Forget rugged lenses, GDU has some new armoured ones

Global Dynamics United’s latest offering rehouses two Canon lens in aluminium bodies and takes off their external controls for full-on indestructibility.

Global Dynamics United (GDU) is co-owned by RED’s President, Jarred Land, and Chief Design Officer, Matthew Tremblay, and there’s certainly a bit of that company’s industrial design ethos running through the new armoured Canon RF 50mm and 16mm lenses.

The GDU RF 50mm AF lens is based on the best selling Canon RF 50mm F1.8 while the GDU RF 16mm AF lens was originally a Canon 16mm f/2.8 STM. Both are wrapped in what GDU says is an ‘almost indestructible’ armour machined from billet 6061 aluminium. 

As with the company’s previous entires in the series, GDU has removed the manual focus ring as well as all external switches and simply leaves all adjustments to the internal motors.  Even the anodized red lens hood (which unfortunately puts the mockers on any attachments) and internal mask is cut out of metal and bolted to the housing. 

On RED cameras the lens can focus and change iris via RED CONTROL or the camera's internal focus control, and on Canon RF mount cameras the lens will operate with AF and Iris just like in its original spec.

As well as the added degree of sheer toughness, two other big things have changed over the originals. One is the weight; both original Canon Pancakes are known for their lightness but GDU is playing very coy and not listing precisely how heavy the modded versions are. What they will tell you, however,  is how many dollars they have added to the price, and those are a few: the GDU Armored RF 50mm f/1.8 is $499 while the GDU Armored RF 16mm f/2.8 is at $599, both $300 more than their Canon unarmored counterparts, though that price does include the case. Both are available now.