Canon EF Lens Compatiblity

[byalexandr]

Hey all,

 

I frequently do video production for work (along with all the video editing and post production), and have two cameras. My primary camera that belongs to my work is a Canon EOS RP with an RF 24-105mm lens, along with some accessories like a Manfrotto 290 and Atomos Ninja V. I usually take this camera to events and conferences, but recently was gifted a second camera, a Canon EOS M50 Mark II with an EF-M 15-45mm lens as part of the "content creator" kit that Canon sells (along with the tripod/grip and remote control, shotgun mic, and a Rode GO II lav mic setup). Being that the M50 setup is much more compact, I will be leaving the EOS RP at the office and instead taking the M50 Mark II to events. The M50 is also my personal camera, so I will be using it for my own video and photo projects.

 

However, I'm not too big a fan of the included kit lens, as 15-45mm is pretty wide angle and the videos I take are typically focusing on a speaker at events at a far away table, and my personal video projects are usually car and motorcycle shots where a telephoto creates a much better look. The 24-105mm on the EOS RP was reasonably good for this, but could still use some more zoom depending on the event. So, I ordered an EF-S 55-250mm IS lens, but realized that my M50 Mark II uses an EF-M lens mount.

 

I'm not familiar with Canon lens mounts aside from knowing that the RF mount is quickly phasing out the EF lens mount and RF/EF are not compatible, so I'm not sure if the EF-S lens I ordered will work without any adapters on the EF-M mount body. I had assumed all EF series lenses would fit on an EF-M body, but I am seeing some lens adapters that are for EF/EF-S to EF-M and I'm not sure if it's to adapt an EF-S lens to an EF-M body or an EF-M lens to an EF-S body.

 

Similarly, are there any good alternatives to the rather expensive adapter ($189) if an adapter is required? I am seeing some adapters for $30-60 but I'm not sure if they are worth their weight and work as intended.

[porina]

You will need an adapter to use EF-S lens. The adapter is value for those with lots of old lenses they want to use during transition to mirrorless. I'm not familiar with Canon products since they transitioned to mirrorless, but it seems better value to seek a native lens for your camera than to adapt EF-S lenses.

 

If you want to risk a cheaper adapter, I believe they're electro-mechanical, so the only question is how good the electronics are translating between the mounts. You don't have to worry about optics at least.

[byalexandr]

15 minutes ago, porina said:

You will need an adapter to use EF-S lens. The adapter is value for those with lots of old lenses they want to use during transition to mirrorless. I'm not familiar with Canon products since they transitioned to mirrorless, but it seems better value to seek a native lens for your camera than to adapt EF-S lenses.

 

If you want to risk a cheaper adapter, I believe they're electro-mechanical, so the only question is how good the electronics are translating between the mounts. You don't have to worry about optics at least.

Up until I started working in marketing and doing a lot of video and photos professionally I had some really old Nikon cameras in the closet (D40 and D3100 bodies) with a bunch of lenses, not sure if they even work anymore as they've been collecting dust in a camera bag. Canon is all new to me but I really like them so far, the mirrorless looks great for video.

 

I went ahead and ordered a cheap adapter for $37, will see how well it works. There seems to be a much wider selection of lenses in the EF/EF-S lens mount so I'm sure the adapter will see some use as I acquire more lenses. Luckily the EOS RP already has a great lens so I won't need any expensive RF mount lenses. Though I think the 15-45mm and the 55-250mm on my new M50 will provide me some good range for my production needs. The IS seems to be a lot better on the RF lenses but I haven't used the M50 enough yet to tell for sure (most of my videos and photos are still shots anyways).

 

Thanks for the clarification!

[Deadpool2onBlu-Ray]

11 minutes ago, byalexandr said:

Hey all,

 

I frequently do video production for work (along with all the video editing and post production), and have two cameras. My primary camera that belongs to my work is a Canon EOS RP with an RF 24-105mm lens, along with some accessories like a Manfrotto 290 and Atomos Ninja V. I usually take this camera to events and conferences, but recently was gifted a second camera, a Canon EOS M50 Mark II with an EF-M 15-45mm lens as part of the "content creator" kit that Canon sells (along with the tripod/grip and remote control, shotgun mic, and a Rode GO II lav mic setup). Being that the M50 setup is much more compact, I will be leaving the EOS RP at the office and instead taking the M50 Mark II to events. The M50 is also my personal camera, so I will be using it for my own video and photo projects.

 

However, I'm not too big a fan of the included kit lens, as 15-45mm is pretty wide angle and the videos I take are typically focusing on a speaker at events at a far away table, and my personal video projects are usually car and motorcycle shots where a telephoto creates a much better look. The 24-105mm on the EOS RP was reasonably good for this, but could still use some more zoom depending on the event. So, I ordered an EF-S 55-250mm IS lens, but realized that my M50 Mark II uses an EF-M lens mount.

