Is Vistilen the Next Third-Party RF Lens Manufacturer?

[Canon Rumors]

A few weeks ago it came to our attention that a new camera lens brand Vistilen was going to be launched autofocus lenses for the RF mount for both APS-C and full-frame sensors. Like most of the world, I had never heard of the brand, but it was somewhat interesting. Who is Vistilen? It looks […]

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[mimbu]

Probably a shell company set up specifically to sell RF versions of the Meike lenses under a different brand. That way when Canon decides to sue the pants off them, there are no assets to go after. That shell company can just be shut down and another one will pop up. This might end up being the way the Chinese brands get their lenses onto RF.

 

[Bob Howland]

Regarding Meike, I bought one of their EF-to-RF 0.7x Speed Boosters about a month ago. It was $250 gamble, optically about as good as the Metabones. Both of them work extremely well with my EF Sigma 150-600 Sport zoom, converting it to a 106-426 f/3.5-4.5, including the DOF. The Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L becomes a very large and heavy 50-140 f/2.

 

[GirlsAreBeautiful]

No 28mm, sad.

 

[mawlki]

I'd applause Canon to indefinitely carpet bomb these leaches thoroughly with funny cluster munitions.

 

[David - Sydney]

Probably a shell company set up specifically to sell RF versions of the Meike lenses under a different brand. That way when Canon decides to sue the pants off them, there are no assets to go after. That shell company can just be shut down and another one will pop up. This might end up being the way the Chinese brands get their lenses onto RF.

Brand identification/ marketing would be hard if phoenix legal structures were used.
It is possible that these lens would only be available within China where it would be harder for Canon to enforce any copyright/patent infringements.

Entirely likely that they use EF autofocus with RF physical mount.
The lenses don't have to have the fastest or quietest AF motors and still be competitive vs native lenses.
AF Meike lenses are relatively inexpensive eg 35-85mm f1.4-f2 models range from USD135-USD400 on B&H. The price would be cheaper within China.

We are seeing more hardware eg phones that are only available in China where the middle class market is becoming a big enough segment to support volume - especially at the price points vs native lenses.
Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo all have china-excluding models for instance and these are not low end models.

For perspective, 2% of China's population is about 30m people who have >USD50k personal disposable income ie prosumers.
Add the number of professionals eg wedding photographers then the addressable market is larger.

Canon may also not go for them as it would mean more MILC body sales in China.

 

[rombe3jr]

Finally found someone willing to pay the 30% fee?

 

[el peso]

Vistilen? Why not Vilisten, Vinistel, Vilistine? Who names them that way and why?

 

[Xpenelas]

Looks like Vistilen it's the brand they would use to sell Nikon Z Mount and Canon RF lenses with licensed autofocus capabilities.
Like they are going to get better performance than Meike's counterparts crippled to meet E-Mount third party lenses limitations.

 

[AlanF]

Vistilen? Why not Vilisten, Vinistel, Vilistine? Who names them that way and why?

I would guess that it is a combination of Vista + Lens. The Chinese like having syllables from western words in their naming.

 

[Swurre]

Another chinese brand...

 

[BlueBomberTurbo]

Who cares. Just get those lenses out there. Meike optics are great, as is their AF (on Sony, at least).

 

[Daniel Wu]

Probably a shell company set up specifically to sell RF versions of the Meike lenses under a different brand. That way when Canon decides to sue the pants off them, there are no assets to go after. That shell company can just be shut down and another one will pop up. This might end up being the way the Chinese brands get their lenses onto RF.

They've been seelling those in south east asia for over one year.

 

[Daniel Wu]

Brand identification/ marketing would be hard if phoenix legal structures were used.
It is possible that these lens would only be available within China where it would be harder for Canon to enforce any copyright/patent infringements.

Entirely likely that they use EF autofocus with RF physical mount.
The lenses don't have to have the fastest or quietest AF motors and still be competitive vs native lenses.
AF Meike lenses are relatively inexpensive eg 35-85mm f1.4-f2 models range from USD135-USD400 on B&H. The price would be cheaper within China.

We are seeing more hardware eg phones that are only available in China where the middle class market is becoming a big enough segment to support volume - especially at the price points vs native lenses.
Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo all have china-excluding models for instance and these are not low end models.

For perspective, 2% of China's population is about 30m people who have >USD50k personal disposable income ie prosumers.
Add the number of professionals eg wedding photographers then the addressable market is larger.

Canon may also not go for them as it would mean more MILC body sales in China.

On the exact opposite, Canon has a own sub company in China, which sues anyone trying to sell third party RF lenes. Nikon just did it to Viltrox.

 

[scyrene]

I'm not against third party lenses but I wouldn't commit any more than a minimal budget towards an unproven brand which is starting out with autofocus. Optics are all very well but I feel like AF is harder to succeed with.

 

[Askeladden]

This rebadging of lenses was quite common with lenses from the 70s to the early 90s. The other day I was researching a somewhat obscure lens I came across and found out that it had been sold as Edixon, Hanimex, Chinon, Prinzflex, Pentor, Porst and finally Tomioka who were the manufacturers of said lens.

 

[mimbu]

Brand identification/ marketing would be hard if phoenix legal structures were used.
It is possible that these lens would only be available within China where it would be harder for Canon to enforce any copyright/patent infringements.

Entirely likely that they use EF autofocus with RF physical mount.
The lenses don't have to have the fastest or quietest AF motors and still be competitive vs native lenses.
AF Meike lenses are relatively inexpensive eg 35-85mm f1.4-f2 models range from USD135-USD400 on B&H. The price would be cheaper within China.

We are seeing more hardware eg phones that are only available in China where the middle class market is becoming a big enough segment to support volume - especially at the price points vs native lenses.
Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo all have china-excluding models for instance and these are not low end models.

For perspective, 2% of China's population is about 30m people who have >USD50k personal disposable income ie prosumers.
Add the number of professionals eg wedding photographers then the addressable market is larger.

Canon may also not go for them as it would mean more MILC body sales in China.

Yes, all these Chinese lens companies are focused much more on the Chinese market than anywhere else. There is explosive growth there because for the first time since the establishment of the "modern China" in 1949, a significant number of people have actual real disposable income. They can afford hobbies that cost money, which wasn't a thing before.

But, Nikon is currently suing Viltrox in China over Z mount patent infringement, and Canon made serious enough threats to Viltrox over past RF lenses that they pulled them all from the market and nuked any mention of them from their website. So, clearly there is risk within China of these types of lawsuits now.

We'll see what will happen to these "Vistilen" lenses but I don't think Canon will ignore them. One thing about patents is that if you fail to defend your patent it can be invalidated. So if Canon wants to keep RF locked down they have little choice but to go after each and every infringement.