7 ms·
Canon EF and RF Lenses – All Autofocus Motors
Hi there! I have written an e-book about all autofocus motor types used in Canon EF & RF lenses from the past 40 years.
- nerderloo 2y agoFinally I will find out why RF50.8, 35.8 focusing is so noisy.(2870 is not)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- chaosprint 2y agoCanon's lenses are great, but they're really expensive. The camara body itself has the same issue. Sony seems to be the first choice for indie filmmakers and youtubers right now. L-mount and M43 also seem to have great potential as Panasonic supports Phase Detection Autofocus. edit: There is no need to be cynical here. Market figures are cruel. I hope they are all good. Competition is the best. I should also mention the return of Nikon. The patent threshold of RAW such as RED is what we need to oppose.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Forgeties79 2y agoConsidering my 70-200 can still hang after 10 years and will last another 20 easily with some TLC I was fine with my $1500 purchase - which I made as an indie filmmaker! Jokes aside Sony glass really isn’t all that much cheaper.
- chaosprint 2y agoAgreed. EF's short flange focal distance can also be easily connected to Sony to utilize dual ISO. Indie uses manual focus anyway.
- Forgeties79 2y agoYeah I have a lot of beef with Canon but there's no denying they make universal donor lenses
- dylan604 2y agoAs the old saying goes, buy the glass, rent the body. Camera bodies change much more quickly than the lenses, so as an indie your money is better spent on the glass. However, shit is so cheap now that you can almost upgrade your gear like your phone. IF you’re a cut ally making money with it, you can pay off your gear in one or two gigs. Unless you’re the “nephew with a 5D asking $500” to shoot that project
- jeffbee 2y agoMost shops that offered still photo rentals in my city have gone out of business, and it's a major city. I used to be able to count on renting a big telephoto that I didn't need to own, for a few hundred per weekend, but these days I'd have to take a long drive to get to the one remaining shop.
- dylan604 2y agoYeah, online rental places have pretty much made the locals fade away. The one in my local area requires a "deposit" worth the full sales price which makes it out of the reach of anyone but those well off. We used to joke about the B&H rental by taking full advantage of the 30-day return policy. Even Amazon's return policy qualifies now. You just need to the up front funds available and hope that wear&tear is not noticeable to make the return acceptable. It's hard for local shops to keep up with that.
- sizzzzlerz 2y agoI chose early on to invest in Canon's L lenses even though I'm an amateur. Yes, they are considerably more expensive than consumer lenses but for the price, you get a more rugged, weatherproof body, sharper and faster glass, and a greater selection of both fixed and zoom lens. The down side is they are quite heavy making them more difficult to carry when shooting outdoors and they can require a stronger tripod to support the weight of the lens and camera. But, the images they can produce can be simply stunning at times and that, after all, is why we do photography.
- liotier 2y agoAs a Canon user since the mid-80's, I found this fascinating reading. Edit: Wow - there's a whole collection of Canon lens technology articles there: https://exclusivearchitecture.com/03-technical-articles-CLT-00-table-of-contents.html https://exclusivearchitecture.com/03-technical-articles-CLT-...
- myself248 2y agoOh neat! I have a Newscale micro motor demo kit from years ago, and I wondered if they were ever successful in the market. But that hip-gyrating Micro USM action sure looks familiar.
- ExAr 2y agoThis sounds like a fun gadget. Just out of curiosity, do you still have that demo kit, and would you consider selling it? :-)
- aziaziazi 2y agoThe graphics are amazing. Congrats for the work!
- actionfromafar 2y agoCannot scroll pages in Firefox.
- ExAr 2y agoSorry to hear that. I tried on my Firefox and it worked. Not sure what might cause that issue.
- SSLy 2y agodepending on how the UA's anti-tracking is set up, your cookie pop-up (non-GDPR compliant btw) might prevent the scroll. It's this snippet html.disable--interaction.show--consent, html.disable-- interaction.show--consent body { height: auto !important; overflow: hidden !important; }
- Retr0id 2y agoWhich aspect of it is non-GDPR compliant?
- SSLy 2y agothe accept and reject buttons should not have differentiated colours. See point 3.4, 3.5 (p. 27 onwards) in https://noyb.eu/sites/default/files/2024-07/noyb_Cookie_Report_2024.pdf https://noyb.eu/sites/default/files/2024-07/noyb_Cookie_Repo...
