Canon officially announces the long rumored RF mount Cinema Prime Lens set

[Walrus]

Why are these lenses all the same size

Because when you change lens on your rig you don't have to re-position the follow focus, accessories, and the camera balance on the tripod; all cinema lenses series share the same size, shape, and very often a very similar weight. It's how you do it in the movies; rigs are much more complicate then in photography.

 

[David - Sydney]

"These lenses will allow for RF mount protocol transmission, and just like the EF-Mount Cinema Prime Lenses, operators can control magnification, chromatic aberration correction, peripheral light correction, and a dual-pixel focus guide via camera body operations. In addition, the new lenses also feature lens distortion correction."

Any idea why RF protocols would be an advantage for cinema lenses? AF wouldn't be applicable and the others listed are also on EF lenses - right?

 

[john1970]

There is, I actually know someone who has one.

That is very good news indeed.

 

[Marphoto]

Looks like a solid lineup which will ensure Canon's continued dominance in the video market. Now, let's see what's coming for the rest of us...

 

[EricN]

Out of curiosity, do they work well for photography? Any particular special rendering an ordinary RF lens wouldn’t give.

I've never used one, but I'm sure they are excellent for photography if you are willing to use manual focus. They should have little or no focus breathing. It must be great for focus bracketing...

 

[EOS 4 Life]

Out of curiosity, do they work well for photography? Any particular special rendering an ordinary RF lens wouldn’t give.

Should be exactly the same as their photo counterparts.
Only focusing would change

 

[EOS 4 Life]

Any idea why RF protocols would be an advantage for cinema lenses?

Focus guides and other data being passed through the lens.

 

[robotfist]

Hmmm, this is strange. I wonder if these are just the CN-E lenses (based off EF mount L primes) rehoused with RF mounts and therefore do not have the new optics and coatings featured in the latest RF stills glass. Because it's extremely odd that Canon hasn't even announced some of these focal lengths in RF L versions yet.

 

[koenkooi]

"These lenses will allow for RF mount protocol transmission, and just like the EF-Mount Cinema Prime Lenses, operators can control magnification, chromatic aberration correction, peripheral light correction, and a dual-pixel focus guide via camera body operations. In addition, the new lenses also feature lens distortion correction."

Any idea why RF protocols would be an advantage for cinema lenses? AF wouldn't be applicable and the others listed are also on EF lenses - right?

If we ignore the EF600 and EF400 that were introduced together with the EOS-R, the RF lenses have the following features that EF lenses don't have:

1. Faster communication, including sharing of sensor (e.g. accelerometer/gyro) data with the body
2. Storing the aberration and distortion parameters in the lens instead of the body

The first one isn't useful for CN-R, since they lack both AF and IS, but the 2nd item is a much bigger deal. With EF lenses you have to load the correction data into the body yourself, RF lenses do that for you. As we've seen, for lenses that distort things in a novel way (24-105STM, 24-240) a firmware update for the body is needed to handle those parameters.
I suspect the big thing for video users is focus breathing correction, lenses can be much cheaper if the body handles focus breathing.

And if you're an EF-M user: Yes, EF-M supported in-lens storage of correction parameters first. And even better: the Sigma EF-M lenses provide proper correction info, so no weird onion rings in the EVF or video footage!

 

[Walrus]

And even better: the Sigma EF-M lenses provide proper correction info, so no weird onion rings in the EVF or video footage!

Even EF Sigma Art lenses (dunno about Sport & Contemporary lines, but I tend to believe it's the same) provide correction info on all Canon bodies (DSLR, M, R), or at least the correction (if not provided by the lens) is already baked-in onto the bodies.

 

[koenkooi]

Even EF Sigma Art lenses (dunno about Sport & Contemporary lines, but I tend to believe it's the same) provide correction info on all Canon bodies (DSLR, M, R), or at least the correction (if not provided by the lens) is already baked-in onto the bodies.

I suspect it's neither, for EF Sigma spoofs Canon lens IDs, which leads to the onion rings showing in the EVF/jpegs/movies, because the corrections the camera tries to use for the matching Canon lens won't match the focal length, as reported by the Sigma lens.
I suspect the onion rings are asymptotes of the algorithm, it tries to be clever instead of rejecting the corrections.

 

[RobbieHat]

I’d love it if canon would release seven f1.4 prime lenses for Rf Mount all at once never gonna happen, but imagine having

- 20mm F1.4
- 24mm F1.4
- 28mm F1.4 (for CR guy)
- 35mm F1.4
- 50mm F1.4
- 85 mm F1.4

All the sudden becoming available all at the same time

Apparently, six would do (because 14mm F1.4 would be a whole different lens and doesn’t fit the lineup). so, common Canon

I am all in on the 20mm F1.4 and anything wider and fast (14mm F1.8 would do). Alternatively, a good 14-24mm F2.8 would also fit the bill. Canon has never served this end of the lens lineup very well and good alternatives were always available from Samyang, Rokinon and Sigma. I really wish Canon would either lift the RF lens mount embargo or release some fast ultrawides for the RF mount.

 

[Walrus]

I suspect it's neither, for EF Sigma spoofs Canon lens IDs, which leads to the onion rings showing in the EVF/jpegs/movies, because the corrections the camera tries to use for the matching Canon lens won't match the focal length, as reported by the Sigma lens.
I suspect the onion rings are asymptotes of the algorithm, it tries to be clever instead of rejecting the corrections.

No spoofing, the camera knows exactly what is the lens attached; it is very well know that Canon conceded the in-camera corrections and (EF) AF algorithms to the recent Sigma's (and only to them; not to Tamron, not to Tokina). The only thing not available to Sigma is the DLO.

 

[SirTarquin]

I've asked this before and I'll ask it again, what happened to the C200/700 Mark II?

 

[David - Sydney]

If we ignore the EF600 and EF400 that were introduced together with the EOS-R, the RF lenses have the following features that EF lenses don't have:

1. Faster communication, including sharing of sensor (e.g. accelerometer/gyro) data with the body
2. Storing the aberration and distortion parameters in the lens instead of the body

The first one isn't useful for CN-R, since they lack both AF and IS, but the 2nd item is a much bigger deal. With EF lenses you have to load the correction data into the body yourself, RF lenses do that for you. As we've seen, for lenses that distort things in a novel way (24-105STM, 24-240) a firmware update for the body is needed to handle those parameters.
I suspect the big thing for video users is focus breathing correction, lenses can be much cheaper if the body handles focus breathing.

And if you're an EF-M user: Yes, EF-M supported in-lens storage of correction parameters first. And even better: the Sigma EF-M lenses provide proper correction info, so no weird onion rings in the EVF or video footage!

Appreciate the detailed response... but circling back, for these CN-R lenses, does RF protocols assist? I am assuming that they (for that price) aren't distorting things like the 24-240, 24-105STM, 14-35/4 and hopefully they would be par focal so not focus breathing issues.

Adding focus breathing compensation for all wider lenses would be awesome for the vlogging community as it is very distracting watching the videos.... they would be better fixing a manual focus distance instead to avoid it.

 

[C200User]

Looking at the photos of the new lenses, I was a little disappointed. I was hoping for something more like a shorter body or something that set the RF line really apart. These are the same as the EF version just with a permanent RF mount. I've been holding off on getting any more cinema lens having heard this rumor for the last two years. Seeing this announcement and looking at the specs, it feels like getting the EF versions is all-around better since they are cheaper ($1000.00 in some cases), you can add EF-to-RF adapters that have built in filters, and they would be backwards compatible with legacy cine cameras like my c200.