Canon's New Lenses and the 60D

Canon today announced a plethora of L lenses, plus the 60D.  All the long lenses are out of the reach of many, including yours truly, but the 8-15mm f4 L fish eye zoom is the most intriguing.  Canon is not the first company to introduce a fish eye zoom.  Pentax takes that honour of the first fish eye zoom -- the 17-28mm full frame and the DA 10-17mm DX fisheye zooms have been available for years.  But, the Canon is the widest zoom fisheye with a constant aperture, and an L lens to boot.

The other more sanely priced L lens is the 70-300mm f4-5.6L.  Canon already has several lenses in this focal length.  The original 75-300mm IS, updated 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS, and the 70-300mm f4-5.6 DO, not to mention the non-IS version of the 75-300mm f4-5.6.  Looks like Canon love this focal length.  Looking at the MTF, the 70-300mm L looks to be very sharp.

Both of these lenses appeal to me, but they are still very expensive.

Many are disappointed at the 60D announcement.  It's a downgrade from the 50D, in terms of built quality and feature set.  Personally, I won't buy the 60D, if it uses the same sensor as the T2i/7D, but many will find it attractive, especially those using it for video.  It has the nice swivel 3" 1 MP LCD which will make doing video so much easier.  I am waiting for the 5D II, but hopefully Canon won't screw it up with another high density sensor with muddy low ISO images. I think by the time I save enough money for one, it will be couple years later and I am sure the 5D III will be out by then.

 

Street Circus -- 1D IIn & Leica-R 35mm f2. Click to see larger.