- michh 2y agoI’ve recently been shooting film with an old EOS camera from the 90s I bought used and it was really nice being able to use the EOS lenses I bought for my DSLR in the 2000s and 2010s. It’s a dying standard now but it’s really impressive it lasted as long as it has, with significant technological innovation on both sides of the lens mount while retaining full compatibility. A brand new EOS EF lens still works with an 80s camera and a new 80D from 2017 can still use the lenses from the 1980s without any adapter. 30 years ain’t bad for a standard!
- IgorPartola 2y agoAs a Canon owner, Nikon has a much longer back compatibility range. Having autofocus motors and IS in body rather than in lens seems to be a part of their trick.
- dghlsakjg 2y agoNikon lenses will mount on any Nikon body, but that’s sort of where the compatibility ends. Their f mount autofocus lenses are a variety of standards that are not at all backwards compatible across eras.
- shagie 2y agoThe traditional Nikon mount has a small screw that is turned. The camera autofocus speed is limited by the amount of torque that can be applied to the screw - which can make focusing some of the heavier lenses slower. https://www.discoverdigitalphotography.com/2012/lens-mounts-and-interchangeable-lenses/ https://www.discoverdigitalphotography.com/2012/lens-mounts-... The "AF-D" lenses have contacts back to the camera body that communicate distance information (that is in turn used by the camera body to calculate flash power). The G mount lenses remove the manual coupling for the f/stop which means that only bodies that can control the aperture from the body can use them. My FM3A has no aperture control on the body and so with that camera, I unlock the aperture ring. The AF-S camera lenses have the focusing motor in the body. VR in Nikon is done in lens. https://kenrockwell.com/nikon/80400vr.htm https://kenrockwell.com/nikon/80400vr.htm It needs to - you can't jiggle the film around to keep it in the same place. --- The impressive part of Nikon's compatibility isn't only the "you can use an AI-S lens on a modern (professional) body, but also "you can use any of the F mount lenses on an old body" (the G lenses don't have the f/stop ring and the E lenses have the focus motor in the lens). While it appears that Nikon has mostly shifted to E and G mount, third party lenses are still being manufactured for the F mount. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1519140-REG/tokina_atx_i_afm100ffn_atx_i_100mm_f_2_8_ff.html https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1519140-REG/tokina_at... - and you can see all the parts of the F mount, manual aperture ring control, 5 pins for distance, '-' slotted screw for focus.
- turnsout 2y agoThis is seriously impressive! Just curious, how do you have the time to do all these deep-dives, and how can people give you money??
- ExAr 2y agoturnsout Thank you very much. Trying to understand complex things has always fascinated me. Indeed it takes a lot of time (rd. 1.600 hours for the complete series of Canon lens chapters) but its people like you who drive me forward. I don't have a donation page yet, I never thought it would be used :-)
- PaulHoule 2y agoI was a big fan of USM lenses when I had a Canon, but I had one go bad with fungus or something and for a while had only a 35mm prime which I even used to take pictures of birds. Then I lost my Canon and decided to get a Sony circa 2019 or so because all the reviews I saw for Nikon and Canon said the autofocus sucked on entry-level full frame cameras.
- lambdasquirrel 2y agoYou should be able to get fungus CLA’ed. Leica shooters using true vintage lenses sometimes need to do this when picking up a find from a flea market.
- Lammy 2y agoTo save anyone else looking it up, CLA == Clean, Lubricate, Adjust https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/15613/what-is-cla-service https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/15613/what-is-cla-... https://markorussa.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/general-instructions-for-lens-clean-lubricate-adjust-cla/ https://markorussa.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/general-instruct...
- MartijnBraam 2y agoI've always wanted to know how the various autofocus systems worked. This page is incredible. I wish there was another one with the Nikon autofocus systems since that's what I actually have. I still have several lenses with autofocus that don't have an AF motor in it at all, the motor is in the camera body instead there's a tiny screw on the lens mount that transfers the motor rotation to the autofocus parts in the lense. This was very slow and noisy though on my cameras.
- omoikane 2y agoNikon's lenses seem to follow a similar timeline, with different names: Wave motor = AF-S (1998) Stepper motor = AF-P (2016) Voice coil motor = SSVCM (2022) https://imaging.nikon.com/imaging/lineup/lens/glossary/ https://imaging.nikon.com/imaging/lineup/lens/glossary/
- pnathan 2y agoTolerably modern Nikon lenses have in-lens AF I believe.
