Any hope for a refresh on the 70-300L?

Maximilian

The dark side - I've been there
CR Pro
Nov 7, 2013
5,650
8,461
Germany
The 70-300L is surely a quite successful lens from Canon.
So at some time it'll surely get a refesh.
It was released somewhere around 2009 or 2010.
I would expect some further 3 to 5 years without a Mark II.

In Germany there was a price drop of about 100€ back in Feb. Now it stays quite stable at 1150€.
When you look at Canon Price Watch there was no move within the last 2 1/2 years.

So if you want one, buy it now.
 
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Jul 28, 2015
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Normally such requests about upgrades came when the existing lens has significant room for improvement with current technology - for example the lack of IS on the 400mm f5.6 or the 100-400 mkII with 'only' 2 stops of IS. The upgrades on the 7-300 would be far less significant - my wife has the 70-300 and I have no issues with centre sharpness when I use it.
So I am just wondering why you would 'love' to see such incremental changes - the question is normally asked when there is a buying/selling in the offing.
 
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slclick

EOS 3
Dec 17, 2013
4,634
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So, users are silly for wanting more when Canon themselves release updates with very few changes. ok. It's 8 years old and a very good lens. We have throngs of forumites screaming for bodies to be refreshed after very short cycles, 8 years is not a short cycle.Newer tech could make it a great lens. I guess folks just love to play devils advocate on keyboards.
 
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slclick

EOS 3
Dec 17, 2013
4,634
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For lenses Canon has cycles of about 8 to 12 years.

And when you think about the 100-400 oder the 50/1.4 or the 85/1.8 sometimes much, much longer ;)
That's why I wanted to ask what some thoughts were. We have some glass cycling in at just a few years and others over 18 with crickets. There is no general pattern. I too would love a refresh on the 400, the 50's family and the non L 85.
 
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Jul 28, 2015
3,368
570
So, users are silly for wanting more when Canon themselves release updates with very few changes. ok. It's 8 years old and a very good lens. We have throngs of forumites screaming for bodies to be refreshed after very short cycles, 8 years is not a short cycle.Newer tech could make it a great lens. I guess folks just love to play devils advocate on keyboards.

I am not saying you are silly for wanting up grades, more on what you were hoping for/expecting. As Maximillian says the 70-300L is still within a Canon lens lifecycle
 
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Michael Clark

Now we see through a glass, darkly...
Apr 5, 2016
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I'd love to see the 70-300 4-5.6L get a facelift. Even an incremental one like the 70-200 f/4L IS got. What are the odds?

If what many of us suspect is true about the reason for recent 'incremental' updates to some lenses (i.e. the EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS III), I'd say the odds are very favorable we'll see at least an incremental update of the 70-300mmf /4-5.6 L IS very soon.

Either that, or we'll never see another update such as the case with the EF 400mm f/5.6 or EF 300mm f/4.

The suspicion is that the lens refreshes are needed to add some as yet unrevealed capability the lenses will need for an as yet unreleased Canon camera body.

For example, let's say the expected new FF mirrorless body from Canon will be capable of shooting at 20 fps with AF tracking between each frame? What if most of the existing EF lens line has aperture servos that are too slow to open back up for AF and then stop back down for exposure at 20 FPS? Using the older lenses with the new 20 fps body will require the user to choose between a) 20 fps with no tracking between frames or b) 14 fps with AF tracking between frames. (Kind of like the Sony α9 forces users to choose between faster fps or AF tracking with many lenses).

Maybe these 'minor' updates include some 'hidden' upgrades that will only come to light when the new body that requires them is announced?

Canon has done this sort of thing in the past over nearly the entire life cycle of the EOS system. The first lens with IS was released in 1995. Most EOS bodies released since 1992 or 1993 already had the needed firmware to control the IS of that lens. No one buying and using those cameras knew about that capability until the IS lens was announced in 1995. The recent introduction of the new 470EX-AI with the whiz-bang self pointing bounce flash feature was announced earlier in 2018. It turns out that, other than the bargain basement xx00D Rebels, every EOS body released since 2014 has the hardware and firmware needed to use this fancy new flash feature already built-in.
 
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