Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM Version 2 Coming?

[Del Paso]

35mm f/1,8 II?
Why no RF 35mm f/1,2 L I ?

 

[Rceres]

If I were deciding which of the original RF lenses to update, I’d use two criteria:

1. Which lens has the most room for improvement?
2. Which lens would sell the most copies?

The iconic RF 50mm f/1.2L immediately comes to mind. Not because the current lens isn’t excellent (I love mine and use it every day), but because it was designed very early in the RF era. Since then Canon has made tremendous progress in autofocus systems, focusing-group design, and lens packaging.

The RF 135mm f/1.8L shows how much Canon’s engineering has evolved. What would a modern RF 50mm f/1.2L II look like if Canon prioritized improved handling and balance while maintaining the same flagship-level image quality.

A slimmer barrel, more modern focusing architecture, and improved packaging could potentially make the lens noticeably easier to handle without sacrificing what made the original iconic.

I suspect a lot of existing RF 50mm f/1.2L owners would upgrade.

Sign me up for the preorder!

 

[circleglider]

You have the RF 35 f1.4L, what do you mean?

“High optical performance” doesn’t mean just a half-stop brighter. Canon’s 35mm F/1.4 lens isn’t anywhere near the same optical quality as their 50mm and 85mm F/1.2 lenses. I own all three (four actually, including the little F/1.8) and I get noticeably better performance with their 28-70mm F/2 zoom at 35mm than either 35mm prime.

Canon’s hybrid VCM lenses are targeted at a different use case and are not optimized for maximal optical performance. How hard can it be to bring a 35mm prime to market with performance similar to their other two F/1.2 primes? Not everyone is a YouTube creator.

 

[noname]

I doubt they'll make a 28mm VCM. At this point, I'm just hoping for "f/2 or faster".

The EF mount had both f/1.8 and f/2.8 28mm lenses, so there's precedent.

As for ~40mm, in my opinion that is covered now by the RF 45, which gets us 1mm closer to 43 than a 40, so it's even better.

Canon have 50mm and 135mm f/1.8 primes (probably a 200mm to follow).
They also have two f/1.8 macros (24mm and 35mm) and nothing in-between is expected.
OTOH one more f/1.4 VCM is scheduled, which can be either 28mm (more probable) or 100mm (less probable).
The RF 45mm f/1.2 is a modified version of a 48.5mm f/1.2 patent, it is always compared with the EF 50mm f/1.2L USM and the RF 50mm f/1.8 STM, respectively.