Lens design comparison: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM and the Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM

Am I the only one who has seen the greenish lens (5th from left)? This is an ASPHERICAL LENS in canon.jp - color terminology. If this lens diagram is correct, this lens might be MUCH better than the older EF 1.8 iterations at least wide open.

My guess is 200 $ / € because aspherical lenses are found in cheap zooms today, 200 is a nice number and it has NO IS, NO control ring (like RF 24-240) and presumably NO macro function. An additional argument: It might be a good companion to a "below EOS RP" camera?!

And 24-240 + this one would make a good entry kit, 24-240 for the day, 1.8 50 for the "night" ...
 
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Joules

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Am I the only one who has seen the greenish lens (5th from left)? This is an ASPHERICAL LENS in canon.jp - color terminology.
Thanks for looking it up. I wasn't sure anymore if that color really meant aspherical. Nice to see that in there. I suspect this design will beat the pants of the old one. It also looks really nice in terms of build quality.

Also, this lens does have a control ring, it just doubles as the MF ring. So MF is one of the options you can control with it, and you toggle it with the switch in the lens.
 
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Apr 29, 2012
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RF 50mm f/1.2L USM is priced $2,300, about the same as the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM @ $2,100

The RF 50mm f/1.8 STM will be priced say $300, 2.5x the price of the EF 50mm f/1.8 STM

Do you really think there's no place for an RF 50mm f/1.4 IS USM at $600 in between?

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Added in editing: Nikon, Sony, Sigma, and Zeiss all have a 50mm f/1.4 priced $1,000-$1,500. IIRC, someone wrote all those lenses are expensive pickle jars because the only way to make them fast & high IQ was a reverse telephoto design.

The RF mount cut the flange distance from 44mm to 20mm. Shouldn't that open the door for Canon to make a 50mm f/1.4 that combines the cheap double Gauss design with the high IQ of the above mentioned lenses? Is the RF 50mm f/1.8 it? Really no place for sub-$1K 50mm f/1.4 IS?

I was responding to a specific claim that canon should have 2 different 50mm lenses...

But also no. Combining a cheap double gauss design with the price and iq of a $1k non double Gauss design isn't likely. There's a clear design choice between a cheap and simple lens and a more complex, larger and more expensive lens.

Could canon make something like a slightly smaller sigma art 50 f1.4 for the RF mount, probably. But there are almost certainly a huge number of RF lenses they'll prioritize before making a 3rd RF 50mm.
 
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And how does Nikon have to make theirs twice as big? I don't get it.

It's a much more ambitious design, that's all (no focus breathing, fairly flat field with very low field dependent aberrations, internal AF, etc.).

This Canon lens is meant to be (very) cheap and cheerful. So a completely different target.
 
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Steve Balcombe

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Am I the only one who has seen the greenish lens (5th from left)? This is an ASPHERICAL LENS in canon.jp - color terminology. If this lens diagram is correct, this lens might be MUCH better than the older EF 1.8 iterations at least wide open.

My guess is 200 $ / € because aspherical lenses are found in cheap zooms today,
I'm pretty sure the aspherical lens in the old EF-S 18-55 kit lens was plastic, which Canon didn't actively promote because quite honestly the idea of a plastic element doesn't come across well! Maybe this will be the same. I think it was stated in an early press release, but marketing material just describes it as "aspherical". If it works, who cares?!
 
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I go back and forth between $149 and $199, the control ring may add a bit of cost.
I think its more likely on the higher end, maybe 180 USD. Maybe 220€ with tax here in europe.
I think it is a lense for the masses, but the sexy control ring and the small form factor that you get combined with an R camera is something that will make the lense more interesting.
I hope for 150 USD though :-D
 
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This green lens is something special the EF version doesn't have. If it is an aspherical element, image quality could improve greatly, and as we can see from the EF 40, moulded aspherical elements are not really expensive to make. If it is "only" a low dispersion element or something like this, chromatic aberrations (and not so much sharpness) could improve. Either way, the RF lens looks to be more sophisticated than the EF one. Looks good to me.
 
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Sporgon

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Both the EF 50mm f/1.8 STM and RF 50mm f/1.8 STM are Planar derivatives.

The EF version has an Ultron design (split front doublet) whilst the RF one has a Pancolar design (split rear doublet).
Looking at that I'd expect this RF lens to probably be very sharp at the expense of subject separation / bokeh.
 
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Fran Decatta

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RF 50mm f/1.2L USM is priced $2,300, about the same as the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM @ $2,100

The RF 50mm f/1.8 STM will be priced say $300, 2.5x the price of the EF 50mm f/1.8 STM

Do you really think there's no place for an RF 50mm f/1.4 IS USM at $600 in between?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Added in editing: Nikon, Sony, Sigma, and Zeiss all have a 50mm f/1.4 priced $1,000-$1,500. IIRC, someone wrote all those lenses are expensive pickle jars because the only way to make them fast & high IQ was a reverse telephoto design.

The RF mount cut the flange distance from 44mm to 20mm. Shouldn't that open the door for Canon to make a 50mm f/1.4 that combines the cheap double Gauss design with the high IQ of the above mentioned lenses? Is the RF 50mm f/1.8 it? Really no place for sub-$1K 50mm f/1.4 IS?


For sure that there's a place for a 50 1.4 (IS or not) butI bet that would cost more than 1200€ if its well made with nice IQ and AF system. If a new designed 50 1.4 costs 600€ the price gap between 1.2 and 1.4 would make not deserve to pay that difference to have that 1.2.
 
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I hope it is a different design from 50 1.8 STM, I have 50 1.8STM and I don't think it is great on my R5...... at least it is the weakest lens optically wide open on R5 out of all the ones I have. I hope they change design to make it better. I will def get one. As for pricing, who knows. Nikon Z 50 1.8 is a superb lens but $600. Sony 50 1.8 E is not a great lens but cheap ($250). I assume Canon one will be somewhere in between $249 and 600, maybe something like $399.
 
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slclick

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I hope it is a different design from 50 1.8 STM, I have 50 1.8STM and I don't think it is great on my R5...... at least it is the weakest lens optically wide open on R5 out of all the ones I have. I hope they change design to make it better. I will def get one. As for pricing, who knows. Nikon Z 50 1.8 is a superb lens but $600. Sony 50 1.8 E is not a great lens but cheap ($250). I assume Canon one will be somewhere in between $249 and 600, maybe something like $399.
The design in right there for us to see. Similar yet not the same as the EF counterpart. I'm not sure why this is a mystery to some, it will be good not great. Regardless, it will be welcome by many, especially those who want and need more choices. More is better.
 
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The design in right there for us to see. Similar yet not the same as the EF counterpart. I'm not sure why this is a mystery to some, it will be good not great. Regardless, it will be welcome by many, especially those who want and need more choices. More is better.

I consider 35 1.8 RF great on R5. hope 50 1.8 RF is close, that's all I am hoping for
 
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