Canon have announced the addition of two new EF lenses to their line up.
Canon EF 24-70mm f4L IS USM Lens
Offering a constant maximum aperture of f4, and covering in my opinion the most useful range of focal lengths for portraits and everyday shots. The new lens has a new Image Stabilisation system offering 4 stops of compensation for camera shake (ie you can hand hold in conditions 4 stops darker than you could without the stabilizer and still get a sharp shot, assuming the subject is not moving much etc). The nine-bladed aperture should provide pleasing out-of-focus bokeh.
It also has Hybrid IS for the lenses macro function, compensating for angular and shift shake during macro photography. One of the most interesting aspents is the macro feature iself, which allows up to 0.7x magnification, nearly as good a a decent 1x magnification dedicated macro lens. This professional grade “L” lens is resistant to dust and moisture and of course has special lens coatings. Autofocus is provided by a small, ring-type Ultrasonic Motor.
Filter size is 77mm, and the lens weight is 600g. I can’t work out whether a lens hood is included or not.
The Canon EF 24-70mm f4L IS USM Lens is due in December for an RRP of £1499.99. That is about double the real world price for the Canon 24-105mm f4 L lens, which seems a bit too much – interesting to see where the real price ends up once it is released.
Canon EF 35mm f2 IS USM Lens
The headline news with the new 35mm lens is the inclusion of image stabilisation and the large f2 max aperture. The IS on this lens also offers 4 stops of compensation, and has Intelligent detection of panning motion, which automatically engages Panning IS mode “to enable photographers to capture movement with greater accuracy”.
Filter size is 67mm, and the lens weight is 335g.
The Canon EF 35mm f2 IS USM Lens is also due in December, for an RRP of £799.99.
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