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French publication phototrend had their annual interview with Canon executives at CP+ 2026 and came away with some good information about the current EOS R lineup and their future plans, but in true Canon fashion, they didn't let too much out of the bag.
The Canon EOS R6 Mark III
The Canon EOS R6 Mark III has been well received as a well-evolved 6-series camera. However, there have been people wondering why Canon has continued using an FSI CMOS sensor for the 6-series camera line considering that one of its selling points in speed.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the sensor choice was to balance performance and the cost of the camera. BSI and/or stacked sensors do cost more to manufacture.
The lack of the DIGIC Accelerator was also due to cost, but I think it's also because the speed of the EOS R6 Mark IIIs sensor made it pointless.
Canon RF 14 F1.4 L VCM
One of the most impressive lenses technology wise is the new RF 14mm f/1.4L VCM. The small size and excellent image quality is quite the feat of engineering. Canon touts the BR (Blue Spectrum Refractive Optics) along with using three aspherical elements, flourine and their high-end SWC and ASC coatings.
The most interesting point mentioned by Canon is advancements in manufacturing technology which enable them to mass produce such lenses to high tolerances.
Canon RF 45 F1.2 STM
Announced back in November to a lot of fanfare, the RF 45mm f/1.2 STM is the fastest autofocus Non-L lens available for the RF Mount. The small size is an impressive feat, especially when you consider that it costs well below $500.
Canon says they kept the size small by reducing the number of elements required, using molded plastic aspherical elements and using a geared STM motor, their latest evolution of STM focus motors.
Canon does hint that more lenses like this will be coming.
6 to 8 new RF Lenses A Year
Canon will continue their aggressive goal of producing 6 to 8 new RF mount lenses a year. There are now more than 60 RF mount lenses if you include Cinema lenses.
Canon has already announced 2 new lenses in 2026 with the aforementioned RF 14mm f/1.4 L VCM along with the RF 7-14mm f/2.8-3.5 L Fisheye STM.
I think they'll be announcing 8 in total this year, so we have 6 more to look forward to. I suspect we'll get 1 or 2 new RF-S lenses around the time of the EOS R7 Mark II launch.
Opening the mount
I think it's a running concept that Canon has “opened up” the mount for APS and not full-frame. Maybe that's not the case?
We don't really differentiate between full-frame and APS-C in this regard, and we don't communicate publicly on this subject. I think this observation comes from an outside perspective, based on the fact that third-party lens manufacturers are currently only involved with APS-C.
Go Tokura https://phototrend.fr/2026/03/interview-canon-cpplus-2026/
That's a very interesting statement. Has anyone considered that Sigma and Tamron aren't ready or capable of producing full-frame RF mount lenses? Sigma isn't a manufacturing behemoth, could they keep up with the demand that would come with releasing RF mount full-frame lenses?
Food for thought.
Canon's AI strategy
Canon is all-in on using AI technology in cameras, but they don't plan on doing anything overly silly like smartphones do. There will be no generating of pixels in the output of an image or video. I think that's great to hear.
Canon plans to focus on 5 areas of AI tech; noise reduction, colour correction, upscaling, aberration and distortion correction. The latter being a hot topic of debate in the Canon community.
Canon Retro Camera
Canon has given a much different answer than they did last year about releasing a “retro” camera body. It seems they aren't as keen to the idea. They state that there is no plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the AE-1.
As of now, we don't plan to celebrate this milestone in any special way.
Manabu Kato https://phototrend.fr/2026/03/interview-canon-cpplus-2026/
Conclusion
It looks like Canon is going to continue on the same path that their on as it seems to be working. I do expect further advancements on their AI mission, especially with the upcoming PowerShot cameras.
I also expect them to continue to target younger shooters, which they haven't done all that well with since the launch of the EOS R system in 2018.
The death of the retro dream? We'll see. Maybe it'll be saved for PowerShot and not for EOS.
Check out the full interview at Phototrend.fr.
Though there are already so many lenses covering the standard zoom range so I don’t have to much hope.
If none of these are “amazing” or “take your breath away” but merely “ok”, “adequate” or 90%, then a used EF 600 lis II might be a better option.
FSI for the 6DIII wasn’t a surprise, the R5’s FSI sensor delivered IQ as good as any other FF sensor on the market. BSI is a marketing gimmick for current full frame pixel sizes (though you can’t get the speed benefit of a stacked sensor without BSI).
Why? I honestly don’t get comments like that. Except from trolls, or people with zero business acumen. Why lie when you can just leave it at ‘no comment’ (which was the main answer anyway). It could easily be true that the lack of 3rd party FF autofocus lenses is the choice of the 3rd parties, technically…Canon sets the terms, and if they don’t want such lenses made they just need to set terms to make it undesirable. 3rd parties won’t make the lenses if Canon’s licensing fee makes them unprofitable. It’s not personal, it’s business.
I never had issues with the image quality of FSI. Also not on my 6D II
Why EF? EF allows to convert the EOS R50 V with a ND adapter into a small cinema camera with internal ND exposure control!
But too many options keep me away from taking photos, so less options might be good for me ;-)
To me it is clear that Canon either deliberately blocks FF autofocus lenses for RF, or asks high licensing fees, which effectively block any 3rd party, while there is no 'technical' reason.
A retro PowerShot would make sense. The low-end is a good target audience for "fashion cameras".
🤞
In any case, even if the lens was "horrendous" (which it isn't)... why would this be a problem? People can simply not buy it. It's called free market. Not that Canon shooters have the trouble of taking this horrendous risk...
Agreed
Canon haven't been 100% honest in the past though - same as Sony with the A mount, they kept making noises about the M mount not being dead well after the decision had been taken to kill it. They will say whatever they think we want to hear and honesty and candor are not a priority. Like any other corporation.
And I don't believe for a second that Sigma would not sell their FF lenses to RF customers if they could. If it was a case of costs they could simply pass them to the customers. And if it was a question of capacity they could simply produce less crop lenses and favor the more profitable FF ones