 

I'm not familiar with Canon lens mounts aside from knowing that the RF mount is quickly phasing out the EF lens mount and RF/EF are not compatible, so I'm not sure if the EF-S lens I ordered will work without any adapters on the EF-M mount body. I had assumed all EF series lenses would fit on an EF-M body, but I am seeing some lens adapters that are for EF/EF-S to EF-M and I'm not sure if it's to adapt an EF-S lens to an EF-M body or an EF-M lens to an EF-S body.

 

Similarly, are there any good alternatives to the rather expensive adapter ($189) if an adapter is required? I am seeing some adapters for $30-60 but I'm not sure if they are worth their weight and work as intended.

Canon is quite a dick about their RF mount unfortunately. That is ultimately what led me to Sony even though I prefer the Canon "color science". The EF mount is a different story and you just need a basic adapter.

EF-M APS-C Cameras (EOS M50 Mk. 2, Eos M6 Mk. 2, etc.) are compatible with EF-M natively and EF/EF-S with an adapter

 

The NEW Canon Mirrorless APS-C  RF-S Mount Cameras (Canon R7, Canon R10) are only compatible with RF-S and RF lenses natively and EF/EF-S lenses with an adapter.

They are NOT compatible with EF-M Lenses which absolutely blows because there is the excellent sigma trio and also native Canon EF-M lenses are quite good/cheap too. There are like three RF-S Lenses and they are overpriced slow garbage. 

 

RF-S Cameras are ONLY compatible with RF-S and RF lenses natively and with EF/EF-S lenses with an adapter. EF-M is virtually impossible to adapt to RF because of the flange distance difference. 

 

 

There is virtually ZERO third party RF/RF-S mount lenses as Canon does not let third party manufacturers use their RF lens mount. They sue anyone who tries. There was an excellent Viltrox RF 85mm until Canon "cease and desisted" them. Now Viltrox does not sell ANY RF mount products including their RF/EF mount adapter. Now the only option is native Canon.

 

On top of all of this, the native top tier Canon RF Lenses (their "L" line) is ludicrously expensive and often optically inferior to Sony GM lenses. They are sometimes actually twice the price of a similar Sony GM lens. 

 

Sony also allows third party manufacturers to use their E mount without reverse engineering anything so you have a quadrillion lens options, and APSC/Full Frame both use the same E mount. 

 

Canon is really a crappy option these days unless you're loaded.

 

Also, I wouldn't take the M50 Mk. II to events. Like at all. It has drastically inferior picture quality to the Canon RP. Even though the Canon RP is Canon's worst full frame mirrorless (by a large margin, mind you), it is still MILES ahead of the M50 picture quality wise. The M50 is designed for casual tiktokers who don't know any better and just buy whatever. Even the M6 Mk. II has drastically better picture quality than the M50 Mk. II.

 

[Deadpool2onBlu-Ray]

39 minutes ago, byalexandr said:

Hey all,

 

I frequently do video production for work (along with all the video editing and post production), and have two cameras. My primary camera that belongs to my work is a Canon EOS RP with an RF 24-105mm lens, along with some accessories like a Manfrotto 290 and Atomos Ninja V. I usually take this camera to events and conferences, but recently was gifted a second camera, a Canon EOS M50 Mark II with an EF-M 15-45mm lens as part of the "content creator" kit that Canon sells (along with the tripod/grip and remote control, shotgun mic, and a Rode GO II lav mic setup). Being that the M50 setup is much more compact, I will be leaving the EOS RP at the office and instead taking the M50 Mark II to events. The M50 is also my personal camera, so I will be using it for my own video and photo projects.

 

However, I'm not too big a fan of the included kit lens, as 15-45mm is pretty wide angle and the videos I take are typically focusing on a speaker at events at a far away table, and my personal video projects are usually car and motorcycle shots where a telephoto creates a much better look. The 24-105mm on the EOS RP was reasonably good for this, but could still use some more zoom depending on the event. So, I ordered an EF-S 55-250mm IS lens, but realized that my M50 Mark II uses an EF-M lens mount.

 

I'm not familiar with Canon lens mounts aside from knowing that the RF mount is quickly phasing out the EF lens mount and RF/EF are not compatible, so I'm not sure if the EF-S lens I ordered will work without any adapters on the EF-M mount body. I had assumed all EF series lenses would fit on an EF-M body, but I am seeing some lens adapters that are for EF/EF-S to EF-M and I'm not sure if it's to adapt an EF-S lens to an EF-M body or an EF-M lens to an EF-S body.

 

Similarly, are there any good alternatives to the rather expensive adapter ($189) if an adapter is required? I am seeing some adapters for $30-60 but I'm not sure if they are worth their weight and work as intended.

Also, I just saw you are taking video and not photos. Both the Canon RP and the M50 Mk. II take absolutely garbage video. I don't even think they can do 4k 30p/24p video... Those are like the two worst options for video for Canon Mirrorless.

