A New Canon RF 24-70mm F/2.8L IS USM on the horizon?

Recently, rumors have been published discussing and speculating about an impending Canon RF 20-70mm f/2.8L IS VCM lens, which could be announced as early as 2026. The article I read was based on rumors on rumors, which suggested that Canon’s next iteration of their popular and long-standing standard zoom lens, the RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM, announced as far back as August 2019 could be replaced this year.  It was also rumored that the wide end could be extended from 24mm all the way down to 20mm and also feature Canon’s Voice Coil Motor autofocus technology.

VCM has been used in several of Canon’s latest prime lenses, such as the RF 24mm f/1.4L VCM and others, and has been praised for smooth, fast, and quiet AF performance, particularly for video work.  But some drawbacks may affect professional Zoom work.  The fact that it has quite a rattle may cause some annoyance to a lens that is a workhorse and used extensively.

Okay, about less than 24mm - I'm not sure.  I've never seen Canon go lower than 24mm in patent applications for either the EF mount or RF mount.  It's also incredibly difficult to make a lens go all the way from 20 to 70mm with a constant aperture.  Usually, lenses that are designed to have zoom multipliers greater than 3 start to struggle with optical quality through the entire zoom range.  Think, for instance, of the 24-105 class of lenses.  They are acceptable performers, but they do not match the optical performance of the 24-70's.

No doubt Canon can do such a lens if they put their mind to it, but if they were, 20 seems odd when 21mm seems much more natural as a starting focal length.    Also, to pull off such a lens would require a significant amount of post-process image manipulation for full frame to keep the lens down to a sane size, and regardless of that, it's going to be much larger than the current lens.  The current lens is also around $2599 in terms of price, and I can't see a world where a new 20-70mm f/2.8L would come in any cheaper or even at the same price as that.  It's a heavy price to pay (both in terms of price and possibly size and weight) for a lens that is considered a "must-have" for professional photographers.

Another factor is that the Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM is less than seven years old, and while Canon has refreshed its L series lenses quickly in the past, it's usually only if there's a problem that they are resolving in terms of the prior generation's performance.  By all accounts, this doesn't seem to be the case with the Canon RF 20-70mm f/2.8L IS USM.

Canon also has an extremely large catalog of ultra-wide zooms, and all of them sans the 10-20mm lens, overlap a 24-70 to at least 30mm.

• Canon RF 14-35mm f/4L IS USM
• Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM
• Canon RF 15-30mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM

It seems more logical that Canon would want to keep on selling you two of the professional L series zooms one for standard, and the other for wide angle, and if they came out with a 20-70mm, I could see many people deciding that they don't need one of the above-mentioned ultra wide zooms.

But there's Nikon

There is one thing in favor of an update to the Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L is that is the Nikon NIKKOR version II of their standard f/2.8L zoom, which is an exceptional lens.  Canon may be feeling the pressure to release an updated model.  If this is the case, to match Nikon's optical excellence, I can't see them going lower than 24mm.

Key Features of the Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM

• RF-Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
• Aperture Range: f/2.8 to f/22
• Three Aspherical Elements
• Three Ultra-Low Dispersion Elements
• Air Sphere and Fluorine Coatings
• Nano USM AF System
• Optical Image Stabilizer
• Customizable Control Ring
• Rounded 9-Blade Diaphragm

Purchase the Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM

The concept of the Canon RF 20-70mm f/2.8L IS VCM is intriguing but still remains within the realm of rumors until officially announced by Canon. As such, I'm certainly maintaining a level of skepticism at this time. The existing lens is still a good choice until further information is made available later in the year, if at all.

• asobinet

Richard @ CanonNewsRichard @ CanonNews

Richard has been using Canon cameras since the 1990s, with his first being the now legendary EOS-3. Since then, Richard has continued to use Canon cameras and now focuses mostly on infrared photography. Richard is the founder and editor of CanonNews since 2017, and has worked as a writer on CanonRumors and other websites in the past.

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