RF 28-70mm F2 anyone?
The new full frame mirrorless camera from Canon has been kept very much under wraps. Not surprising, it’s a big strategic move and Canon needs to wrong foot the opposition.
There have been no rumours worth even mentioning, until today.
Nokishita Camera has a list… A very interesting list. The mirrorless camera will be named Canon EOS R. The list contains a couple of very exotic lenses. The 28-70mm F2.0 would be a world first. I would be amazed if that was compact. Would surely be enormous? Starting at 28mm rather than 24mm does help a bit and ensures there’s still demand for a possible 24mm F1.4. A 50mm F1.2L is there – my favourite prime of the Canon EF range… Did they make it smaller (like the old Canon FD version) for mirrorless? These are joined by a 35mm F1.8 which finds room for IS and a 24-105mm F4 which curiously does not. No news on whether the body features in-body stabilisation. The 24-105mm is the kit lens if you elect not to go for the body-only.
The lens mount is designated RF.
In SLR terms the letter “R” means “Reflex”. In this case it might mean something else. However what’s curious is that the RF mount is expected to maintain a long flange distance so EF lenses mount straight on without an adapter. That would mean the camera system would forgo most of the size reduction benefits of removing the mirror.
An EVF is so useful for video and it is time Canon moved onto to a future without the mirror either way. I don’t particularly mind a slightly larger camera. What I don’t want is a tiny body with a toilet roll on the end. Long flange mirrorless cameras look daft.
There’s some speculation, based around a patent, that the flange could vary in size. Maybe you twist the mount and it halves in size, revealing contacts for RF lens. Twist again and it extents to EF mode with EF contacts and 44mm flange. That would be clever. Are Canon really going to be that innovative? Wouldn’t their bean-counters veto it?
September 5th is mooted for a reveal of some kind. That’s less than a week away!
4K video is surely on the specs sheet in some form or other – they need to compete with the Nikon Z and Sony range and it is in their cheapest mirrorless, the EOS M50.
Either way, if that 28-70mm F2.0 is reasonably compact and you can shoot full frame 4K through it with Dual Pixel AF, it could be a real threat to the Sony and Nikon mirrorless cameras. Anything less and it’s a late “me-too” effort.
