Breaking new ground in their lens line-ups, Sigma and Tamron announced the development of Canon RF Mount lenses under a licensing agreement with Canon. This is great news for users looking for third-party RF Mount APS-C lenses.

Starting this July, with additional releases continuing this fall, Sigma plans to release a half-dozen RF Mount compatible options from its DC DN Contemporary series of lenses. With a combination of zoom and primes, the new lenses—most of which favor a slightly wide-angle field of view—offer a nice variety of focal ranges. All the lenses have been optimized to work on the RF Mount delivering high-speed AF, Continuous AF, in-camera stabilization and, where available, camera aberration correction.

The first lens, available in July, is the Sigma. 18-50mm f/2.8 with a 35mm equivalent focal range (based on Canon’s 1.6x crop) of 27-75mm. Beginning this fall, Sigma will also release the following lenses (remember to apply a 1.6x crop for 35mm-equivalent):

• 10-18mm f/2.8
• 16mm f/1.4
• 23mm f/1.4
• 30mm f/1.4
• 56mm f/1.4

At the same time, Tamron announced the development of the first of its Canon RF Mount lenses, a fast, wide-angle 11-20mm f/28 Di III-A RXD, a lens already available for Sony E-mount. The latter acronym stands for Rapid-eXtra-silent stepping Drive, a quiet stepping motor that will appeal to videographers and anyone shooting where silence is required. Compact and lightweight, the lens’ 35mm-equivalent focal range of 17.6-32mm provides a wide-angle field of view even with Canon’s 1.6x APS-C crop factor.

The Tamron lens is slated to ship sometime this year.

Pricing was not available for Sigma or Tamron lenses.

Camera 101

The Mindful Photographer: A Beginner’s Guide