CanonNews / Saturday, May 4, 2019

Canon RF lens update - 85mm 1.2L coming out May 9th, 3 more coming out in July

Some rumors are not surfacing that the Canon RF lenses that were announced in February are going to start to come out shortly.

The Canon RF 85mm 1.2L USM is supposed to be released on May 9th, while the "holy trinity" of lenses (15-35 2.8L IS USM, 24-70 2.8L IS USM and 70-200 2.8L IS USM) is slated to be coming out at the end of July.

It's great to see Canon releasing these throughout the year, and especially before the summer "wedding" months. Professionals will have a nice set of lenses, with the 2.8L IS USM's released and the classic portrait lens, the 85mm.

Another rumor suggests that Canon will announce up to 8 more RF lenses next year. Some that are suggested are the F4.0 trinity of lenses that usually include an ultra wide zoom (such as the 16-35 F4.0 IS USM for the EF mount), a normal zoom (24-70 F4.0 IS USM) and a telephoto zoom (70-200 F4.0 IS USM). Some of these lenses we have discovered the patents for, others we have not. However, we only see patent applications that Canon has filed years ago. It's just when the patent applications are becoming published to the public that we see them, so there could be many more lens patents in the pipeline that we just haven't seen yet. I personally desire the F4.0 trinity more than the F2.8, so I'm hoping this turns out to be true.

The work that Canon is doing quickly on the RF mount is not unprecedented. During the first 4 years of the EF mount, Canon worked quickly to make the mount stand on its own. They released 33 lenses in 4 years, nearly half of their entire lens portfolio. Canon can move quickly when they need to.