This is the Canon RF lens roadmap

[unfocused]

I've only got one missing piece at this point as well, but mine's a big white to fill the hole left by the 500 f/4 IS I sold a while back. Canon's picks for the initial offerings hit all my marks, and for the first time ever I've duplicated some focal lengths with the STM 16, 35, 50 and 85. I use them for packing a light kit for hiking and honestly loan them out to my son who uses them more than I do but is on a limited budget.

Are you planning to replace it with an RF 500 f4? Not to be too pessimistic but given the fact that Canon never updated the 500mm when they updated the 400mm and 600mm, plus we don't know to what extent the 100-500 zoom may have cut into the market and also knowing that both the 400 f2.8 and the 600 f4 are in short supply, I have my doubts that we will see an RF 500 f4 any time soon.

 

[HenryL]

Are you planning to replace it with an RF 500 f4? Not to be too pessimistic but given the fact that Canon never updated the 500mm when they updated the 400mm and 600mm, plus we don't know to what extent the 100-500 zoom may have cut into the market and also knowing that both the 400 f2.8 and the 600 f4 are in short supply, I have my doubts that we will see an RF 500 f4 any time soon.

Nope, I'll be picking up the RF 600/4 this time around. I want the additional reach, and it's almost two pounds lighter than what I had. Not in a rush by any means, although I would likely have picked one up recently had I not ordered an R3. Been waiting a few years, so another one or two isn't a big deal. I do think Canon will eventually add a 300/2.8 and 500/4 to the RF line, but neither are on my roadmap.

 

[john1970]

I am actually hoping that Canon releases a 500 mm f4 and 300 mm f2.8 in 2022. Both lenses are in the RF roadmap so hopefully we see then sooner rather than later. I also considered the 600 mm f4, but prefer the 500 mm f4 for lighter weight and easier to travel due to smaller size.

 

[dennishensphoto]

I think Canons lineup is quite impressive for three years and two months in the making. At the moment, there are more Sony offerings on the table, but not for long anymore.
Plus, I like Canons innovation with their lenses on the consumer side (600/ 800mm/ 70-400mm/ affordable primes) as well on the professional side (14-35mm F4/ 28-70mm f2/ 100-500mm/ 70-200mm and their primes) and I expect more great things to come.

Absolutely true, however, working with a 5DmkIII and looking to upgrade I went to a photography event trying some new cameras.
I really didn't like the way Sony cameras felt in my hand and was 100% sure to stay with Canon. However, when looking at the lens lineup, I got kind of the opposite reaction. I kinda hoped that after the f2.8 zooms they would go for the fast primes (but not the L primes which cost over 2000 EUR). Cool to see the nifty fifty and nifty 16, but not interesting for the professional users
Anyway: I we would know when certain lenses would come, that would help a lot actually, not much to do about it, but closely following CR

 

[kaihp]

I am actually hoping that Canon releases a 500 mm f4 and 300 mm f2.8 in 2022. Both lenses are in the RF roadmap so hopefully we see then sooner rather than later. I also considered the 600 mm f4, but prefer the 500 mm f4 for lighter weight and easier to travel due to smaller size.

I have the 300/2.8 II and the 200-400/4 1.4x TC. Of those, I would rather have the 200-400 to be released than the 300.

On the other hand, with the price hikes on the 400 & 600, I am not likely to be willing to pay the price of an RF 200-400 from new (I got the EF as a Black Friday sale on used items a couple of years ago).

 

[john1970]

I have the 300/2.8 II and the 200-400/4 1.4x TC. Of those, I would rather have the 200-400 to be released than the 300.

On the other hand, with the price hikes on the 400 & 600, I am not likely to be willing to pay the price of an RF 200-400 from new (I got the EF as a Black Friday sale on used items a couple of years ago).

Good point. Maybe we get a RF 120-300 mm f2.8 similar to the Nikon offering? That would be very similar to the 200-400 mm f4.

 

[kaihp]

Good point. Maybe we get a RF 120-300 mm f2.8 similar to the Nikon offering? That would be very similar to the 200-400 mm f4.

I was only aware of the Sigma 120-300 f/2.8. Just goes on to show how little I look outside the "Canon world"

Having a 120-300mm f/2.8 is not quite the same as a 200-400mm f/4 when you factor extenders in. On an EF camera, you are limited to 2x TC, so you can get to 400-800mm f/8. With the 120-300 you'd have 240-600mm.