- MartijnBraam 2y agoYeah the in-body motor thing is only for the older Nikon lenses, I don't think AF for that is still supported if you're using Z-mount adapters. Nikon seems to have a few similar AF motor technologies like the canon ones in this article.
- acomjean 2y agoCanon being late to the AF party (last century). They ended up with all electronic contacts when they switched lens mounts for the “eos” series cameras though at the expense of not having backward compatable lenses. (I had a bunch of manual focus lenses at the time…) They had one “auto focus” camera for the old lenses the t80. (https://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/film115.html https://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/film115.html) but almost no lenses supported autofocus. I think most of settings the camera sent to the older lenses (aperture primarily) was done mechanically. The way these old cameras autofocused was pretty interesting. With some light passing through a semi transparent mirror onto different sensors. Edit: this site has another page about autofocus. Quite extensive. https://exclusivearchitecture.com/03-technical-articles-DSLR-03-autofocus-systems.html https://exclusivearchitecture.com/03-technical-articles-DSLR... Shorter canon article: https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/s/article/ART170280 https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/s/article/ART170280 I have one of those mirrorless slrs now. The focus is amazingly good. Lots of software (eye detect etc). The focus sensors are integrated into the image sensor I believe.
- exar0815 2y agoI always wanted to build a controller for Canon Telephoto lenses to use them with c-mount cameras and control the focus from a PC. Might be helpful for that.
- sizzzzlerz 2y agoA couple of universities built a telescope called Dragonfly, that utilizes 48 Canon 400mm lenses to photograph the skies of New Mexico. The kicker is they don't use camera bodies. Instead, they designed and built mounts that directly connect the lens to a sensor. A PC controls each lens through some custom electronics using commands they reverse-engineered from the Canon control software. These commands control focus, aperture, and triggering a photograph. Images from the 48 lenses are then combined in the computer into a highly detailed final image. This was done back in 2013 so its possible Canon has released an API by now but I suspect they still keep it proprietary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_Telephoto_Array https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_Telephoto_Array
- contingencies 2y agoI visited some similar telescope in Australia at https://www.sidingspringobservatory.com.au/ https://www.sidingspringobservatory.com.au/ run by Macquarie University ... the students explained the lens system could not be too new and could not be too old. Basically it sounded like someone had partly reverse engineered one generation of the lens interface only. I guess the camera and lens manufacturer wants their lenses to be used with their cameras and to have better results than other manufacturers, whereas random companies want to clone the interface and sell cheaper lenses that also work with the cameras. Realising how awesome the lenses are, the students want an array of them, however they don't have the budget to buy a similar array of top end manufacturers' cameras. In Sydney they have interesting viewing nights at https://www.mq.edu.au/faculty-of-science-and-engineering/departments-and-schools/school-of-mathematical-and-physical-sciences/engage-with-us/night-sky-discovery https://www.mq.edu.au/faculty-of-science-and-engineering/dep...
- cpgxiii 2y agoA number of machine vision camera vendors have higher-end variants that support active EF-mount lenses. They tend to be quite expensive models with larger sensor, since you tend to lose a lot adapting full-frame lenses to tiny C-mount sensors. If you want a computer-controlled lens, one of the cheapest options is to use Blackmagic cameras that support SDI and/or USB control. You can then control either native M4/3 active lenses (focus, aperture, zoom) or supported EF-mount lenses if you use one of the EF->M4/3 active adapters.
- speed_spread 2y agoMeanwhile, Pentax screw drives go brrrrr
- amelius 2y agoThese piezoelectric drivers are very cool. Here's a video showing the mechanism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iHL4ZCkCKc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iHL4ZCkCKc And here's a video showing such a motor at full speed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtttNnmCVmU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtttNnmCVmU
- ExAr 2y agoCool videos, thanks! The driver shown in the first video is indeed a piezoelectric actuator, but not the type Canon uses in their lenses. The driver shown in the second video is probably related to Canon's Nano USM.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoDo companies like Canon manufacture these motors or actuators themselves? Or is there some other company that specializes in this sort of thing?
