Back in February of 2011 Canon announced that they planned to announce, the announcement of their recently announced, up and coming 200-400mm lens. Yes, I intentionally used the word “announce” that many times 🙂 Seems one of the hottest lenses Nikon ever built was finally hitting a nerve with Canon’s top brass, so they announced they were getting ready to release one of their own. Today they finally put a date on their new baby’s arrival and a price tag to boot. The following Press Release says it will be for sale in June 2013, and just shy of a whopping 12,000 British Pounds which equates to $18,000 USD. Holy Moly and maybe even Holy Buckets. Is that a typo? Let’s hope so. Actually, I just checked B&H Photo, and they have the new lens listed far cheaper at a measly $11,800. So it’s not as bad as the Press Release suggests but compare that to the Nikkor 200-400 at $6750 and it’s still a lot more money. $4000 for a built in 1.4X teleconverter?
Canon’s soon to be released 200-400 F/4 Super Zoom. Notice the bump on the right side at the rear of the lens. This is the space taken up by the built-in teleconverter.
Admittedly, there’s at least one new technological feature being promoted that sounds mostly positive and targeted to the Video/Cinematographer crowd. The Canon Press Release states, “The Power Focus (PF) mode also increases versatility during movie shooting with the EOS-1D C or EOS-1D X, enabling photographers to achieve an accurate pull-focus effect at one of two speeds, simply by twisting the focus recall ring and stopping at a pre-set distance.” Actually, that feature sounds pretty desirable if you’re shooting video, but that rules out a lot of the folks we travel with. Other than that it’s weather sealed, has four stops of IS for low light shooting, and uses a special coating for front and back elements that repel dust. That’s about it. Nothing earth shaking other than the price. So here are some thoughts on how this might go over.
I’m currently working on another blog post highlighting my recent experience with the Nikon’s new 80-400mm zoom. I’ve shot close to five thousand frames with it on my recent trip to the Galapagos Islands and Peru. The new Nikkor 80-400mm is selling for $2700. Without incorporating that post into this one, let me just give you the title of that upcoming article. It is, Nikon’s Newest Super Zoom is Simply Spectacular! I won’t give any more details other than to say, I currently have a Nikkor 200-400 F/4 for sale. Give me a call if your looking for an amazing lens.