It would be interesting to try the 200-400 with the internal 1.4x TC and an external 2x TC + EF-RF adapter on the R3/R5 and see how well the combo works. Given that it's within the f/11 of the 600 & 800 lenses, it should work for AF. Question is how much the image quality and AF speed would suffer.

 

[TMT]

I'm confused. The Canon RF 35mm f1.8 Macro has been around since the beginning, but I don't see it listed here. Also, Amazon says it is not sure this lens will work with my R5. What am I missing?

 

[neuroanatomist]

I'm confused. The Canon RF 35mm f1.8 Macro has been around since the beginning, but I don't see it listed here. Also, Amazon says it is not sure this lens will work with my R5. What am I missing?

CRGuy forgot to add an affiliate link for the RF 35 macro and Amazon is not a reliable source of such information. The lens will work fine on your R5.

 

[Exploreshootshare]

Has anybody heard about the two RF lenses which were supposed to be coming until the end of the year? I'm guessing they've been postponed but its unlike Canon to make an announcement like that and then don't deliver...

 

[john1970]

Has anybody heard about the two RF lenses which were supposed to be coming until the end of the year? I'm guessing they've been postponed but its unlike Canon to make an announcement like that and then don't deliver...

I have not heard anything, but there are still 11 days left in 2021! Would be interesting if they made the announcement on Dec 31, 2021.

 

[BBarn]

Rumors forgot to count the two teleconverters in the total when comparing total lens numbers. I'd say no more lenses for 2021.

 

[Exploreshootshare]

Rumors forgot to count the two teleconverters in the total when comparing total lens numbers. I'd say no more lenses for 2021.

Admittedly, people do forget about the converters but that’s not the case here. Canon stated in their last financial report and their currently are 24 RF lenses (that includes the converters as well as the 100-400/ 16mm/ 5.2mm fisheye) and that there will be 26 by the end of the year. With this statement canon actually pre-announced two more lenses but so far nobody has heard anything…

 

[BBarn]

As someone else pointed out, Canon currently lists 26 RF lenses on their website. Those 26 lenses include the two RF teleconverters. So, it comes down to how Canon counts lenses. Of course, in less than 10 days we'll know whether two more RF lenses are announced in 2021.

 

[neuroanatomist]

Canon stated in their last financial report and their currently are 24 RF lenses (that includes the converters as well as the 100-400/ 16mm/ 5.2mm fisheye) and that there will be 26 by the end of the year. With this statement canon actually pre-announced two more lenses but so far nobody has heard anything…

I don’t see where they say they had 24. They did state in their Q3 materials, “We plan to increase our lens lineup to 26 within this year, including the RF 5.2 mm F2.8 L DUAL FISHEYE lens that we announced this month.”

As @BBarn points out (again), there are 26 RF lenses now.



I’m not sure why anyone is confused about this, there are no more lenses coming this year.

 

[Exploreshootshare]

I don’t see where they say they had 24. They did state in their Q3 materials, “We plan to increase our lens lineup to 26 within this year, including the RF 5.2 mm F2.8 L DUAL FISHEYE lens that we announced this month.”

As @BBarn points out (again), there are 26 RF lenses now.

View attachment 201778

I’m not sure why anyone is confused about this, there are no more lenses coming this year.

Ahhh, I was fooled by an "always-up-to-date-RF lenses" list, which actually was missing two of them. Furthermore, I miscounted on the Canon website :/ sry for the inconvenience...

 

[AutoMatters]

The elephant in the room, that nobody is talking about, is the lack of a broad range, RF, high quality, fast, super zoom lens for all-around use when you only want to take the camera with one attached lens. Nikon's F-Mount 28-300mm full frame lens is incredibly versatile. Tamron makes one too. However, Canon's EF 28-300mm lens is almost 20 years old and way more expensive than either the Nikon or the Tamron. The Canon RF 24-240mm lens has a great zoom range for all-around use but it has received a lot of bad reviews: poor IQ at either end of the zoom range, no manual focus switch, very slow at long end of the zoom range (therefore poor in low light), lack of weather sealing and lens hood not included. It seems to be a poor lens choice for advanced photographers. Surely Canon can do better than this. How about a fast, L-series RF version?

