SIGMA to start producing RF mount lenses in 2021

[Starting out EOS R]

Every comparison I have seen suggest it's one of the worst modern 70-200's optically. Not nearly as good as the EF II or III when compared side by side. It's small, light and good enough but clearly compromises were made to obtain the small size and light weight.

Not sure which reviews you have read as most of the main one's doing direct comparisons say its a better lens, plus have experienced it yourself as my experience is it's a 1st class lens with great optics, especially when paired with the R5.

 

[BirdDudeJosh]

Not sure which reviews you have read as most of the main one's doing direct comparisons say its a better lens, plus have experienced it yourself as my experience is it's a 1st class lens with great optics, especially when paired with the R5.

Christopher Frost and Dustin Abbot both clearly illustrate the weaknesses of the RF 70-200 f2.8. I am making the assumption that the reduced size, weight and are a factor in its poor performance but it certainly doesn't live up to the price tag or the expectation.
Specifically its corners suck wide open at all focal lengths and vignette and distortion middle of the road and certainly not "1st class".

 

[Starting out EOS R]

Christopher Frost and Dustin Abbot both clearly illustrate the weaknesses of the RF 70-200 f2.8. I am making the assumption that the reduced size, weight and are a factor in its poor performance but it certainly doesn't live up to the price tag or the expectation.
Specifically its corners suck wide open at all focal lengths and vignette and distortion middle of the road and certainly not "1st class".

Well each to their own as they say. I've had no issues at all but then if you pixel peep and push it to extremes, any lens will struggle.

 

[Johnw]

I'm intrigued what people use the control ring for. I have a mix of EF and RF lenses now and haven't used the control ring as the R5 has 3 ring/dials + joystick already.

I use it for aperture since I have a couple of manual aperture lenses as well, so that way I always know aperture is a lens ring.

 

[Coffy83]

Christopher Frost and Dustin Abbot both clearly illustrate the weaknesses of the RF 70-200 f2.8. I am making the assumption that the reduced size, weight and are a factor in its poor performance but it certainly doesn't live up to the price tag or the expectation.
Specifically its corners suck wide open at all focal lengths and vignette and distortion middle of the road and certainly not "1st class".

Poor performance? Lol
I have had the old EF one and the new one...they are both great but the RF is better. It is an amazing lens and now actually fits mounted on the camera in my small camera bag...what more could you want? I actually did a comparison between 8 135mm prime lenses and for the fun of it included the RF 70-200 in the test...it beat all of them in sharpness and contrast even at f2.8....I don’t think I have to mention the autofocus...best I have ever used.

By the way, I don’t know what reviews you watched, both Frost and Abbot praise the lens. Frost calls it “a masterpiece, not perfect but excellent“.

 

[JordanCS13]

Christopher Frost and Dustin Abbot both clearly illustrate the weaknesses of the RF 70-200 f2.8. I am making the assumption that the reduced size, weight and are a factor in its poor performance but it certainly doesn't live up to the price tag or the expectation.
Specifically its corners suck wide open at all focal lengths and vignette and distortion middle of the road and certainly not "1st class".

Dustin Abbott had a bum copy of this lens no doubt. I have never seen images even remotely as bad as his corners in any shots with my lens. I did a comparison test with the RF 70-200/4L last week, and you can see the 100% corner crops throughout the range. It's not absolutely 100% perfect at f/2.8 throughout the range, but it's very good throughout the range. 70mm is the worst focal length for the corners, but even there it's decent.

Canon RF 70-200mm f/4L IS vs. Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS -

I compare the new RF 70-200mm f/4L vs the RF 70-200mm f/2.8L in a battle of the compact mirrorless telephoto zoom lenses.

admiringlight.com

 

[Nemorino]

Sigma released another interesting lens for FF mirrorless:
A 28-70mm f/2.8 contemporary priced 850€, weight under 500g and a 67mm filterthread.
Sadly only in E- and L-mount available.

Hope Sigma will join the RF party soon!

 

[Dmcavoy]

There has to be some sort of announcement about this soon? Surely?

Dying to get hold of some cheaper RF lens options.

 

[Flamingtree]

There has to be some sort of announcement about this soon? Surely?

Dying to get hold of some cheaper RF lens options.

Absolutely!!

the current pricing is insane and the supply is even worse.

 

[bdeutsch]

Hope Sigma will join the RF party soon!

Party? What's a party? I vaguely recall the word. Was that something that happened before 2020?

---

Deutsch Photography: Wedding, Mitzvah and Corporate Event Photographer NYC

 

[Ruiloba]

Any news about this?

 

[Ozarker]

Party? What's a party? I vaguely recall the word. Was that something that happened before 2020?

---

Deutsch Photography: Wedding, Mitzvah and Corporate Event Photographer NYC

1999

 

[mjg79]

Absolutely!!

the current pricing is insane and the supply is even worse.

