Messages

61

Lenses / Re: Canon 400mm f5.6 L lens - upgrade needed.

« on: March 06, 2012, 11:22:37 AM »

........... I hope they don't change this lens......

Why on earth would you hope they don't change this lens?
If you have this excellent lens and are happy with it - fine.
But a lot of people would really like a lightweight 400 prime lens with IS to allow them to shoot fast moving objects at say 100 ISO. This is not possible with the current lens which is why the slightly inferior 100-400 L IS lens is so popular.
If Canon had your attitude there would be no IS lenses at all!

62

Third Party Manufacturers / Sigma 500mm f4 or f5.6 OS lens - any hopes of one??

« on: February 27, 2012, 05:01:53 PM »

Canon new lens prices are climbing into the stratosphere.
Opening here for an upgrade of the Sigma 500/4.5 to an f4 with OS - at say 50-60% of the price of the latest Canon equivalent.
Question is how good is Sigma's OS system?
Time for Sigma, Sony or even Pentax to produce some competition to C and N who seem to have the long lens market to themselves.
Once had a Sigma 100-300mm f4 - a very good well made lens - I'm sorry I sold it!

63

Lenses / Canon 400mm f5.6 L lens - upgrade needed.

« on: February 27, 2012, 08:16:12 AM »

This small lightweight lens desperately needs an IS upgrade.
Stop down say 2/3 stop it yields very sharp results - on a tripod.
It is marginally sharper than the the 100-400mm L at 400 (I've checked both sided by side) and I have read user reports that it is optically a better performer than the expensive 400mm f4 DO.
With the 200-400mm f4 available this year and a possible upgrade to the 100-400 coming up will Canon even bother?
It even has a sliding hood - so much convenient than the clip-ons you get these days. But without IS it is obsolete!
I am sure that an IS version would be a big seller for Canon - but maybe Canon have decided the profits are with the 8,000+USD big prime and zoom lenses rather than with this little one!

64

Lenses / Re: Canon 200-400mm f4 lens - worth waiting for?

« on: February 23, 2012, 11:35:20 AM »

I see this new lens has a provisional price of 11000USD!!!

Too bad, I was looking forward to it. I guess 100-400mm is still the king in the "poor man's safari lens" category.

Totally agree - the 100-400L is a very good lightweight zoom lens - even pretty sharp at 400.
All Canon have to do for an upgrade is get a bit extra sharpness in to the optics and add improved IS - but for *od's sake leave the basic mechanics as they are.
Unfortunately they will probably re-invent the wheel and introduce a new IF design and triple the price.
But even then it will still be a fraction of the price of the 200-400!
That's the price of progress.

65

Lenses / Re: Canon 200-400mm f4 lens - worth waiting for?

« on: February 23, 2012, 09:49:07 AM »

I see this new lens has a provisional price of 11000USD!!!
The Nikon 200-400 is available now for 7000USD.
That is a 4000 extra charge by Canon for a built in super duper 1.4X teleconverter - unbelievable!!
If one really wanted a 200-400 it would be worth while considering switching to Nikon I think.
Lets face it if you wanted to use this zoom frequently beyond 400mm you would be far far better off with a 500/4 Canon prime.

66

Lenses / In praise of the Canon EF-S 60mm f2.8 USM Macro Lens

« on: February 23, 2012, 08:58:47 AM »

This wonderful little lens is sharp right thru from a couple of feet to infinity.
I had been using the Canon 85mm f1.8 and the Canon 100mm f2 to photograph aircraft in flight (panning shots coming in to land at 150mph app) but was getting quite a few unsharp failures at f4 and 100 ISO (for grainless images).
The 60mm f2.8 changed all that with a very high rate of ultra sharp photos.
Maybe the autofocus is better on this lens - I don't know.
In terms of kept images these lenses are listed in order: 60mm clear first followed by the 85mm and the 100mm last.
Forget about the macro name - this really is a fine general purpose lens and at 60mm is of course ideal for portraits.

67

Lenses / Canon 200-400mm f4 lens - worth waiting for?

« on: February 21, 2012, 04:31:12 PM »

The idea of putting glass between a 200-400mm zoom lens (however good!) and a camera to get some extra focal length does no appeal to me!
A lot of people are waiting for this lens which is going to cost a heck of a lot of money.
It had better be really sharp at 560mm!!
Why didn't Canon consider say a simple much cheaper 200-500mm f5.6 zoom design - so that they could drop the 400mm f5.6 L and the equally old 100-400mm L?
Lets hope this forthcoming lens does not end like another expensive partially successful Canon lens - the 400mm f4 DO - all they had to do here was to scale up the wonderful 300mm f2.8 but that was far to simple!