Meike launches the AF 85mm f/1.4 autofocus lens for the RF mount

[Toglife_Anthony]

That is true.
It has only been announced.
You can't order it yet.
I am surprised that they did not at least have a prototype for display.

Yeah, all the articles are saying "it's on display at NAB" - I did not find that to be true at all, lol. I literally showed two different people this article and they just kept saying "no, we only have the Sony E mount here".

 

[David - Sydney]

Why do lens makers use even numbers of aperture blades? 12 blades seems to be an unusual choice to me.

I get that the more blades, the rounder the bokeh but an odd number of blades gives double diffraction spikes with narrow aperture which are better sunstar/night light images.

 

[sanj]

Canon has gone out of their way to make sure that EF lenses work.
Meike makes EF lenses and EF adapters.
This could quite easily be an EF lens coupled with an EF adapter.
If that is the case then I would be more concerned on the other mounts.

Very Interesting

 

[DhlcadR6]

Pessimistic opinion, Canon only allow Chinese manufacturers to produce 3rd party AF RF lenses in China only. Because they know Chinese lens manufacturers only making cheap primes that can never threaten Canon's line up.

 

[Ozarker]

How do you know that the lens has been "approved", as opposed to Meike just taking a gamble that Canon won't "kindly ask them" to stop?

It seems odd to me that a very minor player like Meike has allegedly been "approved", while much larger companies like Tamron and Sigma, who I would have thought were in a better position to wangle a deal with Canon, have not.

Maybe the bad manners of Sigma and Tamron stealing the tech rather than going through Canon?

 

[Ozarker]

Pessimistic opinion, Canon only allow Chinese manufacturers to produce 3rd party AF RF lenses in China only. Because they know Chinese lens manufacturers only making cheap primes that can never threaten Canon's line up.

Is it just me, or has conspiracy birthing become a hobby? Jeff asked, "Remember the good old 1980s? When things were so uncomplicated?"

 

[SwissFrank]

If Canon is licensing 3rd parties then only 2 lenses that I want for RF mount are Sigma 105mm DG DN Macro and Sigma 24mm f3.5 DG DN.

I have the 28/1.4 from Sigma. It's the only EF-mount lens I use. I'd prefer a RF mount, but even more so I suspect a mirrorless design would be a lot sharper and smaller. While I love the images, it's not very sharp when pixel-peeping.

 

[SwissFrank]

Yes, written quickly and just poor phrasing on my part.
I should have said "It *could* imply they are using EF protocols".

Just thinking about this from a tech point of view (I'm a software guy who's written quite a few network protocols), I wonder if Canon has actually ENCRYPTED the communications in a way that the only way to reverse engineer it is to do the illegal disassembly of code in the lenses? Doing that wouldn't be a challenge to a firm, but, it might be illegal in a way that simply black-box testing the output of an EF lens and figuring out the protocol on your own wouldn't be.
An alternative is that perhaps the messages are clear enough but the meaning of the messages is impossible to figure out, not because of encryption, but simply because you don't know what the units are and so on. For instance maybe in autofocus it's sending messages to the body saying how fast the focus is moving and what the inertia is and the units aren't just m/s but rather some company-internal unit and further it's a logarithmic scale or some such.

 

[SwissFrank]

The Nikon 85/1.4 was really the only Nikon lens I coveted. I had the EF85/1.2 MkI and while it did take some very memorable photos, in all other ways it was a horrible lens. (Heavy, hard to handle on the camera, hard to handle off the camera eg impossible to avoid touching rear element, ultra-slow AF, bad vignetting, etc.)

I would have gotten the EF85/1.4 but I was out of photography at that time.

 

[kweNZ]

I have a Meike battery grip on my Canon 7D Mk II. I bought it because it was less than one-third the price of Canon's battery grip. The first three Meike grips that the salesman showed me however were all badly assembled with loose screws and internal rattles. The one I bought six years ago has now started to fall apart (lost screws and a missing O-ring) and I doubt it will last much longer. The moral of the story I guess is that you get what you pay for. Would I buy a Meike lens now if I had an R-series camera? No way.

 

[JustUs7]

Why do lens makers use even numbers of aperture blades? 12 blades seems to be an unusual choice to me.

I get that the more blades, the rounder the bokeh but an odd number of blades gives double diffraction spikes with narrow aperture which are better sunstar/night light images.