Indeed, it would seem like the RF mount would be a real gold mine for Sigma to move into. Over the past 4 or 5 years Sony has allowed the price of many GM lenses to drift down a bit - you can usually find the 85GM and 24GM both for good prices while their 16-35GM and 24-70GM lenses are now quite reasonably priced.

Canon is of course probably wise from a business point of view still keeping the newer RF L lenses priced high as they are able to recoup some R&D costs and sell them to the pent up demand and GAS-afflicted though I imagine in the medium term Canon will lower prices - They won't want a situation where bread-and-butter professional lenses like their "holy trinity" 2.8 zooms or their fast 50 and 85 are so markedly more expensive than those from their main competitor.

So for the moment it would seem easy pickings for Sigma - they could undercut Canon pricing by several hundred dollars on many lenses and the modern Sigma standards in terms of optics, quality control and build is these days excellent, in many cases superior to Sony and second only to Canon itself. I would particularly like to try their unusual 45mm/2.8 and the 14-24/2.8 for astro due to its low vignette.

Maybe the problem is the issues around Canon not making the mount open? Given that it's wider than the Sony E-mount one would think physically it would be quite easy to port over their current E-mount lenses so perhaps it is the issue around the licensing, laws etc. I also am surprised that Voigtlander hasn't released any RF mount manual focus glass. Maybe negotiations are all going on behind closed doors and we all just have to keep guessing.

 

[Flamingtree]

Indeed, it would seem like the RF mount would be a real gold mine for Sigma to move into. Over the past 4 or 5 years Sony has allowed the price of many GM lenses to drift down a bit - you can usually find the 85GM and 24GM both for good prices while their 16-35GM and 24-70GM lenses are now quite reasonably priced.

Canon is of course probably wise from a business point of view still keeping the newer RF L lenses priced high as they are able to recoup some R&D costs and sell them to the pent up demand and GAS-afflicted though I imagine in the medium term Canon will lower prices - They won't want a situation where bread-and-butter professional lenses like their "holy trinity" 2.8 zooms or their fast 50 and 85 are so markedly more expensive than those from their main competitor.

So for the moment it would seem easy pickings for Sigma - they could undercut Canon pricing by several hundred dollars on many lenses and the modern Sigma standards in terms of optics, quality control and build is these days excellent, in many cases superior to Sony and second only to Canon itself. I would particularly like to try their unusual 45mm/2.8 and the 14-24/2.8 for astro due to its low vignette.

Maybe the problem is the issues around Canon not making the mount open? Given that it's wider than the Sony E-mount one would think physically it would be quite easy to port over their current E-mount lenses so perhaps it is the issue around the licensing, laws etc. I also am surprised that Voigtlander hasn't released any RF mount manual focus glass. Maybe negotiations are all going on behind closed doors and we all just have to keep guessing.

I can totally see it from canon’s perspective, they are making sweet margins while there is no competitors to their lenses. I doubt rf lenses are actually materially more expensive to make than an ef equivalent.

My understanding is that sigma et al, had to reverse engineer ef, canon never licensed it. Same must be true for rf. But even if they have cracked the code so to speak, given canon is struggling with production I wonder if sigma are too? No point announcing gear that is impossible to get…

The upshot of all of this is until we see sigma or tamron enter the game in a big way, rf lenses will stay expensive I think.

 

[slclick]

Canon has never gone the route of licensing it's mounts, let them reverse eng it. Seems to have a good track record.

 

[Bennymiata]

I have the Samyang RF 14mm 2.8 AF lens, and it autofocusses very quickly and accurately on my R and my R5.
How come they can do it and Sigma, Tamron et al can't?
I read an interview with the boss of Sigma a while ago, and he said that their production is at it's limit now. However, I would think that as sales of ef lenses taper off, the secondary lens makers will come out with a large range of RF lenses, mostly converted from Sony mount lenses.

 

[EOS 4 Life]

I have the Samyang RF 14mm 2.8 AF lens, and it autofocusses very quickly and accurately on my R and my R5.
How come they can do it and Sigma, Tamron et al can't?
I read an interview with the boss of Sigma a while ago, and he said that their production is at it's limit now. However, I would think that as sales of ef lenses taper off, the secondary lens makers will come out with a large range of RF lenses, mostly converted from Sony mount lenses.

Those lenses work like adapted EF lenses and do not have the new RF features.
I can't see Sigma doing that.
Their EF lenses were practically Canon lenses.

 

[Ruiloba]

Maybe we are going to see some news the 30th of december 2021 ?

 

[serioussam909]

Canon has never gone the route of licensing it's mounts, let them reverse eng it. Seems to have a good track record.

There's a RED camera with a RF mount now. So it is possible to licence their mount. IDK if Sigma will do it.

 

[EOS 4 Life]

There's a RED camera with a RF mount now. So it is possible to licence their mount. IDK if Sigma will do it.

Licensing for cameras does not necessarily mean licensing for lenses.
More cameras will lead to more lens sales.
More lenses does the opposite but could arguably lead to more camera sales.