If the EF Mount Is Phased Out, What to Do With Quiver?

YuengLinger

Print the ones you love.
CR Pro
Dec 20, 2012
3,739
2,255
USA
If EF is dethroned by a new full-frame mirrorless mount, would you hold on to your collection of EF lenses? How long? Would you keep those "L" beauties for the rest of your life, leaving them as a legacy to posterity?

What type of performance threshold would you demand of an adapter?

Personally, as y'all know, I think Canon is delaying a FF announcement because it won't bring good news to EF owners. Canon might be waiting to see how Nikon's new mount affects Nikon customers...

But I also believe Canon will continue to service current EF lenses and any in the pipeline for another 7-10 years. So, call me chicken little, or just an EF owner interested in the question of what to do with lenses that will no longer have the great resale value we've enjoyed for many years.
 
Jul 21, 2010
31,023
12,777
latest
 
  • Like
Reactions: 7 users
Upvote 0

SecureGSM

2 x 5D IV
Feb 26, 2017
2,360
1,231
"performance threshold for adapter"? ... it will be as simple and work just as perfectly well as the Canon EF-/EF-M adapter. Where's your problem?

No need whatsoever to sell EF glass any time soon. We will have a long transition period and can buy EF-X lenses if and when we please anytime in the future.

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/09/there-is-no-free-lunch-episode-763-lens-adapters/

“... Putting a great lens on your camera via an adapter might still be better than an average native-mount lens. On the other hand, that great lens certainly wouldn’t be as good as it would be on its native-mount camera...”
There is no free lunch.... full stop.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0

unfocused

Photos/Photo Book Reviews: www.thecuriouseye.com
Jul 20, 2010
7,184
5,483
70
Springfield, IL
www.thecuriouseye.com
...So, call me chicken little...

I'd be happy to.

I'm not sure if there is a limit to how many threads a person can start on the same topic, but here is my advice: QUIT HESITATING. SELL all your EF Lenses today. Put them all on eBay and sell them now, before the market collapses. That way you can quit obsessing over this and you will have a nice warm smug feeling when the rest of us find out in October that all of our EF lenses have become obsolete overnight.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Upvote 0
Apr 23, 2018
1,088
153
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/09/there-is-no-free-lunch-episode-763-lens-adapters/

“... Putting a great lens on your camera via an adapter might still be better than an average native-mount lens. On the other hand, that great lens certainly wouldn’t be as good as it would be on its native-mount camera...”
There is no free lunch.... full stop.

we've discussed that article repeatedly. Fact is: Roger does not name out tested adapters. But all of them were "cross-plattform mount adapters", a much more challenging scenario than OEM Canon-to-Canon extension tube adapter. The adapters tested also where third party stuff only, presumably the likes of Metabones etc.

Original Canon adapter are a different story. I have not personally experienced any detrimental effect on EF lens IQ using original the Canon EF-/EF-M adapter. Nor have I seen any reviews/tests or reliable data showing any performance hit on IQ with that Canon adapter. Only possible concerns are with regards to AF performance and anything related to lens-body communication. But even if, then it will not be "adapter-induced", but solely due to limitations of AF drive and protocol implementation in [many, most] EF lenses.
 
Upvote 0
Apr 23, 2018
1,088
153
... And this one could involve thousands of dollars lenses becoming obsolete within a few years.

purchase of any consumer electronics item - including big, fat, devilish expensive Canon L-lenses - is always CONSUMER SPENDING, NOT an investment, unless you intend to *and are able* to earn more money with that equipment than what you paid for it. In that case you should be able to cover cost of gear within a reasonyble write-off period, typically 4-5 years. THEN and only THEN is it an INVESTMENT. Otherwise it will always be CONSUMPTION. Money spent.

If I was as concerned as you are about *potential residual second-hand resale value* of gear, I would definitely not BUY any of it but only rent it.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0

YuengLinger

Print the ones you love.
CR Pro
Dec 20, 2012
3,739
2,255
USA
purchase of any consumer electronics item - including big, fat, devilish expensive Canon L-lenses - is always CONSUMER SPENDING, NOT an investment, unless you intend to *and are able* to earn more money with that equipment than what you paid for it. In that case you should be able to cover cost of gear within a reasonyble write-off period, typically 4-5 years. THEN and only THEN is it an INVESTMENT. Otherwise it will always be CONSUMPTION. Money spent.

