New Canon RF Lenses – RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM and 85mm f/1.2L USM DS

News

by Jakub HanOctober 25^th, 2019

Canon released two new full-frame lenses for the RF mount. The first new release is the RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM telephoto lens, which is the third addition to Canon’s f/2.8L trinity (along with the RF 15-35mm f/2.8L and RF 24-70mm f/2.8L). The second lens is a fast portrait prime lens – the RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS. Both lenses are now available for pre-order.

New RF 70-200mm f/2.8L and 85mm f/1.2L lenses. Source: Canon

Canon is making sure their full-frame mirrorless RF mount cameras have enough high-quality native glass to attract more customers. They delivered on their commitment to introducing six RF lenses for the EOS R System to the market in 2019. In August 2019 they announced both 15-35mm and 24-70mm f/2.8L RF zoom lenses. Now Canon released the third zoom lens to finalize the f/2.8L trinity – Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. They also released a fast portrait prime lens RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS. What are the features of these new lenses?

The RF zoom lenses Trinity. Source: Canon

Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

The RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM (official product page) completes Canon’s F2.8L zoom trinity lens series. The combination of these three lenses enables users to capture subjects in practically any scenario with the large, bright f/2.8 aperture and zoom range between 15mm and 200mm.

New RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. Source: Canon

The new RF telephoto lens weighs approximately 1,070g and it is 146mm in length at its shortest. That is around 28% lighter and 27% shorter than the existing EF mount model. Unlike the EF mount model, this telephoto lens has a retractable design – the length changes when zooming. The RF 70-200mm is the first RF lens with a white heat shield coating, which makes it more weather resistant.

New RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. Source: Canon

The RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM is the first Canon lens to support an electronic floating focus control that drives the two lens groups individually with Dual Nano USMs. This design made it possible to keep the compact size while maintaining quiet, power-saving, high-speed operation.

The Dual Nano USMs help this lens achieve high-precision still image AF and smooth movie AF in combination with the EOS R series Dual Pixel CMOS AF. This combination reduces focus breathing for video shooting. The RF 70-200mm also boasts 5 Stop IS (Image Stabilizer) which expands the possibilities for handheld shooting.

New RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens sample photo. Source: Canon

The aberration is being corrected by glass-molded aspherical lenses, UD lenses, and Super UD lenses. Canon also equipped this lens with SWC coating which achieves anti-reflectivity and reduces flaring and ghosting.

The RF 85mm F1.2L USM DS

Canon already has the RF 85mm f/1.2L USM lens in their portfolio. What this new lens (official product page) brings, is Canon’s original DS coating. The DS coating is a vapor-deposited coating technology that has a high transmittance at the center and a low transmittance toward the periphery. Without compromising on quality, the DS coating applied on the front and rear surfaces of the lens softly and smoothly blurs the entire outline of bokeh – not just on one side which is common of similar lenses on the market.

New RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS lens. Source: Canon

Its strongest area is portraiture photography, but Canon claims that the resulting bokeh effect this lens produces is great for achieving a “cinematic” look. This lens should make the subject “pop” from the background much better and more naturally. (See the Canon video below explaining how Defocus Smoothing works inside the  new 85mm lens).

The lens features a minimum focusing distance of 85cm. Just like other high-end Canon lenses, the RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS features ASC anti-reflective coating reducing flaring and ghosting and the effective arrangement of ground aspherical lenses to provide great image quality.

New RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS lens sample photo. Source: Canon

Both lenses are dust and water-resistant. The customizable control ring of the RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM and RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS makes it possible to assign aperture, shutter speed, ISO speed, and exposure compensation as desired. The RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM features a newly designed compact tripod mount that can be removed with a simple operation.

Price and availability

The RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM and RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS will start shipping at the beginning of December. Both lenses are now available for pre-order. Price has been set to $2,699 for the RF 70-200mm and to $2,999 for the RF 85mm.

What do you think about the new RF lenses? Are you using Canon’s RF mount camera? Do you prefer having native lenses or adapt to existing lenses? Let us know in the comments underneath the article.