400mm DO IS II - availability & price lenshood

[daniela]

I am still trying to find an shop where I can test an 400mm DO IS II for some shots.
They often can order the lens, but no professional shop has one physically here.

My questions:

• Is there an South-German or Austrian shop who has one to get some shots with it? Does anybody know one?
• The pricing of the lens hood is making me . 500€ for an metal tube??? Is there an alternative lenshood existing for this lens? chinese reproduction?

thanks
Daniela

p.s. why do I ask? Well, the 400mm lens, I shot with, was an selected one for an German test magazine... So, I doubt, if an "normal" one will be as good as....

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

The lenses in that category are made very carefully and adjusted painstakingly. I'd expect that they are all going to be close to the same. They seem to be in short supply, and as the demand for summer is increasing, the wait might grow longer.

I'd normally be concerned about a specially prepared sample of a mass production lens, but not a big white.

 

[privatebydesign]

The hoods are carbon fiber, still no real reason for $500 but they aren't 'metal tube', all the superteles have ludicrous priced hoods.

 

[noisejammer]

I agree that it's ludicrous but - like the case - it comes with the lens.

If you need a replacement, I'd look for some 125mm pvc pipe and have a friendly machinist turn an adapter to suit. Add some flocking on the inside and it's ready. see http://www.fpi-protostar.com/flock.htm

At a pinch, heavy black card can work too.

 

[wtlloyd]

I've never heard of Canon selling the lens without a hood...? It's not like you are gonna save 500 euro by ordering it without.

More to the point, who ever uses that stupid trunk all super-teles come with? There's the true waste.

 

[vlim]

it might help you

http://www.lenscoat.com/travelhood-small-p-2367.html?osCsid=c2759c0fd65ad76f4cf0ac6b6836d748

 

[Steve Balcombe]

The pricing of the lens hood is making me . 500€ for an metal tube??? Is there an alternative lenshood existing for this lens? chinese reproduction?

I totally agree, the price is absurd and unjustifiable. If a cheap copy was available and I lost/broke my 300/2.8 hood then TBH I'd still replace it with the genuine article, but I did wonder whether there was a cheap option which I could use day to day, keeping the original in the box! But I've just fitted a black neoprene cover which lives on it all the time to prevent scuffs and scrapes, and I hope for the best.

 

[Steve Balcombe]

it might help you

http://www.lenscoat.com/travelhood-small-p-2367.html?osCsid=c2759c0fd65ad76f4cf0ac6b6836d748

I hadn't seen that - interesting, thanks. Doesn't it have a fatal flaw though? The lens cap is designed to fit onto the reversed hood and can't be used directly on the lens. So you would also need a replacement cap of some sort.

The standard hood reversed onto the lens does add a lot of bulk in a bag, but then the TravelHood does have some bulk as well. I wonder how much the overall gain really is, when you take everything into account?

Does anyone have practical experience of using one?

 

[danski0224]

The Travel Hood allows you to leave that expensive and possibly irreplaceable OEM hood at home. That is the benefit that I see.

A hood for the V1 IS lenses is no longer available new from Canon and I imagine that a replacement hood for the V1 electronic focus by wire non-IS lenses is even more difficult to find.

There is at least 1 aftermarket solution for supertele lens caps: Don Zeck.

 

[daniela]

Hey Guys, thanks a lot!
The assistant in the shop told me, the lenshood will be NOT included...
Ha! I told him, that he is wrong. And he excused the misinformation. :
I am sure, he would not have told me, even if he had known it. This shop will be not the one, who sells the 400mm lens to me.

But it is surprising how rare this lens still is. In an Tyrolean professional store I was told, this is willed. So the decrease of the price of the lens is slowed down. Rare products are highly recommended and will not get cheaper fast.

Dani

 

[jrista]

Anyone plan to point one of these at the stars? I'm curious how well these perform for astrophotography. The last ones had some aberrations that would have made them much less than ideal...I wonder if the design of the new ones resolves those issues. It sounds like the fundamental design, the diffraction grating, is still in use...I guess Canon never figured out particle dispersion DO, so I wonder if the diffraction grading would still cause problems with stars. I suspect you would get a standard grating diffraction pattern...but, if it's tight enough, maybe it wouldn't matter.

 

[tron]

Anyone plan to point one of these at the stars? I'm curious how well these perform for astrophotography. The last ones had some aberrations that would have made them much less than ideal...I wonder if the design of the new ones resolves those issues. It sounds like the fundamental design, the diffraction grating, is still in use...I guess Canon never figured out particle dispersion DO, so I wonder if the diffraction grading would still cause problems with stars. I suspect you would get a standard grating diffraction pattern...but, if it's tight enough, maybe it wouldn't matter.

Interesting! I wonder how it will behave if it is pointed at the moon or at the sun during sunset or sunrise...