My guess is that it will hit the market at somewhere north of $8,000..... perhaps north of $9,000. It's been Canon's pattern with Mk.II versions of the big whites.
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The New Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II
- Thread starter Canon Rumors
- Start date
I'm very interested to see how the IQ turns out. The old one wasn't bad...it just had some funky aberrations in a very few occasions. If Canon has improved how they perform the diffraction bending, this could be one hell of a lens.
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noncho said:
Maybe, although my experience with the 300 that I rented was that the first thing you do is slap on a 1.4X extender so that you can close enough to the wildlife. So that effectively makes it a slightly heavier version of the 400 f/4. So it's going to come down to the image quality of the lens -- if it's in the same ballpark as the 300 2.8 and can handle extenders well, this could be an excellent wildlife lens.
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I'm wondering if Canon is incorporating their new radial diffraction technology using particles embedded in resin. Its very difficult to do, but the results are claimed to be much better. I expect the lens will be very pricey, since the yield of the diffraction elements will be very low. Getting the particles to disperse evenly in the gel was one of the big hurdles to overcome. If they are not just right, the different colors will not diffract evenly or the correct amount.
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noncho said:
Hmmm not really. It replaces the 300/2.8L II plus 1.4x III, which together weigh 2625 g. If the rumoured 2100 g is correct that's 20% lighter. And as a bare lens it should focus faster.
If it wasn't for the likely huge price, I'd consider replacing my 300. You're right that the 300 combo is more versatile in theory, but I so rarely use it without one or other Extender that I think I'd be willing to trade that for the size/weight saving and AF performance. The image quality would have to be impeccable though...
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I agree. Unless this DO is much lower in price, which I doubt it will be judging from the first DO's price, I really don't see its purpose other for paratrooper military photojournalists, supertelephoto landscape photographers, or some other form of super-niche customer. If they solved their bokeh problems, perhaps the lens would have more appeal, but I think that bokeh is a problem inherent in the DO design?
neuroanatomist said:
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joejohnbear said:
The 400 didn't have a bokeh problem. The 70-300 DO was the lens with the sometimes weird bokeh. The internet seems to have lumped both lenses together as if they were one and the same. Spec highlights on the 400 could have a bit of a bullseye effect but that was about it. The OOF areas aren't as nice as the 300 2.8 or 400 2.8 in my opinion, but they aren't really problematic either.
I think the 400 f4 DO II would be pretty amazing if it were about 2/3rd or 1/2 the cost of a 300 2.8 IS II but that's really unlikely.
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neuroanatomist said:
You reach 560 with this lens with just 1.4XTC whereas the 300/2.8 is still only at 420. To most people a 2xTC degrades the image to much. So basically this new lens could beat the 300/2.8 in the range 400 - 560. That's pretty important - we shall see.
I think Canon are sticking with DO development as it may be the only way to significantly reduce the weights of the big whites at some point in the future.
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Exactly and I was really hoping the next DO lens (with better IQ in theory) would be a 600mm (f/4 or f/5.6). Smaller size & weight at that focal length would make a lot more sense to me.neuroanatomist said:Plainsman said:
Well, if I need to reach 560mm, I'll be using my 600/4L IS II, giving me an extra stop of light, and even more reach with a TC if needed.
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Steve said:neuroanatomist said:Well, if I need to reach 560mm, I'll be using my 600/4L IS II, giving me an extra stop of light, and even more reach with a TC if needed.
Sure 'cause the 600's not, like, double the weight and size or anything
Yep, I bet that 600/4 II is a brute to carry around - all up weight with box must be quite something
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Another thought - what if Canon figured out how to improve IQ AND production and the new lens ends up being excellent and priced at $3500-4000? Not very likely, but it is a possibility given all of the talk in Lens Work about Canon's efforts to increase IQ while coming up with cheaper manufacturing like the GMo, micro USM and other technologies.
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Steve Balcombe said:
Somehow, I do not believe it would beat the 300mm f/2.8. Throw in the TC though, and there is a chance. AF should be faster than the 300 +TC.
TC's have perfprmed poorly on DO lenses, so if one worked well, that would be a huge improvement.
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Jim Saunders said:
To me, this is the perfect size and weight to carry into the back country, at least as compared to the other big whites. When in confined spaces or a dense forest, an MFD of 11.5 feet just doesn't leave you enough space for many things that are much closer than that.
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