Here are some rumoured RF-S lenses that may be coming in the near future.

mdcmdcmdc

EOS R7, M5, 100 (film), Sony α6400
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I thought that if they are EF-S or RF-S lenses that there isn't the equivalent factor. Isn't that why they don't work correctly on a full frame camera?
In the DSLR days, a camera with a smaller sensor also had a smaller mirror. So EF–S lenses could have their rear elements closer to the sensor. Canon had to make them physically incompatible with full frame DSLR‘s, otherwise the mirror would hit the back of the lens when it flipped up. That’s not an issue on mirrorless.
 
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Sharlin

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I thought that if they are EF-S or RF-S lenses that there isn't the equivalent factor. Isn't that why they don't work correctly on a full frame camera?
The EF-S mount allows a few millimeters shorter backfocus (how close to the sensor the rear element can move – the "S" in EF-S means "short backfocus") taking advantage of the smaller mirror in APS-C DSLRs. Canon made the mount physically incompatible with EF cameras to prevent the possibility of mirror obstruction or even damage. Of course, with a smaller image circle, EF-S lenses would also heavily vignette on FF bodies.

Mirrorless cameras don’t have anything between the lens mount and the sensor assembly, and in theory can support arbitrarily short backfocus. So there’s no difference in that regard between RF and RF-S. The image circle difference is all that remains. Canon’s full-frame R cameras support a crop mode where the camera automatically emulates a crop body by only using the center part of the sensor and zooming in the EVF image accordingly. Thus FF R bodies accept RF-S lenses (and also EF-S lenses with the standard EF-RF adapter) without problems, you just get photos with 1/1.6 the nominal linear resolution (meaning 1/2.56 times the megapixels). For instance, the 45-MP R5 takes roughly 18-MP photos in crop mode.
 
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The M3 was a bit of an outlier, it had very different colours compared to other EOS cameras. The M6II has more traditional colours, but your RAW converter needs to have a proper profile for it, like a recent lightroom or using 3rd party profiles. The original M has great colours out of the box in LR and DxO PL, but its autofocus is a joke. I still use mine from time to time, it’s the perfect EF-M body for me: small, light and with a hot shoe that supports the GP-E2.
The m3 was my first foray into canon mirrorless. Whilst the image quality was great and it performed adequately I could never get a hang of the colour rendition compared to my previous g12, either in jpeg or raw using DPP or Lightroom profiles. I remember reading numerous threads on DPReview about tweaking picture styles etc but it never quite worked. I’m quite happy with my m5 with its more traditional and realistic colours, but there's nothing "magical" about them compared to the older models.
 
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BakaBokeh

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May 16, 2020
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I'm pretty happy with this RF-S lens design. I always loved the EF-M mount because not only were the bodies small, but so were the lenses. I had my doubts that an RF-S system would satisfy that small and light form factor because the diameter of the RF mount. I even guessed that the only thing that would do it is if they kept the lens diameter as small or close to the EF-M diameter, and just have a larger diameter mount.... which is exactly what they did. I had a feeling that RF-S would be closer to EF-S than to EF-M. Color me shocked. Is it weird that the lens diameter is smaller than the actual mount? Yeah it's strange, and I thought that would be a deterrent to Canon. But kudos to them for actually doing it. It simultaneously satisfies the small & light EF-M crowd AND the 7D wildlife shooters who crave the reach and pixel density. Now I can see the EF-M finally being allowed to fade into the sunset. Looks like they're just going to port over all the EF-M lens formulas to RF-S. I do love the 22 & 32. If the plan was to go RF-S all along, I can see why maybe there was a pause in any new lens designs for EF-M. With this being an all new mount hopefully they can get back to creating new awesome tiny lenses.

rfs18150.png
 
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Dragon

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The M3 was a bit of an outlier, it had very different colours compared to other EOS cameras. The M6II has more traditional colours, but your RAW converter needs to have a proper profile for it, like a recent lightroom or using 3rd party profiles. The original M has great colours out of the box in LR and DxO PL, but its autofocus is a joke. I still use mine from time to time, it’s the perfect EF-M body for me: small, light and with a hot shoe that supports the GP-E2.
I have found the biggest issue with the M3 is the Adobe profile. If you set the profile to "camera standard" (which LR didn't have for years but is there now) the images look normal. If you use the "Adobe standard" profile, the gamma is out in the trees and the blacks are heavily compressed.
 
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I'm pretty happy with this RF-S lens design. I always loved the EF-M mount because not only were the bodies small, but so were the lenses. I had my doubts that an RF-S system would satisfy that small and light form factor because the diameter of the RF mount. I even guessed that the only thing that would do it is if they kept the lens diameter as small or close to the EF-M diameter, and just have a larger diameter mount.... which is exactly what they did. I had a feeling that RF-S would be closer to EF-S than to EF-M. Color me shocked. Is it weird that the lens diameter is smaller than the actual mount? Yeah it's strange, and I thought that would be a deterrent to Canon. But kudos to them for actually doing it. It simultaneously satisfies the small & light EF-M crowd AND the 7D wildlife shooters who crave the reach and pixel density. Now I can see the EF-M finally being allowed to fade into the sunset. Looks like they're just going to port over all the EF-M lens formulas to RF-S. I do love the 22 & 32. If the plan was to go RF-S all along, I can see why maybe there was a pause in any new lens designs for EF-M. With this being an all new mount hopefully they can get back to creating new awesome tiny lenses.

