I’m sure you’ve all heard the news but Canon has just announced six new L Series lenses and one new prosumer grade DSLR, the EOS 60D. Below are the links to the various news releases and other technical information from Canon.
All well and good but this new lens really caught my attention. The new EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM lens offers a very unique design in a high performance zoom lens with outstanding mobility. If you’ve ever hand held Canon’s EF 100-400mm “push-pull” zoom lens or the EF 300mm f/4L prime you’ll understand my excitement.
The new EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM is very compact at 143mm in length as compared to the EF 100-400mm which is 189mm long and the EF 300mm f/4L which is 212mm long. With its impressive zoom range and compact size, the EF70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM is well suited to landscape, nature and wildlife photographers who have grown tired of lugging around their heavy super-telephoto or super-zoom lenses.
Canon has also pulled out all the stops on new technology in this lens with two ultra-low dispersion (UD) elements and Canon’s Super Spectra Coatings designed to reduce ghosting and flare. This lens also incorporates Canon’s latest generation Image Stabilization (IS) system providing an impressive four-stop IS advantage. The lens’ eight-blade circular aperture also offers excellent bokeh that’s ideal for wildlife shooting. The lens’ autofocus system promises to be very fast and quiet thanks to a ring-type USM motor and as with all L-series lenses, full time manual focus is available. Canon has also coated the front and back lens elements with a new Fluorine Coating (similar to the DSLR’s LCD coating) which helps prevent smears or fingerprints from sticking.
But what’s really exciting about this new lens is the $1500 price tag. I honestly expected this lens to cost well over $2000 initially. What a pleasant surprise!
I’ll be reviewing this lens in detail as soon as my loaner comes in from Canon so stay tuned!
Canon Focuses On Professionals By Introducing Six New L-Series EF Lenses And Accessories
Preorder the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS L USM Lens at Adorama
Jeff,
Do you know if the lens zoom is all internal like the 70-200 or does the length of the lens extend as you zoom?
John,
I’ve seen conflicting information on this. The lens has 19 elements (the 70-200mm has 20) but it’s 1.5″ shorter. I don’t see how they could do this without having the barrel extend. Hopefully there will be more information forthcoming.
Jeff
This piece of Canon news also came out at the same time:
http://www.canon.com/news/2010/aug24e.html
Hey Michele,
Yes, I read that press release also but I’m not quite sure I have a big enough hard drive and fast enough processor to open a 150 GB raw file in Lightroom. However, you should be able to shoot wildlife with a 28mm lens and just crop the 120 MP down to 10 MP. Of course you’ll need to shoot at ISO 2 to eliminate noise.
I can’t wait to see what the camera sells for. $120,000 DLSR?
Jeff
It will be interesting to see how they price whatever camera gets the sensor. I imagine that it will go up against the Phase Ones and Hasselblads, but beat those as far as ease of use and portability is concerned. It will be a very elite target market for a few years, that’s for sure!
I have seen reports that speculate that this sensor will only be used for industrial & scientific applications.