And again
Two emails today telling me to expect a new EF 50mm f/1.4 II USM to be announced alongside the new Rebel. One of them went as far as to say it'd be image stabilized.
I don't for a second believe the lens will get IS'd.
I know the 50 f/1.4 has been backordered for a couple of months at a few places in Canada. However, Canon doesn't appear to be stocking much in Canada at the moment and everything is backordered. Two months is a long time though.
cr
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88 Comments
yep…. i just jumped into FF land with a 5D classic and as prices drop I think a lot of people will be doing the same…. that said, I love the camera and Im never going back to 1.6x but I do miss the reach… my 400/5.6 isn’t as great as it used to be and the prospect of a big/expensive 500/4 (or 600mm which would be even better) isn’t really all that great… I know that canon made a 500/5.6 in the FD days and Nikon had a 600/5.6… in the digital age and with IS technology no longer being in its infancy, I think these lenses would be exactly what is needed for the starting resurgence in FF.
“I disagree with Anonymous that “IS in any lens is like extending the camera’s usable ISO range another 2-3 stopsâ€Â. It’s not: the exposure is the same, so, unlike increasing the *real* ISO, you do not get to increase the shutter speed.”
I said it is “LIKE” extending the range. I thought it was obvious that ISO range itself isn’t actually changed. My point remains: If my exposure without IS, at my camera’s maximum usable ISO (let’s say 1600) is f2 at 1/60th, then WITH IS, i can shoot at 1/15th at f2, EFFECTIVELY, it’s LIKE my camera has a usable ISO 6400, without the additional noise that would accompany a real sensor change.
I never suggested it would give me a higher shutter speed. It gives me a lower usable shutter speed.
: ) Now, i will disagree with your statement, that IS “is a built in tripod.” It isn’t. You can’t use IS as a makeshift light stand. You can’t get a fluid head for it, to help you with the HD video. You can’t use it as a weapon to ward off a mugger. You can’t use it to impress the ladies….
I would normally agree with you, except i just bought the 5DMkII. So, unless they can unleash in-body IS in that camera, with a firmware update, i’m going to have to hope for the in-lens solution for a couple of years….
The other benefit of the in-lens solution is that i should be able to use it on my film camera.
But, yeah – going forward, i just don’t buy the Canon excuse that in-lens is a more effective answer. I just don’t want to have to re-buy all my lenses. Of course, that’s what Canon would prefer. We own more lenses than bodies. And, once we all reach our limits as far as sensor resolution goes, they’ll have few ways to convince us we need to upgrade the bodies. I’m quite certain they’re saving some features for that day. When we no longer need more megapixels, they’ll finally offer us IS and ECF.
I can’t use it to impress the ladies? Aw, crap. That was a waste of money, then. I should have stuck with my original plan and got the operation.
To sum up, then, IS is:
A) like extending the ISO range, except without the extra noise or the faster shutter speeds to freeze motion.
B) like extending the maximum aperture, except without the shallower depth of field or the faster shutter speeds to freeze motion.
C) like a built-in tripod, except, because it is built-in, you cannot whip it out to wave it in the faces of muggers or ladies.
Maybe we should offer that to Canon’s advertising department to see if they want to use it. They can cleverly throw in “D) like all of the above”, and then Nikon can kiss their market share goodbye. ;-)