This Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Autofocus Lens

That's what Canon Rumors has been told, that we can expect up to four new lenses in the 400mm range. Quoting:

Below are lenses that are apparently in prototype form and are on tap to be announced in 2013.

• EF 400 f/5.6L IS (Highly desired)
• EF 400 f/4L IS (Not DO)
• EF 100-400 f/4-5.6L IS (Not push-pull & patents exists)
• EF 200-400 f/4L IS 1.4x (Long known about)

[via CR]

EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM settings. Image courtesy of Digital Photography School

This is a good and instructive review of the EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM ($11,500, click here) by Digital Photography School. Let me first list the specifications of the lens:

• L-Series Optics
• Optical Image Stabilization – 3 Modes
• Fast Ultra-Sonic Motor (USM) Autofocus
• Full-time Manual Focusing Functionality
• High-speed CPU
• Autofocus Stop Feature
• Dust and Water Resistant
• Fluorite Glass for Improved Quality
• Protective Fluorine Lens Coating
• Security Slot for Wire-Type Locks

The review comes with lots of samples (wildlife shots in Alaska). From the conclusion:

The Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM is a treat to use but not a treat to carry around. It is best used when a base of operations can be established, like a boat or near a campsite. The sharpness from side to side is impressive but needs to be balanced with the general aspect of it being a fixed focal length lens. This is fairly easily overcome with cropping final images, especially as the pixel count on future cameras climbs.

EF EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM price check: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Canon USA, J&R, Digitalrev, Borrow Lenses, eBay

CR has more hints that Canon will soon announce a new, high resolution DSLR. The talk is about a 46MP sensor.

I’m told that the coming big megapixel camera is a very new sensor design/overhaul. The emphasis is in the dynamic range of the sensor. Performance is said to be on the level of medium format, even better than the impressive D800.

The high res cam is said to get a new naming scheme (no 3D nor something with “D”). Canon should announce it at PhotoPlus in New York City in October.

There are also new lenses that are said to show up soon. The EF 200-400 f/4L IS 1.4x is expected to be announced by Canon at PhotoPlus. Finally, two f/4 telephoto lenses are rumored to be announced in January 2013: the EF 300 f/4L IS II and the EF 400 f/4L IS.

Read the rest of this entry →

CR reports a rumor saying that Canon will announce a new 400mm f/5.6L lens before Photokina. Image Stabilization is suggested as one of the feature to expect.

EF 400mm f/5.6L price check: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Canon USA, J&R, Digitalrev, Borrow Lenses, eBay

[via CR]

Canon has recently released two new product advisories. The first one concerns the WFT-E5A Wireless Transmitter. The firmware upgrade (ver. 1.0.7) doesn’t tackle problems or malfunctions, it was released to support the just released, massive firmware update for the EOS 7D.

Next, Canon also released a product advisory for the following lenses: EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM, EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM, EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM, and EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM. The firmware update (ver. 1.1.1) will be performed by Canon Service Centers and brings the following enhancement:

Changes the control algorithm of the focus drive, and enhances the drive’s responsiveness for more precise focus and adjustments. In particular, the new firmware enhances the AI servo AF capability of the lenses to track objects that move irregularly in sports events, such as soccer or rugby.

600mm f/4

400mm f/2.8

Japanese site egami (Google translated) spotted two new Canon patents. The patents refer to the EF 600mm f/4 and the EF 400mm f/2.8 lenses. The lenses will have reduced size and weight. The 600mm will have 15 elements in 9 groups, the 400mm 14 elements in 9 groups (more specs below). Performance charts:

Performance Chart 600mm f/4

Performance Chart 400mm f/2.8

More specifications (machine-translated)…:

• Patent Publication No. 2012-88427
  • 2012.5.10 Release Date
  • 2010.10.18 filing date
• Example 1
  • Focal length f = 585.00mm
  • Fno 4.12
  • Image height 21.64mm
  • Length 468.50mm lens
  • BF 90.78mm
  • 15 sheets of 9 group lens configuration
  • One aspherical surface a
  • 2 UD glass sheet
  • One fluorite
  • A plane diffraction
• Example 2
  • Focal length f = 391.86mm
  • Fno 2.88
  • Image height 21.64mm
  • Length 367.51mm lens
  • BF 50.01mm
  • Lens Construction 14 elements in 9 groups sheet
  • 2 2 aspherical surface
  • 1 UD glass sheet
  • One fluorite
  • A plane diffraction
• Group 3 consists of positive and negative positive
• Inner Focus (group 2)
• Strengthen the refractive power of the front lens group, and to shorten the overall length, the sensitivity is increased, it is difficult to manufacture and assembly
• The number of lens group at the end of the super-telephoto lens is determined by the balance of the total length and chromatic aberration
  • And shorten the length and reconcile, the correction of chromatic aberration, the number will increase
    • It is important to the length of each degree
  • Weight of the first lens group, 70% to 9 on the whole
    • Canon patents is reduced to three the first group
    • Aspherical and one eye in group 1 group, field curvature correction, the distortion
    • Diffractive optical element and the second two groups in the first group, the chromatic aberration correction

[egami via CR]