Future end of mirrorless compatibility with EF lenses?

[dpsaiz]

At what point do you believe mirrorless cameras will no longer be compatible with EF lenses? 

Or do you believe that all future canon mirrorless cameras will continue to be compatible with EF lenses?

I believe that at some point Canon will decide that beginning with a given model of mirrorless camera they will decide it will no longer be compatible with EF lenses.

I further believe that some mirrorless cameras will no longer recognize an EF lens by way of a firmware update.

I am wondering out loud.

What do you guys think? What are your thoughts?

[Tronhard]

Demetrius, EF-M lenses were never compatible with RF lenses.  The only adapters available are for the EF and EF-S lenses.

[deebatman316]

No I'm talking about the electronic communication in the lens Mount. Not the lens Mount being mechanically compatible. Or even using an adapter to make such lenses work.

[Philnick]

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Since the RF lens communication is an extension of that introduced by EF, there's no reason to discontinue supporting automatic function by EF lenses. Supporting RF lens communcation automatically includes supporting EF lens communication.

I seriously doubt that including JPEG corrections for existing EF lenses in the firmware takes so much space that it would be jettisoned - particularly since EF is not an ever-expanding catalog but "a land frozen in time," and chip memory continues to expand as it gets miniaturized.

Given how much pushback Canon got from its exclusion of 3rd party lens manufacturers from automatic RF mount function before they relented, I doubt that they'd want to go through that again by antagonizing owners of their own EF lenses. (Better our own lenses than someone else's!)

PS When I went from my EOS 80D to the R7 a year and a half ago, I jettisoned all but one of my EF and EF-S lenses - the EF-S 18-135mm nano-USM with contacts for the Power Zoom attachment (which I also have). Kept that in the unlikely event that I was asked to shoot a video by a friend. Started getting RF glass but actually replaced the RF 70-200 f/4 L with an EF 200 f/2.8 L II USM with the Control Ring adapter, and later got the EF 24-70 f/2.8 L II USM. That pair of non-stabilized - but ultra-sharp - lenses were modernized by the R7's IBIS. Just replaced my RF nifty-fifty 50mm f/1.8 STM with an EF niftier-fifty 50mm f/1.4 USM.

That last gives me a rig approximating the Canon FT QL 35mm film SLR I used from 1968 to 2005 with an FL 85mm f/1.8 lens - it's even about the same size and weight! I use the Control Ring EF adapter, since I use that ring to give all of my lenses an aperture ring like in my pre-EOS days. I set my shutter speed with the main dial up top, see my exposure in the viewfinder (and have a histogram to stand in for the match-needle). I change film - excuse me, "set ISO" - with the ring around the joystick. I keep the mode dial set to M, of course. It feels like home.

[deebatman316]

Actually lens correction profiles are stored in the lens. They're not in the camera body at all. 

[Philnick]

That removes the only potential justification for ending support for EF lenses on the RF mount. If it takes no memory space in the camera other than the scratchpad memory used by whatever lens is mounted at the time, and its command lines are part of the RF specification, the only way to end support would by going out of their way to write code to disable EF lenses. Not likely, given the fury that would provoke.

PS Not only did I replace my RF 50 f/1.8 with the EF 50 f/1.4, and the RF 70-200 f/4L with an EF 200 f/2.8L II, the 200 2.8 also replaced the RF 100-400 f/8-11 I'd experimented with for pix of flying seagulls, and the EF 24-70 f/2.8L II replaced my f/1.8 RF 24 and 35 for shooting concerts (paired with the 200).

My R7's complement of RF lenses now consists of the 16 f/2.8, the 28mm f/2.8 "sandwich" lens as a walk-around normal lens (45mm equivalent), and the 85 f/2 Macro IS (which took all of the butterfly pix in my online photo website - the first three galleries there were taken with EOS DSLRs, the rest with m...). So I have in active use three EF lenses and three RF lenses - and a mothballed EF-S video zoom.

[Tronhard]

I am confused, I must admit... if it cannot connect mechanically, electronics are not going to be an issue.  Maybe we can take this off line if you want, so we don't muddy the waters and cause our OP even more anxiety! 🤔

[dpsaiz]

I don't have anxiety. I'm curious. From what I understand when Canon moved from the FD to EF mount they didn't offer a way for those FD lenses to work on an EF body. Those who owned a stable of FD were very upset their investment wouldn't be forward compatible with EF bodies.

Considering Canon sold millions of EF lenses it only made sense to make them forward compatible with RF mount.

I'm curious to know at what point will the yet to be released mirrorless bodies only be compatible with RF lenses.

[rs-eos]

It's good to be curious, but only Canon may ultimately know the answer.  I say "may" since there's a possibility they have not yet reached any conclusion as of this writing.

Anyone else would only be speculating based upon past historical knowledge of what Canon has done with prior migrations of one lens mount to the next.

[John_SD]

"I'm curious to know at what point will the yet to be released mirrorless bodies only be compatible with RF lenses."

Dude, you're going to end up in the nut house at this rate. Just get out there with your rig and enjoy the hobby and leave the unknown to the seers and fortune tellers. 

[Tronhard]

Glad you are just curious! 🙂  Honestly, I think it's going towards idle speculation at this point, as Rick alludes to, there are too many unknowns.