If I was as concerned as you are about *potential residual second-hand resale value* of gear, I would definitely not BUY any of it but only rent it.
These are good insights. Seriously. Thank you!
 
Upvote 0
Jul 21, 2010
31,023
12,777
Some of you are asking why I keep writing about the biggest industry shake up since digital sensors. And this one could involve thousands of dollars lenses becoming obsolete within a few years.
I suppose ostriches with their heads in the sand aren't taking too many photos anyway.
Just like EF-M resulted in EF-S lenses becoming obsolete within a few years? I suppose Chicken Littles are so paralyzed with abject fear they aren't taking too many photos anyway (instead they're here, starting irrelevant thread after irrelevant thread).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
Upvote 0

Don Haines

Beware of cats with laser eyes!
Jun 4, 2012
8,246
1,939
Canada
Some of you are asking why I keep writing about the biggest industry shake up since digital sensors. And this one could involve thousands of dollars lenses becoming obsolete within a few years.
I suppose ostriches with their heads in the sand aren't taking too many photos anyway.
But you are operating under the assumption that with the introduction of a Canon mirrorless FF camera, that ALL EF lenses will suddenly become obsolete. That assumption is flawed.


First, If Canon did suddenly announce that all new mirrorless FF cameras would be using a new and completely incompatible mount to the existing EF mount, there are still 95 MILLION cameras out in the field that use the EF mount. All of these people are still in the market for lenses, EF lenses....

Second, It is not a given that there will be a new mount. There may be, there may not be..... there may even be a FF mirrorless mount for lower end cameras and high end cameras may continue with the existing EF mount.... kind of like rebels and M cameras. Remember, there is a market for tiny cameras, and there is a market for large cameras with better ergonomics and more controls. Canon does not have to choose one or the other, they can ( and almost undoubtedly will) choose both....

Third, a lot of people are heavily invested in the EF system. To suddenly end it is to set those people free to start from scratch. A great deal of them would be royally pissed off, pissed off to the point of buying Nikon or Sony. There is no freaking way that Canon is going to deliberately drive their customers away.

Now, before someone brings up the FD to EF transition, EF gave the users AF capabilities. Even if Canon came up with some magic way to AF FD mount lenses, the users were going to have to buy a new body and new AF-FD lenses anyway. They chose to make a clean break and introduced digital communications, which added a lot more than just AF to lenses.... Going from EF to a new mount brings absolutely ZERO new capacities to the new camera system. Huge risk for no gain? I don't think so!

Fourth, Canon has just introduced a whole slew of new Big Whites.... there is the 100-400, the pair OF 70-200'S, and now a 400F2.8 (and another unspecified lens) are on the way. These lenses are expensive to design and it takes many years to recoup the development and production change costs. These are not the actions of a company getting ready to drop a product line!

Fifth, XD sized camera bodies sell well. This is a very lucrative market. There is no way that Canon will abandon it!!!!!!!

Sixth, People go FF for image quality. At the same time, they tend to gravitate towards large and fast lenses. The lenses make any size savings in the body moot.... If you want a small FF SYSTEM then you need small lenses, and that means slow lenses, and that runs counter to the desire for image quality.

Give the choice between A) alienating their customer base and driving them to the competition, abandoning a lucrative market, throwing out lots of new research and tooling, and making all their production stock worthless in order to chase after Sony in about 1 percent of the camera market, or B) adding a new model like they did with the M, what do you think is going to happen?

My bet is that the EF mirrored lines will continue for many years into the future, and that eventually there will some mirrorless EF models introduced (both crop and FF). Parallel to this, there will be a more compact FF mirrorless camera with a few lenses, similar to the M series, but with a few L quality SLOW (F5.6 or 6.3) lenses.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
Upvote 0
Mar 26, 2014
1,443
536
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/09/there-is-no-free-lunch-episode-763-lens-adapters/

“... Putting a great lens on your camera via an adapter might still be better than an average native-mount lens. On the other hand, that great lens certainly wouldn’t be as good as it would be on its native-mount camera...”
There is no free lunch.... full stop.

If an adapter would be needed, it is likely to be an extension tube, and misalignments in the camera-lens mount could be a problem with those.

As people haven't been screaming about this problem with extenders to date, neither for macro nor the EF to EOS-M adapter, I'll take it with a grain of salt.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0