Poll: There are no third party RF lenses

Cannon’s decision caused controversy

For the seventh and final part of this year’s survey week, I’d like to tackle a topic that the photo community was deeply interested in just a few weeks ago. In the meantime, the emotions should calm down a bit, so we can revise the topic again and wrap up with this survey for the time being.

I’ll sum it up again in a few words: Canon – as Canon Germany explained to us in a statement on September 5, 2022 – has decided to take action against third-party autofocus RF lens manufacturers. The reason for this is patents whose autofocus lenses were allegedly infringed by third party manufacturers.

Two possible arguments

I do not wish to point the poll result in a certain direction in advance, so I will leave my personal opinion and explain only two possible arguments:

per Canon: If a company is infringing Canon’s patents, Canon has every right to take action against the patent infringement. Additionally, Canon’s decision ensures that the RF system remains fairly closed, and so can impress with consistently top-notch quality without any compatibility issues. Apple, for example, turns out to be a recipe for success.

against canon: Above all, the RF system lacks inexpensive entry-level lenses. If Canon allows third-party manufacturers to produce autofocus RF lenses, and if Canon supports this by releasing lens protocols, the RF system will benefit. The choice of lenses will simply be greater and the system as a whole will be more interesting to many photographers. The bottom line is that Canon will also benefit from this.