 

[koenkooi]

The elephant in the room, that nobody is talking about, is the lack of a broad range, RF, high quality, fast, super zoom lens for all-around use when you only want to take the camera with one attached lens. Nikon's F-Mount 28-300mm full frame lens is incredibly versatile. Tamron makes one too. However, Canon's EF 28-300mm lens is almost 30 years old and way more expensive than either the Nikon or the Tamron. The Canon RF 24-240mm lens has a great zoom range for all-around use but it has received a lot of bad reviews: poor IQ at either end of the zoom range, no manual focus switch, very slow at long end of the zoom range (therefore poor on low light), lack of weather sealing, lens hood not included) is a poor lens choice for advanced photographers. Surely Canon can do better than this. How about a fast, L-series RF version?

The 24-240 is also a lens that gets rave reviews from actual people that are actually using it, so I'm inclined to take the "poor IQ" reviews with a lot of salt.

 

[neuroanatomist]

The elephant in the room, that nobody is talking about, is the lack of a broad range, RF, high quality, fast, super zoom lens for all-around use when you only want to take the camera with one attached lens.

Ahhh yes, the elephant.

Nikon's F-Mount 28-300mm full frame lens is incredibly versatile. Tamron makes one too. However, Canon's EF 28-300mm lens is almost 30 years old and way more expensive than either the Nikon or the Tamron. The Canon RF 24-240mm lens has a great zoom range for all-around use but it has received a lot of bad reviews: poor IQ at either end of the zoom range, no manual focus switch, very slow at long end of the zoom range (therefore poor on low light), lack of weather sealing, lens hood not included) is a poor lens choice for advanced photographers. Surely Canon can do better than this. How about a fast, L-series RF version?

Superzoom lenses are always an optical compromise. I had the 28-300L, it was decent. The IQ of the RF 24-240 is similar, which is impressive for a non-L lens.

I suspect the market for an RF L superzoom just isn’t large enough to justify one. Canon said about the 28-300 that it was aimed at photojournalists, and that’s a vastly smaller group today than when the lens launched as an update to the venerable 35-350L.

 

[AutoMatters]

The 24-240 is also a lens that gets rave reviews from actual people that are actually using it, so I'm inclined to take the "poor IQ" reviews with a lot of salt.

Koenkooi,

Thank you for your encouraging reply.

Since posting about this less than a day ago, I've sought out and been reading lots of reviews about Canon's 24-240mm RF lens, since I really need a superzoom walkaround lens, and for use when I have a long telephoto zoom (Canon's 100-500mm, which I own but have not used yet) on another camera body. I agree with you. A lot of people really like this lens, so I've decided to take a chance on it.

If the extreme wide and zoomed-in positions of this lens are not good due to extreme distortion and vignetting, as some people are explaining in great detail in their reviews (including one reviewer on B&H and in the Canon online store), I will simply avoid using those extreme positions of the zoom range.

FYI, very recently I switched from 50 years of shooting Nikons (mostly SLRs and DSLRs, plus a Nikon Z6 — all of which I have sold) to try Canon mirrorless (EOS R3) — after trying and rejecting Sony mirrorless (Alpha 1). I often shoot motorsports (especially professional car racing), but Sony's Alpha 1 was not particularly well-suited to reliably focus-tracking racing cars, and I could not get used to its ergonomics. Canon has car focus tracking.

Also, I often shoot in low light. Most recently I shot in low light using my Nikon D5 DSLR with Nikon's slow 28-300mm lens, for photos that I successfully published in my "AutoMatters & More column, at AutoMatters.net. My Nikon D5 (and, before that, my D4s and D3s) all had good enough lowlight capabilities that the photos were still acceptable for me to publish (online and in newspapers). That is why I am not worried that Canon's 24-240mm is also a slow lens — especially when zoomed way in at the far end of the zoom range, which would necessitate shooting at pretty high ISOs.

I do have one important question for you, though. Many of the reviewers of Canon's 24-240mm RF lens are stressing the importance of using Canon's lens profiles to correct this lens (in-camera and when editing), but they do not say how to do that. I shoot RAW and edit in Lightroom Classic.

Can and will you tell me in which menu are these lens profiles located in Canon cameras, how can I invoke them within Lightroom Classic and exactly how am I supposed to use them?

Thank you, and Happy Holidays!

Jan