Canon RF 18-50mm f/4 IS STM Optical Design

[Canon Rumors]

It looks like Canon is continuing its R&D into shrinking lenses as much as possible, we have seen multiple patents dealing with the size of lenses, and we've seen some small full-frame lenses over the last year such as the RF 28-70mm f/2.8L IS STM and RF 16-28mm f/2.8L IS STM.

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[f2_productions]

I'd rather like to see the rumored 16-60mm f2.8, than an even darker f4. Yes, it get's more compact, but Canon APS-C really needs more versitale and faster zooms, like the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 and upcomming 17-40mm f1.8. And I hope that Canon will bring the EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 successor for RF with the R7 II later this year.

 

[Stig Nygaard]

18-50mm/f4? A bit boring in my opinion, especially with 18mm as the widest. If I wanted that range, the already very compact and lightweight 290g Sigma 18-50/f2.8 would probably be more interesting. The Canon patent has IS, but at the short focal lengths I don't feel that makes much practical difference anyway.
Canon, give us something to replace the EF-S 15-85mm instead. Something covering at least 15-70mm. That is the single most important RF-S lens we are still missing (and that's is objectively a fact ).

 

[esspy2]

18-50mm is such a boring range, but the constant F/4 aperture can work. Hopefully they can create a new formula from 15-40mm or 13-33mm. If they make it F/4 and tiny, I would love it a lot. Or if they can do 18-50mm on full-frame, that would be beautiful

 

[quiquae]

This patent appears to be mainly about implementations of non-extending 70-200F4 for FF, with the APS-C 18-50 implementation being just an incidental output. The reason it's so long for what it does is because it is (amazingly enough) a derivative of a 70-400F4 lens layout. You can sense its telephoto origins in the convex front element: all standard zoom lenses I've ever seen use concave front elements.

My take is that it is bloody unlikely that this 18-50 will ever come to light. A non-extending 70-200F4 is more likely, as that is clearly what they're trying to develop here.