- ExAr 2y agoAs far as I know, Canon controls a large part of the supply chain and has numerous factories to manufacture quality-critical parts (especially their lenses, zoom mechanisms, and barrels) themselves. But there are numerous components that are more efficient to obtain from third parties, such as microchips. I am not sure about the motors and actuators, though.
- brotchie 2y agoThanks so much for putting so much effort into this, loved reading it: the diagrams and explanations are top-tier. Inspirational.
- notimetorelax 2y agoAm I spoiled by expecting these images to be dynamic? I remember some wonderful posts with graphs you could interact with.
- ExAr 2y agoOn the ring-type USM motor you can click on some images to see animations running. But there is no additional interactivity at this point.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bitdivision 2y agoYou're probably thinking of https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/ https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/ I can't imagine how long this post took to make, let alone trying to do animations.
- ExAr 2y agoWhat an absolute masterpiece this website is! Thanks for sharing.
- ucarion 2y agoSuch a cool website. In case anyone else was looking for it, this article from the same author covers the more algorithm-y question of how a camera body decides to actually use these motors when you press the "focus" button: https://exclusivearchitecture.com/03-technical-articles-DSLR-03-autofocus-systems.html https://exclusivearchitecture.com/03-technical-articles-DSLR... I can't find any articles on how a camera body decides what is and isn't a desired subject. I'm guessing there's some amount of machine learning-type stuff involved in that, seeing as how they can detect human (and bird?) faces?
- Sharlin 2y agoNowadays they use pre-trained pattern recognition AI models, yes, which has become much more impressive (and CPU-intensive) with mirrorless cameras where the entire resolution of the main image sensor is available for analyzing the scene. Some higher-end traditional DSLRs have a "high"-resolution (around 0.1 MPix or so) metering sensor that is used to assist the AF system (eg. what Canon calls iSA and iTR [1]). Traditionally, cameras would just focus using the single focus point the photographer has selected, or if they have selected a larger area focusing mode, the camera would typically pick the closest point of a group of points, assuming that that's usually what the photographer is interested in. (Remember that traditional (D)SLRs have a discrete AF sensor with at most a few dozen focusing points to choose from!) In tracking AF modes (eg. Canon's Servo AF), depending on settings, the camera tries to avoid sudden shifts in focus even if a foreground object momentarily occludes the original target. Tracking AF also has to predict the subject's motion to prevent the focus from lagging behind a fast-moving subject. Higher-end cameras allow configuring the AF behavior in terms of how reactive vs "sticky" it should be when tracking a subject, and how linear the subject's motion is expected to be. [1] https://www.canon.com.hk/cpx/en/technical/pa_Overview_of_65-point_AF_System.html https://www.canon.com.hk/cpx/en/technical/pa_Overview_of_65-...
- miahi 2y agoWith mirrorless cameras the focus switched from specialized sensors to on-CMOS contiuous exposure sensors, so movement is easy to detect. At this point the cameras have specialized AI hardware to run the models, and they also accept user input (on R5 MkII you can register up to ten people to prioritize focus on[1]). The focusing options are now very complex[2][3], and combined with lots of customization options on the camera's buttons you can have very specialized/personalized setups for different types of photography. [1] https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/manual/html/UG-04_AF-Drive_0080.html https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/manual/html/UG-04_AF-Drive_0... [2] https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/manual/html/UG-04_AF-Drive_0020.html https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/manual/html/UG-04_AF-Drive_0... [3] https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/manual/html/UG-04_AF-Drive_0100.html https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/manual/html/UG-04_AF-Drive_0...
- flyinglizard 2y agoIt’s an amazing article. And it’s only the tip of the iceberg - there are many more. This has to be the work of a madman (meant in the best possible way).
- DidYaWipe 2y agoReally interesting work. I have been aggravated by (and bellyaching about) the ridiculous lack of a way to control the focusing motors in these lenses directly when shooting video, using a follow-focus wheel. Video shooters are still strapping janky gear-tooth strips onto these lenses, and then bolting bulky mechanical follow-focus mechanisms on the OUTSIDE of lenses that have focusing motors already built in. I can only imagine that manufacturers refuse to make direct control available in order to protect their "cinema" lens lines, where a manual normal lens sells for thousands of dollars. And yet they sell some falsely-named "hybrid" lenses that are supposedly somehow better for video... despite lacking even geared focusing rings that are compatible with follow-focus units... let alone a control port that could be used for a focusing wheel to use the autofocus motors. I looked at the Canon camera-control SDK, and sure enough... focus control is omitted from their entire line, except for two PTZ cameras that aren't suitable for cine use.
