On top of the 60d announcement and the other lens updates Canon has today introduced a second brand new L lens to their lineup alongside the 8-15 f4 L. There exists a non-L 70-300 and also a 70-300 DO lens but this is the first L version of the lens. The non-L lens was a good seller but the DO version was not due to a high price for the diffractive technology and also poor sharpness. The new lens features Canon’s latest 4-stop image stabilization as well as
The lens has also been designed to come in at a price point that allows many more people to take advantage of it. A focal range of 70-300 is quite large and makes this a very versatile lens. Ideal for people who want to perhaps travel with only a couple of lenses. If the image quality is good enough then I can see travel photographers using this alongside a 24-70mm lens. On a full frame camera that really would be all that you would need. This will also make a great lens for the DSLR video shooting crowd. Particularly those who already have some nice wide aperture primes less than 70mm, and need a long reach zoom for the odd occasion. Using the engineering plastic that was seen on the 100mm f2.8 L IS Macro lens Canon have kept the weight of the lens down too ( just a touch over 1kg). It doesn’t quite compete against the 28-300 range of the new FX Nikon lens announced last week in terms of focal range, but its still an interesting product that I hope to be trying out as soon as they hit the shelves. To keep things lightweight for my backcountry skiing photos I use the 70-200 f4 L IS but I would definitely like to compare this new 70-300 with that. The extra 100mm range would be very nice!
The lens retails for $1599.
More info after the jump!