I think 10 or 12 spikes likes a lot better than 18. At some point, it’s just too many points.

 

[EOS 4 Life]

Pessimistic opinion, Canon only allow Chinese manufacturers to produce 3rd party AF RF lenses in China only. Because they know Chinese lens manufacturers only making cheap primes that can never threaten Canon's line up.

The notion before was that Canon was forcing us to buy their expensive RF lenses.
Now they are letting in the cheapest competition.

 

[JustUs7]

The notion before was that Canon was forcing us to buy their expensive RF lenses.
Now they are letting in the cheapest competition.

And if they do let in a Sigma lens, it won’t be the Sigma lens that I want!

 

[David - Sydney]

Just thinking about this from a tech point of view (I'm a software guy who's written quite a few network protocols), I wonder if Canon has actually ENCRYPTED the communications in a way that the only way to reverse engineer it is to do the illegal disassembly of code in the lenses? Doing that wouldn't be a challenge to a firm, but, it might be illegal in a way that simply black-box testing the output of an EF lens and figuring out the protocol on your own wouldn't be.
An alternative is that perhaps the messages are clear enough but the meaning of the messages is impossible to figure out, not because of encryption, but simply because you don't know what the units are and so on. For instance maybe in autofocus it's sending messages to the body saying how fast the focus is moving and what the inertia is and the units aren't just m/s but rather some company-internal unit and further it's a logarithmic scale or some such.

Encryption is "simple" enough so that it is almost impossible to reverse engineer. I would be surprised if Canon hasn't done it given their experience with Sigma/Tamron reverse engineering the EF protocols.
Easiest way to protect their IP and AF advantage over 3rd parties or at least extract a good price from OEMs wanting to license it.... and the simplest way to ensure that the IP doesn't leak is to have the 3rd parties buy a specific encryption chip from Canon for each lens. It was the solution to extract profits from a minority joint venture in China that I worked with.

 

[dtaylor]

Were all the Canon "Doomers" maybe wrong?
Looks like Big Bad Canon doesn't prevent 3rd. party manufaturers from making AF lenses in RF mount...

If this really is approved, then I'm happy to be wrong. However, Canon brought "doomer" predictions on themselves by not being more open about RF licensing, probably to try and negotiate better deals for themselves. And they're still missing important 3rd party lenses. They should promote a simple licensing package at a price which encourages Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, etc. to produce RF glass because right now 3rd party glass is a Sony advantage when just 7 years ago it was a major Canon advantage.

 

[shadowsports]

I don't care about this really. I have fully transitioned to Canon RF and replaced all of my EF lenses (that mattered). Why does the article say Meike has this lens on display at NAB, when in an earlier post here (page 3), someone said he was at NAB, visited the Meike booth, scoured everything they had on display, and talked to the reps who all said they had no idea this lens was actually being produced or released, etc? You'd think this would be exciting news.

85mm f1.4 - where is it???

I don't see anything about Canon RF on Meike's website (quick search)



There is not even a f1.4 listed on their website. f1.8 yes, f1.4 no. As I said, this is of little consequence to me. I do not believe Canon will license RF (AF) to anyone until they fill out their own line up.

 

[mxwphoto]

Two possibilities:
1. Canon authorized it after Meike paid the licensing fee amount that Canon wanted (read higher than what other 3rd parties were willing to pay).
2. Or this was unsanctioned and will be shut down by Canon, or possibly even Meike themselves seeing how hush they are trying to be about it.

 

[Del Paso]

Two possibilities:
1. Canon authorized it after Meike paid the licensing fee amount that Canon wanted (read higher than what other 3rd parties were willing to pay).
2. Or this was unsanctioned and will be shut down by Canon, or possibly even Meike themselves seeing how hush they are trying to be about it.

Possibility number 3: Meike makes an EF lens with an RF bayonet.

 

[mxwphoto]

Possibility number 3: Meike makes an EF lens with an RF bayonet.

Good point #3. Though if that were the case and is a valid loophole I would think that the market would have a lot of 3rd party RF mount AF lenses by now.

 

[Ozarker]

Good point #3. Though if that were the case and is a valid loophole I would think that the market would have a lot of 3rd party RF mount AF lenses by now.

Not if not licensed to work with the RF. Just ask Sigma.