perfect AF system for me.

I understand that in absolute mode there is no need to do any swiping. You just touch the AF area where you want your focus to be. I was indeed talking about relative mode, and in my question I was trying to ask whether the worst possible case (having to move the focus from top left to bottom right of the image) could be covered in relative mode with a single swipe if one was ready to utilize the maximum possible swiping distance, which coincidentally is also from top left to bottom right of the AF area. What I did not take into account was the fact that you mentioned in your reply: other than I thought, it is not easily possible to reach the full AF area with your thumb without (partly) relieving the firm grip you usually have with your other fingers around camera grip and shutter button. I just tried on my 5D4 (which is slightly larger but still comparable) - before I had actually tried, I thought that it must be easily possible to reach the FULL LCD display with my thumb without moving my other fingers, which is not even remotely true. I apparently completely overestimated the length of my thumb relative to the camera. In reality I can barely reach the right edge of the LCD without removing my other fingers from the grip. And when thinking about using relative mode vs. absolute mode it appeared to me that there wouldn't be any point in using relative mode if the full AF area could be reached easily, because then, absolute mode would always be preferrable - no need to swipe, just touch.
So as far as I understand it now what you'd need in relative mode would be an even smaller AF area than 1/4 of the screen, and easily reachable at the right edge/bottom right corner of the LCD in relative mode (which would be essentially equal to increasing the sensitivity), because now you don't even use most of the smallest AF area anyway, as you'd have your other fingers leave the grip.

 

[transpo1]

Anyone else notice the very interesting wording of the press release?

"...we are excited to expand the lens offerings and acquiesce the needs of EOS R users."

acquiesce | ˌakwēˈes | verb [no object] accept something reluctantly but without protest: Sara acquiesced in his decision.

It's as if the CEO was reluctant to offer any mirrorless offerings, LOL. I suppose we could give him the benefit of the doubt that it was a translation issue, but my guess is also that they choose their words pretty carefully and have some very good translators. The subtext seems to be: the market was going mirrorless and we gave up and decided to offer this range of new lenses and cameras.

 

[lbeck]

It's interesting that both lenses are no smaller than their EF variants...but have IS...which doesn't have any size impacts. So from a technical point of view...there was no technical reason that IS couldn't be added to a future EF lens....only marketing reasons.

No, this is incorrect. To start they are not the same sizes, the new RF lens are slightly larger and slightly heavier. They are close in size, so much that most won’t notice a difference in hand. But the RFs are larger and heavier somewhat. Check the EF sizes on the-digital-picture.com ...

Second, it is a totally different mount, RF vs EF, that changes how the lens can be designed.

 

[Jethro]

You take it wrong. I'm sure they mean the calendar year, but it's irrelevant because Canon's fiscal year corresponds to the calendar year, so the second half of 2019 means before December 2019 whether you are talking about the fiscal year or the calendar year.

You may well be right - but it's a strange way of expressing it in a press release?! I mean. We're well into the 2nd half of calendar 2019 already, and release would presumably be after the other lenses drop in late September. I guess we wait and see ...

 

[Jethro]

Anyone else notice the very interesting wording of the press release?

"...we are excited to expand the lens offerings and acquiesce the needs of EOS R users."

acquiesce | ˌakwēˈes | verb [no object] accept something reluctantly but without protest: Sara acquiesced in his decision.

It's as if the CEO was reluctant to offer any mirrorless offerings, LOL. I suppose we could give him the benefit of the doubt that it was a translation issue, but my guess is also that they choose their words pretty carefully and have some very good translators. The subtext seems to be: the market was going mirrorless and we gave up and decided to offer this range of new lenses and cameras.

I think it is a translating issue - almost certainly was meant to mean 'address' or 'satisfy' or 'respond to' the needs of EOS R users.

 

[N-VB]

Mtf from Canon japan page:
RF 15-35: https://cweb.canon.jp/eos/rf/lineup/rf15-35-f28l/image/spec/spec-mtf.png
VS EF 16-35 f4 IS https://cweb.canon.jp/ef/lineup/wide-zoom/ef16-35-f4l-is-usm/image/spec/mtf.png

RF24-70 IS https://cweb.canon.jp/eos/rf/lineup/rf24-70-f28l/image/spec/spec-mtf.png
VS EF 24-70 II https://cweb.canon.jp/ef/lineup/standard-zoom/ef24-70-f28l-ii/image/spec/mtf.png

https://cweb.canon.jp/eos/rf/shared/image/mod/media-fig.png

 

[neuroanatomist]

You may well be right - but it's a strange way of expressing it in a press release?! I mean. We're well into the 2nd half of calendar 2019 already, and release would presumably be after the other lenses drop in late September. I guess we wait and see ...

Could be they’re trying to get it out in September, but giving themselves flexibility to push that to sometime in 4Q.

 

[LukasS]

Who will buy these at the prices?

I guess me too, 15-35 and 70-200 (my old EF has no IS and it's over 15 years old). Probably by the end of the year as I'm not in a hurry.

 

[flip314]

Who will buy these at the prices?

The 15-35 is only $100 more than the MSRP of the EF 16-35 2.8 III and goes even wider. The 24-70 2.8 will sell at almost any price, and with people dying for an IS version for years they'll be flying off the shelves for the $400 premium.

I'm still waiting to see the 70-200 price because the price implied by recent rumors ($300 more than the other 2 lenses) seems excessive to me, but again it's a lens that many people want to own.

None of this is to mention that anyone that can wait another year will probably see rebates before then and a chance to buy them for a couple/few hundreds less.

 

[navastronia]

Mtf from Canon japan page:
RF 15-35: https://cweb.canon.jp/eos/rf/lineup/rf15-35-f28l/image/spec/spec-mtf.png
VS EF 16-35 f4 IS https://cweb.canon.jp/ef/lineup/wide-zoom/ef16-35-f4l-is-usm/image/spec/mtf.png

RF24-70 IS https://cweb.canon.jp/eos/rf/lineup/rf24-70-f28l/image/spec/spec-mtf.png
VS EF 24-70 II https://cweb.canon.jp/ef/lineup/standard-zoom/ef24-70-f28l-ii/image/spec/mtf.png

https://cweb.canon.jp/eos/rf/shared/image/mod/media-fig.png

Hard for me to read these well on my phone. Thoughts?