View attachment 203921
As I said in another thread, this may mean that canon will be able to refocus their r&d and develop new lenses for both rf-s and ef-m simultaneously, or at least relatively simply retool new rf-s designs for ef-m.

I do still see an ef-s parallel with this new design however. Much the same way as ef and ef-s shared the same mount but you couldn’t use ef-s on ef bodies. Which again leaves new buyers with the the issue of not being able to use all of their lenses if they later move from a crop R to a full frame R.
 
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I do still see an ef-s parallel with this new design however. Much the same way as ef and ef-s shared the same mount but you couldn’t use ef-s on ef bodies. Which again leaves new buyers with the the issue of not being able to use all of their lenses if they later move from a crop R to a full frame R.
There's nothing to stop you mounting an RF-S lens on a full frame RF body, is there?
 
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There's nothing to stop you mounting an RF-S lens on a full frame RF body, is there?
Physically yes. But I would think it’ll result in significant vignetting or dark circle on a full frame camera.

EDIT: I’ve just found out there’s a “crop mode” on some FF R bodies. Perhaps it will work after all. But still, you wouldn’t be getting the most out of the FF sensor.
 
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There's nothing to stop you mounting an RF-S lens on a full frame RF body, is there?
All FF R bodies automatically go into crop mode when an EF-S lens is mounted (via the adapter). I’m sure the same will be true for RS-S lenses, and Canon may have designed the lenses to signal the same as EF-S (in terms of reporting being a crop lens), if so body firmware updates would not be needed.

The only thing stopping you would be a reluctance to sacrifice IQ from using only a fraction of your FF sensor.
 
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Physically yes. But I would think it’ll result in significant vignetting or dark circle on a full frame camera.

EDIT: I’ve just found out there’s a “crop mode” on some FF R bodies. Perhaps it will work after all. But still, you wouldn’t be getting the most out of the FF sensor.
You wouldn't, but it's far better than being physically unable to do it, as was the case with EF-EF-S. Fwiw I think "upgrade paths" are overrated, but in any case the RF paradigm offers greater flexibility than was previously possible.
 
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koenkooi

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Physically yes. But I would think it’ll result in significant vignetting or dark circle on a full frame camera.

EDIT: I’ve just found out there’s a “crop mode” on some FF R bodies. Perhaps it will work after all. But still, you wouldn’t be getting the most out of the FF sensor.
In the Adorama livestream Rudy Winston said all FF RF bodies will automatically crop when an RF-S lens is attached. As mentioned above, just like when using EF-S lenses with the adapter.
3rd party lenses can have issues, the Laowo 100mm 2x EF lens triggered the crop function, laowo had to change the non-user upgradable firmware to fix that. The RF variant of that lens ditched all electronics :(
 
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koenkooi

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You wouldn't, but it's far better than being physically unable to do it, as was the case with EF-EF-S. Fwiw I think "upgrade paths" are overrated, but in any case the RF paradigm offers greater flexibility than was previously possible.
I really appreciate having the option to mount EF(-s) lenses on my 7D, M6II and R5. RF-S decreases that a bit, but the only 2 lenses non-EF-M lenses I actually use on the M are the EF-S 60mm and the MP-E. So practically speaking it doesn’t make a difference to me :)

I preordered the R7, so the 7D will see even less use when that arrives.

I wish canon would release an Mxxx with eye-af in servo mode, that’s the form factor and features I want for the M, the M6II is too large for my liking.
 
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entoman

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May 8, 2015
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Wondering whether *any* of these RF-S lenses will have a control ring?

Seems unlikely given their small size and lowish prices.

Illustrations of the 18-45mm and 18-150mm appear to show only a zoom ring and a focus ring.

Absence of a control ring means only 2 direct control dials available for settings on the R7. Typically people will assign these to aperture and shutter, which means having to "press a button and dial" to access ISO and exposure compensation.
 
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koenkooi

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Wondering whether *any* of these RF-S lenses will have a control ring?

Seems unlikely given their small size and lowish prices.

Illustrations of the 18-45mm and 18-150mm appear to show only a zoom ring and a focus ring.

Absence of a control ring means only 2 direct control dials available for settings on the R7. Typically people will assign these to aperture and shutter, which means having to "press a button and dial" to access ISO and exposure compensation.
On other lower end RF lenses the focus ring doubles as a control ring, there’s a switch on the lens for that.
 
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Jul 21, 2010
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Wondering whether *any* of these RF-S lenses will have a control ring?

Seems unlikely given their small size and lowish prices.

Illustrations of the 18-45mm and 18-150mm appear to show only a zoom ring and a focus ring.

Absence of a control ring means only 2 direct control dials available for settings on the R7. Typically people will assign these to aperture and shutter, which means having to "press a button and dial" to access ISO and exposure compensation.
There are current RF lenses where the ‘one ring’ can be set to function as either MF or control ring. The RF-S 18-45 doesn’t appear to have the switch that @koenkooi mentions. Perhaps Canon will have the physical AF/MF switch able to automatically change the ring function from control to MF?

Agree on only two camera dials, ergonomically that is a big downgrade.
 
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