Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM coming May 9, 2019

Canon Rumors Guy

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Update We’re told that the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM will be officially announced and be available for preorder on May 9, 2019 (in North America), the global release will be at the same time.
According to Nokishita, the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM will be the first of the six new unreleased RF mount lenses. There was no word whether or not the DS (Defocus Smoothing) version of the RF 85mm f/1.2L would also be coming at the same time.
Canon RF lenses to come:

RF 85mm f/1.2L USM (May 2019)
RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS
RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM
RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM
RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM
RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

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Jul 21, 2010
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The 24-240 will make a great walk around lens if the quality is there. I just hope that thing has a zoom lock on it ;)
Agreed. The RF 24-105/4L IS has one, but I don’t see a need for it (yet). That may not be the case with the non-L construction for the 24-240, particularly if it’s a ‘double-barrel’ extension like the EF-S 18-200 or the old EF 28-200.
 
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Feb 25, 2019
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I hope the list is not reflecting the order in which the lenses will be released, as I am primarily interested in the 70-200 L and would love to have it for a trip in late August. Also no indication of an RF Extender 1.4x or 2x, which would complement that lens well.

I would love to have that 70-200 to use this summer. I need it! :D

Also, don't worry about the order of that list. It's just primes and zooms in numerical order.
 
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Mar 20, 2015
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ENG1: "I therefore propose we concentrate on a trinity of 1.8 IS mid-tier lenses: 50mm, 85mm and 110mm. And to compete with Nikon for the wildlife / airshow market, a 200-500mm 5.6 IS with..."
EXEC: "Nah, screw that. Just clone some more EF L lenses and mark the price up. "
ENG2: "What about my idea for a $9000 8-12mm 1.2 L ? "
EXEC: "Genius! You're promoted!"
 
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jolyonralph

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Also no indication of an RF Extender 1.4x or 2x, which would complement that lens well.

I don't think they'll do extenders for RF. If you want an extender you'll probably need to stick to EF lenses.

Why? because the EF lenses that use the Canon extenders all need to have that gap at the back for the extender to fit into. The whole benefit of the RF lenses is their compact nature, so that is ruined if you have to design the lens around having a gap for an extender.

There are teleconverter designs for EF that will work on any lens as they don't protrude into the lens, but generally they're not very good optically.

I believe that instead of teleconverters you'll be encouraged to upgrade to a body with a higher pixel count and use cropping.

Maybe in the long term they'll replace the big whites with RF versions, but that will only happen once they stop selling EF bodies, which won't be for a while yet. Then they'll probably do extenders for those, but I think the'll be limited to the primes and zooms such as the 100-400 and the 70-200 won't support them. It's also equally possible that the RF versions of the big whites, when they come, have built-in teleconverters like the 200-400 EF
 
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jolyonralph

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There are teleconverter designs for EF that will work on any lens as they don't protrude into the lens, but generally they're not very good optically.

On second thoughts, because the RF mount is so much closer to the sensor than EF, perhaps it's going to be easier optically to do a teleconverter that would work with all RF lenses. Let's hope so!
 
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Rivermist

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ENG1: "I therefore propose we concentrate on a trinity of 1.8 IS mid-tier lenses: 50mm, 85mm and 110mm. And to compete with Nikon for the wildlife / airshow market, a 200-500mm 5.6 IS with..."
EXEC: "Nah, screw that. Just clone some more EF L lenses and mark the price up. "
ENG2: "What about my idea for a $9000 8-12mm 1.2 L ? "
EXEC: "Genius! You're promoted!"
One could get that impression indeed, Canon seems to be working hard at the message that the RF mount is the foundation for lens designs we have never seen before, price not seeming to be the big issues (for them...). Case in point (so far) the 28-70 f:2 zoom. Horrendously expensive until you think of it as replacing your L primes (24 1.4 at a stretch, 35 1.4, 50 1.2 and close to the 85 1.2 .or 1.4) and offering flexibility with fewer lens changes. I had an early and unpleasant experience with the RP, getting some spots on the sensor during a lens change in a crowd. Not noticeable until I got home, and some long hours removing the blemishes from the images. Do we have to re-think our traditional lens collection premises with RF? Maybe.
 
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Rivermist

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That’s going to be an amazing 3k lense to put on your RP ! Or maybe canon will come with a cheaper new model the « RPC » (really poor camera)to put even more expensive lenses ! How about a 9k lense on a 400Usd camera next time ! Genius strategy
Not really the idea, I got the RP as a second body replacing an old 6D ( with my 5DIII being the main body for now) to "get y feet wet" with mirrorless and RF lenses. For the full mirrorless spending, I am waiting for the pro R camera with in-body IS which would make this all come together. Having said that, I remain firmly in the belief that pictures are made by the lens, with the sensors nowadays all being at least very good and going too superb. My first digital body was the 2004 Rebel (6.3MP if I recall well), soon after that I purchased a 70-200 f:2.8 L IS and it made amazing pictures. I kept that lens until last year, through 40D, 7D, 5D mk1 and now 5D mk3, the pictures gained in dynamics, the cameras were faster and AF a vast improvement, but the prints still looked similar with the slight softness ideal for portraits and the amazing bokeh.
 
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Rivermist

Mirrorless or bust.
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So Canon continues the mismatch between the lenses being offered and the bodies being offered. Where is the 24-240 lens or 5d level body?
One does get the impression that Canon had to release the mirrorless new generation of bodies and lenses ahead of their preferred schedule, which would probably have happened end 2019 with a pro IBIS and the RP together with 6-7 L lenses and 3-4 more mainstream and less expensive lenses like the 24-240. Nikon’s move and/or Sony’s growth forced an early and rather incoherent timing, with the R cobbled together and whatever lenses were ready for production, the rest following in a haphazard way. This is of course pure speculation :)
 
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One does get the impression that Canon had to release the mirrorless new generation of bodies and lenses ahead of their preferred schedule, which would probably have happened end 2019 with a pro IBIS and the RP together with 6-7 L lenses and 3-4 more mainstream and less expensive lenses like the 24-240. Nikon’s move and/or Sony’s growth forced an early and rather incoherent timing, with the R cobbled together and whatever lenses were ready for production, the rest following in a haphazard way. This is of course pure speculation :)
On the other hand, I can't think of any example of Canon leading off a new initiative with a high end body. They didn't do it with the 350D and they didn't do it with the M line and they didn't introduce dual pixel at the top of the line either. Canon seems to like to have their stuff field tested before they roll out the really good stuff.
 
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