 

In answer to your question about the adapter, the viltrox ones are fine, you don't need the Canon one, but like I said, I would go a different option all together as those are both atrocious video cameras. 

 

For video, you really want the:

Sony A7IV, A7SIII, FX30 

Canon R6/R5C

Fuji X-H2S

 

Those are all higher end though.

 

On the lower end for video you can go with a Sony A6400/A6600/ZV-E10 etc. Although the rolling shutter is horrible, they at least shoot oversampled 6k down to 4k video.

 

[byalexandr]

1 hour ago, CHICKSLAYA said:

Canon is quite a dick about their RF mount unfortunately. That is ultimately what led me to Sony even though I prefer the Canon "color science". The EF mount is a different story and you just need a basic adapter.

EF-M APS-C Cameras (EOS M50 Mk. 2, Eos M6 Mk. 2, etc.) are compatible with EF-M natively and EF/EF-S with an adapter

 

The NEW Canon Mirrorless APS-C  RF-S Mount Cameras (Canon R7, Canon R10) are only compatible with RF-S and RF lenses natively and EF/EF-S lenses with an adapter.

They are NOT compatible with EF-M Lenses which absolutely blows because there is the excellent sigma trio and also native Canon EF-M lenses are quite good/cheap too. There are like three RF-S Lenses and they are overpriced slow garbage. 

 

RF-S Cameras are ONLY compatible with RF-S and RF lenses natively and with EF/EF-S lenses with an adapter. EF-M is virtually impossible to adapt to RF because of the flange distance difference. 

 

 

There is virtually ZERO third party RF/RF-S mount lenses as Canon does not let third party manufacturers use their RF lens mount. They sue anyone who tries. There was an excellent Viltrox RF 85mm until Canon "cease and desisted" them. Now Viltrox does not sell ANY RF mount products including their RF/EF mount adapter. Now the only option is native Canon.

 

On top of all of this, the native top tier Canon RF Lenses (their "L" line) is ludicrously expensive and often optically inferior to Sony GM lenses. They are sometimes actually twice the price of a similar Sony GM lens. 

 

Sony also allows third party manufacturers to use their E mount without reverse engineering anything so you have a quadrillion lens options, and APSC/Full Frame both use the same E mount. 

 

Canon is really a crappy option these days unless you're loaded.

 

Also, I wouldn't take the M50 Mk. II to events. Like at all. It has drastically inferior picture quality to the Canon RP. Even though the Canon RP is Canon's worst full frame mirrorless (by a large margin, mind you), it is still MILES ahead of the M50 picture quality wise. The M50 is designed for casual tiktokers who don't know any better and just buy whatever. Even the M6 Mk. II has drastically better picture quality than the M50 Mk. II.

 

For my production needs both cameras are fine. I am not shooting commercial quality videos or taking professional portraits, most of my videos and photos are for marketing material that ends up on YouTube and other social media platforms or strictly for internal use. Hell, most of my assets these days are screen recordings from Teams and Zoom meetings and I hardly get to use the cameras as much as I want to.

 

While I agree there are much better cameras out there (I already know for a fact that Sony mirrorless cameras are way better), the picture or video quality is not atrocious by any means. Both the M50 and the RP shoot video in 4K, mind you not 60 fps or anything but the feature is there if I need it (which is very rarely the case). This is all coming from a guy who just used an iPhone to record footage for a long time, and not even in HDR; I would convert the footage back to Rec.709 in Premiere anyways. And my actual personal cameras up until this point have been extremely old Nikon cameras that aren't even in production anymore. Having two dedicated cameras is already a major step up lol.

 

If I find our production quality demands increasing in the next year, I can account for it in the budget and probably get a legit camcorder, but for now I'm just working with what I have (the M50 being a gift from a coworker).

[Deadpool2onBlu-Ray]

3 minutes ago, byalexandr said:

For my production needs both cameras are fine. I am not shooting commercial quality videos or taking professional portraits, most of my videos and photos are for marketing material that ends up on YouTube and other social media platforms or strictly for internal use. Hell, most of my assets these days are screen recordings from Teams and Zoom meetings and I hardly get to use the cameras as much as I want to.

 

While I agree there are much better cameras out there (I already know for a fact that Sony mirrorless cameras are way better), the picture or video quality is not atrocious by any means. Both the M50 and the RP shoot video in 4K, mind you not 60 fps or anything but the feature is there if I need it (which is very rarely the case). This is all coming from a guy who just used an iPhone to record footage for a long time, and not even in HDR; I would convert the footage back to Rec.709 in Premiere anyways. Having two dedicated cameras is already a major step up lol.

For those needs you described they are totally fine! Just not ideal obviously. But yeah, Canon's mount is a huge mess. I would just get the cheapo viltrox EF-M to EF/EF-S adapter