- samplatt 2y agoA side project I've been neglecting is controlling autofocus on Sony Alpha cameras (specifically the A7ii and A7iii which I have) for the purpose of focus-stacking: shooting a few dozen shots with minimal-step focal differences and blending them all in photoshop later. It took me a while to find the API; Sony made one then pretty much scrubbed it from the internet and has ignored my emails asking for one :-) But even with the API, achieving results are tricky. Whether or not the focus motor steps properly seems to be based on how busy the camera is at the time... I'm trying various combinations of [shoot] - [sleep] - [step the focus] - [sleep] - [shoot] but the exactly which of these steps actually succeeds just seems so damn random.
- DidYaWipe 2y agoBlackMagic does some pretty innovative stuff. They offered an Arduino add-on board that could communicate with and control their cameras over SDI, including access to the Canon EF mount and its commands. Somebody did in fact create a control board with a knob to control lens focus through this thing. It can be done. The manufacturers just refuse to do it.
- fooker 2y agoGreat write up, thanks. I have a question I’m hoping you can answer. I have an EF 400mm f2.8 (2nd gen) lens. This thing focuses significantly faster with my old 7Dmk2 than my very new R6Mk2. With all other lenses it’s the opposite. Why does this happen? I have been told that this might be due to the old 7D and 1D bodies sending more power to the AF motors, but haven’t seen this corroborated anywhere.
- ExAr 2y agoHi fooker, thanks for your feedback. I haven't heard of this issue before, but a quick research showed me that other people have (similar) AF problems with longer lenses on an R6 II. See here https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/EOS-DSLR-Mirrorless-Cameras/R6-Issues-with-autofocus-with-long-lenses/td-p/339567/page/2 https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/EOS-DSLR-Mirrorless-Camer... Sorry for not providing an explanation, perhaps I can find some time to look deeper into this - but I can't promise.
- ryandamm 2y agoA note of possible interest for this crowd: all these motor types are open loop, so you can't actually command a specific state with any accuracy / repeatability. In other words, if you send a signal to the lens to focus at, say, 3m, it won't necessarily be in exactly the same state as the next time you focus at 3m. This is why camera calibration can be tricky, and you often don't want to touch the cameras after you've done a calibration pass.
- fusionadvocate 2y agoThe system stops the motors once it reaches focus. Therefore is a closed loop system.
- nayuki 2y agoCorrect. The AF sensor continually takes more samples even while the motor is moving. You can tell because sometimes the motor overshoots and then you can see it come back.
- ryandamm 2y agoYup… but it’s not necessarily in the same state if you do it twice. It’s close, but not identical. Even if the image metadata claims the focus point is identical, the lens in all likelihood is not in the same state and will have some deviation in its intrinsics.
- ryandamm 2y agoIt’s open loop in that the measurement of it being in focus is reliant on the subject matter, and a different measurement. I’m not making this up, camera manufacturers have told me to my face that focus is open loop, period. They can’t guarantee repeatable focus. Notably the measurement isn’t of the state of the motor/gearing. Furthermore, being “in focus” means the subject matter’s out of focus blur is below some threshold; there is a range of focus states that qualifies — but those seemingly small differences can affect camera calibration, with >pixel-level differences in effective focal lengths. It’s open loop.
