RED KOMODO doesn't yet natively support Canon RF Lenses

Jarred land has mentioned in a post on Instagram that the upcoming Komodo doesn’t currently support Canon RF lenses. Yes, I had to read that twice as well. Despite the Komodo having a Canon RF mount, there is currently no support for using RF lenses.

It is not clear as to whether RF lenses currently can’t be used at all on Komodo camera’s or if there is just certain functionality that won’t work. Maybe someone who has used or has a Komodo can tell us further details.

You can read Jarred’s post below:

View this post on Instagram

I’ve been getting a lot of questions over the past 24 hours about the RF mount and if people need to buy the RF to EF adapter for their Stormtroopers and what lenses to buy etc. Lots of miscommunication out there which is to be expected with not a whole lot of official information yet, so with so many people about to receive their cameras in the coming days I thought I’d take a moment to clear things up. First, you don’t need to buy the adapter, we include the official Canon RF to EF adapter in every box. You can buy the ND version of the adapter from anywhere else if you wish, or the control ring version although the control ring will not be functional yet. Which leads to the 3rd question , when will native RF support be supported and there is no clear timeline for that yet. We are going to support EF lenses to the fullest first, which as you know is working now in a pretty awesome way and since we are making huge progress ahead of schedule with our pixel AF we will focus on EF AF support with EF lenses to the fullest before we even begin working on native RF support. So please… don’t buy a Komodo right now if you expect RF to magically work out of the box. I’ve also heard a weird rumor that we are in some kind of beef with Canon which couldn’t be further from the truth… as most of you know I’ve been a Canon fan and a Canon user for my entire shooting career and I have supported Canon on our cameras since the RED One. GDU lenses are Canon based and as you can see Komodo deepens that love even further. Key word… Love. there is nothing but love between the two companies. Anyways… that’s it for now… hope that clears things up. Carry on and I am excited to see a bunch of you tomorrow. ❤️

A post shared by Jarred Land (@instajarred) on Jul 24, 2020 at 8:56pm PDT

The fact that it doesn’t currently support RF lenses probably explains why RED is including a Canon EF to RF Adapter with every KOMODO that will ship.

The camera will work normally with Canon’s Drop-In Filter Mount Adapter EF-EOS R with Variable ND Filter, however, it won’t work correctly with the Canon Control Ring Mount Adapter EF-EOS R.

According to the post, RED is concentrating on supporting EF lenses first. They want to make sure that there Pixel AF will work well with Ef lenses before they begin working on native RF support.

Jarred land concludes his post by stating: ‘So please… don’t buy a Komodo right now if you expect RF to magically work out of the box.’

By Matthew Allard ACS

Matthew Allard is a multi-award-winning, ACS accredited freelance Director of Photography with over 30 years' of experience working in more than 50 countries around the world.

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