# Any news on if/when we will see Sigma and Tamron RF lenses?



## jd7 (Aug 13, 2020)

I know there is at least on RF lens from Samyang (with AF), and I have heard there is at least one from Mieke, but the R/RF gear has been out for almost two years now and we haven't seen anything from Sigma or Tamron.

The R5 and R6 releases give a pretty clear impression that mirrorless is the future, even for those of us who have not been keen on EVFs. However, I am not keen to buy into any system which doesn't have a healthy range of third party lenses. As good as most of Canon's RF lenses may be technically, right now I'm looking enviously at lenses available in the Sony system. To give a few examples, Sigma's new 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art is far smaller, lighter and cheaper than Canon's RF 85L lenses, Sigma's 24-70 f/2.8 DG DN Art lens is far cheaper than the RF 24-70L and cheaper even than the old EF 24-70L II, Tamron's 70-180 f/2.8 is far cheaper than Canon's RF 70-200 f/2.8L (and smaller and ligher, although I would prefer the Canon and being able to zoom to 200mm if they were closer to the same price). Those Sigma and Tamron lenses are lenses I might actually buy, but (as a hobbyist) I just cannot justify to myself the price of most of Canon's RF lenses (which are generally selling for A$3,000 to A$4,000 each, and often closer to the top of that range) so they are not on my shopping list.

So, does anyone have any information about if/when Sigma and Tamron will start releasing RF lenses?


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 13, 2020)

Canon has their design pretty well sewed up with patents, if it were easy, the 3rd party makers would have lenses already, they know what's at stake. I don't think any 3rd party has produced a RF compatible AF lens yet.


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## AlanF (Aug 13, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Canon has their design pretty well sewed up with patents, if it were easy, the 3rd party makers would have lenses already, they know what's at stake. I don't think any 3rd party has produced a RF compatible AF lens yet.


They produce EF compatible lenses that work with the adapters. Presumably they could make RF lenses that were in practice EF technology with a built in adapter?


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## jd7 (Aug 14, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Canon has their design pretty well sewed up with patents, if it were easy, the 3rd party makers would have lenses already, they know what's at stake. I don't think any 3rd party has produced a RF compatible AF lens yet.


Samyang has 85mm and 14mm RF lenses wtih AF, so it seems it is possible (although whether they operate effectively as EF lenses with an adapter or as native RF lenses, I don't know):








Samyang Optics


A New Perspective Samyang Optics. Provides detailed information and support for Samyang Optics lenses. You can also view magazine content and sample photos.




www.samyanglensglobal.com












Samyang Optics


A New Perspective Samyang Optics. Provides detailed information and support for Samyang Optics lenses. You can also view magazine content and sample photos.




www.samyanglensglobal.com





I'm sure I read a rumour a while back about Meike releasing a 50mm RF lens with AF, but I'm not sure if it ever happened.

If Canon wants to limit third party RF lenses, obviously that is a business decision for it. And no doubt they have a lot of data to help them decide whether that is the way they want to go. I can only say that if there is not a healthy range of third party RF lenses, I will be reluctant to ever buy into the R/RF system, and I will be looking hard at the competition. That would be disappoining as I've really enjoyed my Canon gear and I have generally been impressed by it, so in many ways I'd like to stay with Canon, but if mirrorless is the future and other systems are offering what I see as better value, that's where I am going to have to go. I'm not in a rush though so I'll give it a bit longer yet. I am really hoping Sigma and Tamron start releasing RF lenses before too much longer!


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 14, 2020)

jd7 said:


> Samyang has 85mm and 14mm RF lenses wtih AF, so it seems it is possible (although whether they operate effectively as EF lenses with an adapter or as native RF lenses, I don't know):
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Samyang RF lenses seem to actually be EF protocol lenses which means features available to RF lenses are not available? Unless it uses RF protocols, its not actually a RF lens, just a EF with a RF mount and distance to sensor of RF.









Samyang announces the AF 85mm F1.4 for the RF mount


Samyang has announced the AF 85mm F1.4 for the RF mount. This will certainly delight some users that wished for a lighter, smaller 85mm lens instead of the Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM lenses. Samyang from our understanding is using the EF protocol with the RF mount. This is of course, completely...



www.canonnews.com


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## jd7 (Aug 15, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Samyang RF lenses seem to actually be EF protocol lenses which means features available to RF lenses are not available? Unless it uses RF protocols, its not actually a RF lens, just a EF with a RF mount and distance to sensor of RF.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If the features specific to RF lenses are not available with the Samyang lenses, that is disappointing ... although not that surprising. If it was easy for third parties to create lenses for the RF mount, presumably we would have seen more third party RF lenses by now (as you have already suggested). It seems things are not looking good for third party RF lenses, at least in the near future. That is very disappointing (at least to me!).


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## tron (Aug 15, 2020)

Don't forget that even EF compatibility is/was not assured 100%. There were SIGMA lenses with EF mount that could work only fully open when newer Canon bodies appeared and even worse Tokina lenses (I know I have one that could work only with old … analog bodies, not even new analog bodies!!!)


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## BeenThere (Aug 15, 2020)

tron said:


> Don't forget that even EF compatibility is/was not assured 100%. There were SIGMA lenses with EF mount that could work only fully open when newer Canon bodies appeared and even worse Tokina lenses (I know I have one that could work only with old … analog bodies, not even new analog bodies!!!)


I don’t think you can say that third party lens EF incompatibility is an EF issue, but rather that the third parties did not get EF protocols exactly correct in their implementations.


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## tron (Aug 15, 2020)

BeenThere said:


> I don’t think you can say that third party lens EF incompatibility is an EF issue, but rather that the third parties did not get EF protocols exactly correct in their implementations.


You put words in my mouth eee keyboard I mean. I said the opposite. That 3rd party EF incompatibility is a … 3rd party issue (Sigma, Tokina).


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## KKCFamilyman (Sep 6, 2020)

I agree would be nice for the hobbyist to get an affordable 70-300 zoom that was smaller and RF mount without an adapter.


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