Canon has officially announced its cheapest and spatially smallest VR lens to date, the $450 RF-S7.8mm F4 STM Dual. It’s the same size as a regular camera lens, but designed to help creators capture 3D VR content for headsets like Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro. In fact, it was first unveiled at WWDC 2024 in June alongside Apple’s latest Vision Pro OS.
There’s one problem. That said, the lens is designed for APS-C (not full-frame cameras) and will only work with Canon’s 32.5 megapixel (MP) EOS R7 for now. That camera costs $1,300 just for the body, so the full shooting solution is about $1,750.
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The company has dabbled in stereoscopic VR lenses before, most recently developing the RF5.2mm F2.8 L Dual Fisheye. But that product is bulky and unwieldy, much more expensive at $2,000, and supports only manual focus. Its main advantages are enhanced 3D with a nearly 180-degree field of view, close to human vision, and a wide 2.36-inch gap between elements.
By comparison, the new 7.8mm crop sensor lens has a much narrower field of view of 63 degrees. The fact that the two elements are very close (0.46 inches) also reduces the 3D effect, especially as you move away from the subject (for best results they should be about 6 to 20 inches apart, but this is realistic (not). (Not ideal for content creators). However, autofocus support is a big plus, and it also comes with a button and control wheel that allows manual focus on the left and right sides separately.
Photos and videos taken with the EOS R7 and new lenses must be processed using Canon’s EOS VR Utility app or Adobe’s plugin for Premiere Pro (both paid apps). It will then be available for viewing on Meta Quest 3, Vision Pro, and other headsets in a variety of formats including 180-degree 3D VR, 3D theater, and spatial video. The RF-S7.8mm F4 STM Dual Lens is currently on pre-order for $449 and is expected to arrive sometime in November.
