Canon Reveals Details for future Telephoto Lens Line

[BeenThere]

Chuck Westfall makes some interesting comments about Canon's future direction with lens at Photokina.
http://www.cnet.com/news/canon-reveals-details-for-future-telephoto-lens-line/

 

[Click]

Canon plans to revamp an aging 100-400mm zoom and bring a novel technology called diffractive optics to more models.


Yes, but when?

 

[AlanF]

A very interesting read. Canon has made a real breakthrough in DO. I would love a short new 100-400mm for travel. A bit worrying, however, for all those who have invested in series II glass if it all suddenly becomes obsolete.

 

[Loswr]

A very interesting read. Canon has made a real breakthrough in DO. I would love a short new 100-400mm for travel. A bit worrying, however, for all those who have invested in series II glass if it all suddenly becomes obsolete.

Suddenly...in Canon's time frame, that's 5-10 years.

 

[Efka76]

Do I understand correctly that DO lenses (with green ring) are considered as worse quality than L class lenses? Also, can someone explain what this "Diffractive optics" means and what are advantages / disadvantages?

 

[123Photog]

Do I understand correctly that DO lenses (with green ring) are considered as worse quality than L class lenses? Also, can someone explain what this "Diffractive optics" means and what are advantages / disadvantages?

Google it. It´s explained on wikipedia.

 

[Khalai]

Re: Canon Reveals Details for future Telephoto Lens

Do I understand correctly that DO lenses (with green ring) are considered as worse quality than L class lenses? Also, can someone explain what this "Diffractive optics" means and what are advantages / disadvantages?

Since there are only two models of DO (with an updated one now), one received L treatment while the other did not, it's hard to tell. Insufficient amount of data?

 

[lo lite]

Do I understand correctly that DO lenses (with green ring) are considered as worse quality than L class lenses? Also, can someone explain what this "Diffractive optics" means and what are advantages / disadvantages?

Google it. It´s explained on wikipedia.

It's even explained in the original article.

 

[Steve]

Also, can someone explain what this "Diffractive optics" means and what are advantages / disadvantages?

Its basically a fresnel lens. As the article explains, it bends light differently and allows for smaller lenses. It also doesn't split colors like a standard curved glass lens so its easier to correct for CA. They don't need expensive and difficult to manufacture fluorite elements which must be "grown" over periods of up to a year. There's a ton of promise in DO technology in weight/size/cost savings if it works out.

It's pretty cool they are talking about doing more DO lenses. Canon must be feeling that they're getting a handle on the tech. Hopefully we see something a little more solid get announced soon.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

The advantage to a DO lens is that they can be shorter and much lighter than a conventional lens because they can bend light at sharper angles without increasing CA's.

DO technology has been expensive, difficult to manufacture, and the lenses have less contrast, which most people equate to less sharpness. The older models have elements made of two layers of gratings rather than the one layer found in Fresnel lenses. This is a press release related to the original DO lenses from Photokina in 2000.

http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/education/infobank/lenses/multi_layer_diffractive_optical_element.do


Canon has been trying for 14 years since to improve the lenses. New technology for manufacturing DO lenses, bonding them to glass elements, and cutting costs.

The newer technology they have been patenting involves dispersing particles in a molded resin lens. Its hard to get those millions of particles to go where you want them, but they are apparently confident and making progress, lots of patents have been issues in the last 3 years.

 

[sagittariansrock]

A very interesting read. Canon has made a real breakthrough in DO. I would love a short new 100-400mm for travel. A bit worrying, however, for all those who have invested in series II glass if it all suddenly becomes obsolete.

I don't think the 100-400 replacement will necessarily use DO. If I understand the article correctly, there are two issues- replacement of the aging tele zoom, and developing DO and bringing the tech into cheaper lenses.

 

[cid]

the DO design looks very nice, even MTF of new 400 looks great, but I'll wait for some reviews to see what do they have to show us really, I'm not being sceptical about this but want to see some pics first

And I hope when the stuff is real and there will be more lenses with DO design the green ring will be replaced with the proper one - red 8)

 

[Ruined]

Nice! Sounds like there will be a 70-300 DO II. That would be awesome given the improvements discussed.

 

[Dylan777]

A very interesting read. Canon has made a real breakthrough in DO. I would love a short new 100-400mm for travel. A bit worrying, however, for all those who have invested in series II glass if it all suddenly becomes obsolete.

Current 300, 400 and 600mm II are SOLID. I got to play with all three. I wish I have couple millions in the bank to own all.