This one has been a long time coming! Reports of an updated 24-70 have been going around for two or three years. Initially it seemed like it was going to have IS but this photo leaked today (via Canon Rumors) shows that in fact it does not have IS.
Shortly after the launch of the Canon C300 I interviewed one of Canon’s technical staff about the camera. At the time he mentioned to me that on top of the announced 3 EOS Cine prime lenses there were also two more in development. One wider and one longer. I now have a photo of these two prototype lenses, see below. It’s rare that unannounced lenses are shown so I thought it well worth a mention. No focal length is known at the moment, if I had to guess I would say 100mm or 135mm and 18mm?
On top of these primes, it would seem that there are also two new Cine zooms in development on top of the two that were officially announced announced alongside the C300. The 14-60 and the 30-300 that were announced, are MASSIVE lenses and they don’t really fit the C300 form factor for those who want lightweight rigs. There’s no way they could be handheld or used on Steadicam rigs but here are two NEW Cine zooms that are much much smaller and would seem to target the more portable market. I’d imagine these will be comparable in spec to the Angenieux 16-42 and 30-80 that are so popular in 3d rigs and Steadicam rigs at the moment though potentially one could offer a longer range like a 70-200 which is a popular lens for DSLR shooters.
When will we see these lenses ? Perhaps more info at NAB in the spring of 2012 but given the EF Cine primes that we do know about are not due until next summer I wouldn’t count on seeing any of these new ones on shelves until 2013.
Alongside the launch of the new EOS C 300 video camera, Canon have also addressed peoples concerns with using regular EF lenses on these cameras for shooting video professionally. EF lenses were not designed with manual focus in mind and they can prove tricky to use when critical focus is necessary.
Those problems have now been addressed though with this new lineup which features a true cine style of long focus throw and detailed lens markings with distances as well as a manual aperture. All resolve to 4K:
In the Fall of 2010 Canon announced the introduction of new MKIII extenders to replace the previous MKII versions. Super Spectra coatings were introduced to help reduce ghosting and flare as well as fluorine coating to make water spots and finer prints easier to remove. I’ve always fond the MKII extenders to be extremely useful when used in the right circumstances so I was eager to try out the MKIII versions to see if there was an improvement.
Canon have announced today that the brand new Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II and Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II are now shipping to dealers ! I expect these to be very popular, the 400mm in particular so if you’ve been waiting for one I’d urge yo to place an order pretty quickly! Initial reports of the 400mm performance have been glowing, particularly with regards to the performance with the new MKIII extenders (incidentally I will be posting my review of these this coming Monday). As I noted a few weeks back, the new cases for the 400mm lens even include dedicated slots for the extenders so they were clearly designed to be used heavily in this combination. Canon posted a fascinating article on CPN toady where Formula 1 photographer Frits van Eldik speaks of his experience using the new 400mm. He raves about it’s quality and AF tracking and includes some very interesting image samples. I also questioned F1 photographer Richard Heathcote about the new lens, knowing that he had also tested it while working for Getty Images. His response was similar to Frits van Eldik’s. He said with the new 1.4x MKIII , it performed identically to the current 600mm f4 L IS. Heavy praise indeed! I’ve written some thoughts on these new lenses HERE in the past. The 400mm in particular has an huge 27% weight decrease over it’s predecessor which takes it into the realm of the 500mm and will surely have it used by many more people.
The Canon EF 8-15 F4 L fisheye lens is one highly anticipated piece of glass ! First announced back in Autumn 2010 this is not a replacement of any existing lens, but an all new design with unique potential. Canon originally started with the 15mm f2.8 fisheye which was designed before the digital days. This lens provided a full 180 degree field of view on a full frame camera but users of 1.6 or 1.3 crop cameras were left with slightly less fishy look to their images. On the Nikon side of things, Nikkor released a beautiful 10.5mm fisheye for their crop cameras but Canon never followed suit. Sigma built a Canon mount 10mm fisheye and a few people got by with a Tokina 10-17 which did give you a wide view on a 1.3 crop camera but neither of these lenses were hugely high quality. I often use fisheye lenses in my action sports photography work but the problem is I shoot with a full frame Canon 5dMKII and a 1.3 crop Canon 1dMKIV. I’ve always made do with a 15mm f2.8 fisheye which is great on my 5d with it’s full frame sensor but always left me wanting when used on the cropped 1d. Well with this new Canon 8-15 they have solved my problem and designed a lens that can achieve a full 180mm field of view on any of their digital cameras, a simply fantastic idea.
Full review with video and samples after the break.
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