Canon’s budget-friendly 3D lens might be accessible in November

Canon has formally introduced its new RF-S7.8mm F4 STM Twin lens, which options stereoscopic parts which have been squeezed right into a physique no bigger than a conventional 2D digital camera lens. It was initially teased in the course of the Apple WWDC 2024 keynote final June and is designed to work with a Canon EOS R7 as a extra reasonably priced software for creators making 3D VR content material for headsets just like the Meta Quest 3 or spatial movies for the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional.

The corporate hasn’t set a particular date for when the brand new 3D lens might be accessible, but it surely says it is going to be someday in November 2024, with an “estimated retail value” of $449.99. That’s significantly cheaper than Canon’s current dual-fisheye lenses designed to seize 3D video content material, together with the $1,999 RF5.2mm F2.8 L Twin and the $1,099 RF-S3.9mm F3.5 STM Twin.

Pairing Canon’s new 3D lens with the corporate’s 32.5MP EOS R7 digital digital camera — which itself begins at $1,299 — pushes the full price ticket of the equipment to over $1,700. Nonetheless, that’s nonetheless cheaper than Canon’s higher-end 3D options, which begin at $2,498 (and may go as excessive as $6,298) when paired with their requisite digital camera gear.

Canon’s new 3D lens has an aperture vary of f/4.0 to f/16, helps autofocus, and encompasses a button and a management wheel for making separate guide focus changes to the left and proper sides. What makes it a lot cheaper than Canon’s current 3D lenses is its restricted discipline of view. Canon’s pricier lenses are able to capturing 180-degree video and pictures — near what the human eye is able to seeing — whereas the brand new RF-S7.8mm F4 STM Twin lens solely takes in a few third of that at 63 levels.

Utilizing a normal Canon RF mount, the brand new lens has stereoscopic parts aligned in a straight optical path, leading to its entrance lenses being positioned simply 11.8mm aside in comparison with the 60mm hole between the dual-fisheye lenses on Canon’s current 3D lenses. Consequently, Canon says the strongest 3D impact might be skilled when capturing topics or objects which are simply 6 to twenty inches from the lens. When utilizing it to seize one thing that’s farther away, the 3D impact might be much less pronounced.

Pictures and movies captured utilizing this lens have to be processed earlier than they are often seen utilizing VR or AR headsets, both by the EOS VR plugin that’s accessible for Adobe Premiere Professional, or Canon’s personal EOS VR Utility software program, accessible for Macs and PCs. Each instruments require a paid subscription however can generate 180-degree 3D, VR, or spatial video content material.