Rumors of a new Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 lens have been flying around for the past several months, with a lot of folks predicting its imminent release. Now, courtesy of Canon Rumors and some deft lens spotters at the Paris 2024 Olympics, we might have just got our first glimpse – but for anyone familiar with the original, this new version may not be what you had in mind.
The original Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM was launched back in 2019 as the R-mount's answer to the legendary EF trinity lens. However, this didn't come without controversy, with the lens being the first of its kind to ditch an internal zoom, and in a highly unusual move, was not compatible with RF teleconverters.
Easy fixes, right? But Canon doesn't seem to be going with a straight Mark II version of the lens; instead, this new 70-200mm spotted in Paris is the latest in Canon's lens lineup to get the hybrid video lens treatment – which looks to be the new norm for Canon's pro lenses.
Since the RF 24-105mm f/2.8, Canon has launched a hybrid RF 35mm f/1.4 and plans to launch up to three more hybrid prime lenses soon.
So what can we garner from the first glimpse at this new lens? Firstly the zoom is certainly internal, as in the image you can see the lens zoomed past 135mm with no extension. However, this means that the lens also looks pretty huge compared to the current RF version. We don't know for sure that this is an f/2.8 lens; a larger max aperture would mean a bigger lens, and a constant f/1.8 could make this lens a lot more exciting.
I personally had no issue with the collapsing design of the RF 70-200mm, as it makes for a very compact lens when not in use. As a wedding and event photographer, the EF version was my go-to lens and as soon as I swapped to an RF camera I had to have the RF version. The current RF version is hopefully not going anywhere for photographers – I have used the hybrid 24-105mm f/2.8 lens from Canon and its unwieldy size is impractical for photography, so this new version looks to be set to more of an alternate for hybrid shooters.
Secondly, the lens for the first time isn't white! We have a whole explainer on why white lenses are white, which is an interesting read, but it's basically a given that Canon's L-series telephoto lenses are white – for photography, that is. The new all-black design definitely fits more with the usual black videographer lenses.
As for compatibility with teleconverters, we might have to wait until the announcement to get an answer to that question. But hopefully, with the lens being spotted in the wild, we won't have to wait too long to find out more…
For more on all things Canon, check out our guides to the best Canon camera and the best Canon RF lenses.