- nayuki 2y agoAmazing website. If I didn't know better, I thought this content came from Canon itself. A couple of comments from me: > The following comparison chart shows all of the autofocus drive types that have ever been used in Canon's EF, EF-S, RF, and RF-S lenses. They missed mentioning EF-M, Canon's foray into mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras. > Although the ultrasonic noise cannot be perceived by the human ear, it can be picked up by sensitive microphones which can be problematic during video shootings. I used several Ring USM lenses and can hear the noise when focusing. It's a soft swishy kind of white noise, not harmonic. The Ring USM definitely generates noise in the audible range, not only ultrasonic. > The latest types of autofocus drives, including the Stepper Motor, Nano USM, and Voice Coil Motor, offer focus-by-wire. Though I have nothing against focus-by-wire on principle, the implementations have not been good. Having used several EF-M (all STM) and RF (some STM and some Nano USM) lenses that have focus-by-wire, I find that the motor actuation significantly lags behind the user turning the focus ring (which is a digital encoder), and the granularity of the focus steps are visible. Meanwhile, the old EF Ring USM's full-time manual (FTM) was really good by comparison; it didn't take much force, was fully responsive with no lag, and was fully analog when turned by hand and had no discrete steps. I miss that, as new lenses don't use this design. > Canon EF 15mm F2.8 Fisheye (et cetera) Please change the syntax to "f/2.8"; this is even in Canon's official pages. https://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/ef263.html https://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/ef263.html Why? Because f is actually a lowercase italic variable that denotes the focal length (15 mm in this case), and "/" (slash) really means division. The size of the aperture is (15 mm / 2.8) = 5.4 mm; that is the real diameter of the hole that light passes through. The absolute aperture is 5.4 mm and the relative aperture is f/2.8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number
- jmorenoamor 2y agoAmazing size with such attention to detail, congratulations.
- ashishuthama 2y ago@ExAr - A treasure trove of information, thanks for putting in the effort! Do you blog about how you go about creating these graphics? For example, this view finder image: https://exclusivearchitecture.com/images/technical-articles/DSLR/viewfinder/01_Overview_Side_Rays_clean_01l.png https://exclusivearchitecture.com/images/technical-articles/... looks very impressive! How do you simulate the rays+eye?
- ExAr 2y agoThanks for your feedback. Until now I have never blogged about the creation of these illustrations, but it's a nice idea, there is tons of "behind-the-scenes" material. With regards to the viewfinder image, the actual path of light was drawn with the help of a Japanese optical engineer who was able to provide professional raytracing simulations.
- dingaling 2y agoI used to have to manually focus to take photos of my dog. The apparent noise from the early Ring USM AF in the 85mm/1.8 lens drove him mad and he would run out of the room. We did initially wonder if it was some psychological effect of pointing a camera at him, but one night I hid behind a curtain and used the AF motor and he still shot out of the room. Subsequent USM AF motors were silent to him and he was then content to have his photo taken.
- tjr 2y agoMy dog also developed an aversion to cameras, and I wondered if it was the USM focusing. That might have been what started it, but she still doesn't like any cameras at all, USM or not.
- lambdasquirrel 2y agoMaybe the mechanical/EFCS shutter? Some animals just know and some like being the center of such attention. Others just don’t.
- diabllicseagull 2y agoWoah, this is so well made. Kudos to the author. Upvoted.
- post_break 2y agoCanon is dead to me after they forced 3rd parties to stop all RF lenses. I bought the last AF lens by Viltrox and it's fantastic. I regret getting an RF body after they threatened them, and now only allow 3rd parties on their crop sensor bodies. Fuji, Sony, Leica, Nikon, all allow 3rd party lenses. I switched to Fuji and won't go back.
- dboreham 2y agoAlso not pleased that third party lens vendors were excluded. However the way I look at this is perhaps we would have no Canon cameras at all if the revenue they derive from lenses had not been captured.
- KetoManx64 2y agoThey just slightly prolonged their death spiral. Lots of very negative press and potential buyers going to their competition now
- porphyra 2y agoIt is a little sad honestly how Canon has now been surpassed by Sony in both sensor technology and lens optical quality and yet they double down on forcing people to use their expensive lenses. I miss the old days when EF mount was the lingua franca of autofocus mounts with a thriving ecosystem of lenses from Sigma, Tamron, and the like. Even now some of the Sigma Art lenses for SLR mounts, like the 40mm and 105mm f/1.4, are peerless in terms of image quality.
- roflmaostc 2y agoYes, Sigma ART lenses are insane for that price. Also, they look very elegant compare to plastic Canon lenses. I was hoping for the new Sigma BF camera, simple and elegant. Unfortunately no Bluetooth, which is a deal breaker for me.
- Wistar 1y agoI recently purchased my first non-Canon lens for my Canon 5D, a Sigma 105mm f1.4 Art with EF mount. I bought it specifically for bokehrama (Brenizer method) work—mostly car stuff. It’s comically big and heavy and I have read of people having lens failures but, oh wow, it makes beautiful images at a focal length I love.
- aivon 2y ago[dead]
- aivon 2y ago[dead]