Information About Canon’s Coming Macro Lens

Don’t shoot the messenger.

We have some new information about the coming Macro lens from Canon, and the enthusiasts around these parts may not be in love with what’s coming.

New Canon Macro

It looks like the new Macro from Canon will be an RF 90mm f/2.8 IS STM Macro. You can see the missing “L”, because it’s not going to be an L lens. We already have the RF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro, so if you want an L, that is your only option.

We were hoping for an RF version of the EF 180mm f/3.5L USM Macro, but alas, that’s not what’s coming next for the macro shooters out there.

We think we’re going to get something like the f/2.8 STM series of lenses. The RF 16-28mm f/2.8 IS STM and RF 28-70mm f/2.8 IS STM are good lenses, not spectacular, but they hit a segment with some volume with those lenses. We think this new macro will look and feel like those two lenses do.

Recently Published Patent

We broke down a macro related patent a couple of weeks ago and it looks like there are two optical designs that match up with the 90mm focal length at f/2.8.

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We think there’s a strong possibility that one of those lens designs will be the final consumer product, or extremely close to it. The macro lenses in the patent are relatively compact. Once flange distance is considered, both of the designs are 100mm in length. The RF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro is 148mm long.

In comparison to the f/2.8 STM zoom lenses, it would only be about 8mm longer than both of the aforementioned lenses.

In Closing

We don’t find this all that exciting, but we’re hoping it is well below $1000, or it wouldn’t make sense. Another volume lens for the Canon line-up.

We can’t say for sure if there’s anything different than just being a standard macro lens. On a crop camera, you’re getting a 144mm field of view, which would work nicely for longer macro work and portrait stuff if you don’t have faster L prime lenses.

I haven’t run into too many macro lenses that weren’t great optically, there’s nothing at all wrong with the EF 100mm f/2.8 USM for example. Newer will probably have a better MTF, but that isn’t a big deal for most people.

There ya have it.