Canon RF Lens

What is a Canon RF Lens? In 2018 Canon introduced an entirely new mirrorless camera system called EOS R. This new mirrorless system has a new mount, the RF mount, which will gradually take over from the old EF mount in the coming years. Canon RF lenses are specifically designed to work with the RF mount. Due to the shorter flange distance (distance from the mount to the sensor plane) of the RF mount compared with the EF mount, it’s not possible to mount an RF lens on an older EF camera. Adapters are available to mount EF and EF-S …

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Cinema EOS

What Is Canon’s Cinema EOS line? Canon have always made video cameras, but after the introduction of video recording to the EOS 5D Mark II, the video industry was transformed.  The sensor in a DSLR is many times larger then previously typical video cameras and the leap in quality was profound. A few years after the so-called “DSLR revolution” in the video industry, Canon launched Cinema EOS with the introduction of the Canon C300.  Cinema EOS is Canon’s lineup of video cameras and lenses that use larger sensor sizes, similar to those found in DSLRs.  DSLRs that are primarily designed …

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CN-E

What Is A Canon CN-E Lens? When Canon launched the Cinema EOS camera line for professional video applications, they needed a lens lineup to compliment the cameras.  Cinema lens are designed quite differently to stills camera lenses, so the Canon CN-E lens lineup was born to cater to that market.  Canon’s CN-E prime lenses are available with an EF mount, whilst the CN-E zoom lenses are available in either EF or PL mount.  The biggest visual difference between EF and CN-E lenses, is that the cinema lenses have gearing around them that allows the focus and aperture to be easily and …

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EF-M

What Is An EF-M Lens? With the launch of the Canon EOS M mirrorless system in 2013, came the EF-M mount.  A mount that allowed Canon engineers to create a smaller line of lenses that complimented the smaller body size of the EOS M series mirrorless cameras with APS-C sensors. There is an EF to EF-M adapter which allows you to use EF or EF-S lenses on an EF-M mount camera, and still maintain full electronic control and autofocus. There is not, however, an RF to EF-M adapter, so it’s not possible to use EF-M lenses at all on Canon’s …

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EF-S

What Is A Canon EF-S Lens? EF-S lenses are designed specifically for Canon APS-C sensor cameras.  It is not possible to mount an EF-S lens on an APS-H, or a full frame camera. Since crop sensor cameras do not make use of the full width of full frame lenses, you end up carrying around a lot more lens than is really necessary! EF-S lenses are lighter and smaller, because they don’t need to cover such a large image circle. Most popular EF-S lenses: Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Pancake | Canon EF-S 10-22 f/3.5-4.5 | Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM   Additional Reading …

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EOS

What Is An EOS Camera? EOS stands for Electro-Optical System and it was introduced in 1987 by Canon to unveil their line of autofocus SLR cameras with the new EF Mount lens range.  Of course today, this name has stuck, and it now encompasses their DSLR lineup and their mirrorless cameras as well.  The first EOS camera was the Canon EOS 650 35mm film camera, and this was followed in 2000 with Canon’s first DSLR, the Canon EOS D30.  These days the EOS lineup has expanded to include the EOS-M Mirrorless system, the EOS R mirrorless full-frame cameras with the …

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EOS M

What Are Canon EOS M Cameras? EOS M is Canon’s crop sensor (APS-C) mirrorless camera lineup which uses the EF-M lens mount. These mirrorless cameras do not contain the mirror and optical viewfinder of a traditional DSLR, so they are much more compact, instead using either an EVF or simply liveview on the LCD for composing the image. They use the same APS-C sensors from Canon’s DSLR cameras, though, so the image quality is very similar and regular EF or EF-S lenses from the DSLRs can be used with EOS M cameras by way of an adapter. –>> These are the …

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L-Series

What Is A Canon L Series Lens? Canon’s high-end lenses carry a red ring around the lens barrel, and the famous L Series branding.  These lenses are designed for professional usage and are built to the highest standards, with extreme sharpness and durability in mind.  Most L lenses are weather sealed, meaning they can stand to get reasonably wet before requiring a waterproof cover.  L Series lenses cover the full spectrum of focal lengths, from the incredible groundbreaking 11-24mm f/4 L, right through to the 800mm f/5.6 L IS.  Compared to Canon’s other lenses, L Series lenses tend to focus …

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Metering

What Is Metering and How Is It Used in Cameras? When talking about cameras and taking photographs ‘metering’ describes the process a camera uses to automatically determine the correct exposure settings for a capturing a photograph. Incoming light is read or ‘metered’ by the camera’s onboard software and exposure settings are calculated based on the read values. A camera can usually be set to one of three of metering methods; Matrix Metering, Spot metering and Center-weighted metering. Each will produce a different exposure so selecting the appropriate metering method for a given scene is extremely important when considering how you want …

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MP-E

What Is An MP-E Lens? There is but one MP-E lens in Canon’s lineup at the time of writing this glossary, and that is the MP-E 65mm f/2.8.  It is unique in that it is the lens highest magnification DSLR lens on the planet, reaching a staggering 5x, compared to a standard 1x on a regular macro lens.  In other words, objects can be displayed on the sensor at 5 times their relative size.  It makes it a perfect lens for insect photography and has the ability to turn everyday objects into extremely interesting photo subjects. Only MP-E lens: Canon 65mm f/2.8 …

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