Recent Canon rumors point to the release of a pair of wide-angle, stabilized zoom lenses for both EF and EF-S mounts in the coming days. The duo is believed to include the EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM and EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lenses.
The 16-35mm could be a pricey little lens with the image stabilization built-in and given Canon’s continual upgrade in optics when issuing new L-series lenses. A beefy price tag could also slow the sales of such a lens when you have more affordable options like the highly-regarded EF 17-40mm f/4L covering roughly the same zoom range with its $800-ish price tag. Even without Image Stabilization, the lens is a proven workhorse for those needing the wide field of view. The existing 16-35mm f/2.8L II non-IS lens retail for $1699, which I would surmise as a more approximate price point estimation of the rumored, forthcoming lens.
The EF-S 10-18mm is said to be a step up in optical quality from the popular EF-S 10-22mm lens. With the smaller max aperture, it should also be a smaller lens than the hefty little 10-22mm. The addition of IS though worries me that the price tag may go up too much even though it is using less glass. Of course, Canon seems to be taking every opportunity of late to hike the price of lenses when replacements are issued.
If these rumors pan out, we should have more official word in a few days.
[via DCI]
If only it was a 16-35mm f/2.8L IS.
You are right Eric about Canon has been pumping up the new lens price every time they replace (and often shorter focal length) a lens these days and than discount it a year and half later for double the price of the 3rd party lens. I believe they opens up the gray market problem for themselves everywhere in the world as well as giving Sigma & Tamron the opportunity of putting their new high quality lenses into the hands of more photographers these days. Canon need to realize their 1990’s marketing strategy does not work in 2014’s “every third party can build a high/better quality/feature rich lens than Canon at half price” world.
I remember looking & comparing ultra wide angle lenses few years ago when I got a full frame camera (5D3) to replace my used ($600) Canon 10-22mm lens. I was looking at the Canon lenses and came across a used Tamron 17-35 f/2.8-4 Di lens at B&H for $250.00. Once I used the “Lens Image Quality” Tool at “The-Digital-Picture.com”, I realize how little the image quality differences are (from 17-24mm since I got a 24-105mm IS kit lens) between these ultra wide lenses I purchased the Tamron lens and saved myself $700 ~ $1600 and got a new Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS II while it was on sale . Between 17-35mm, I only need 1/17 ~ 1/35 second shatter speed and on a full frame camera like 5D3, shooting at 3,200 to 6,400 ISO images are perfectly usable from all my indoor wedding events (most at night) with no need of IS.
See the Image quality comparison yourself and see it is worth $700 ~ $1600 more and anything a $100 Lightroom program can not fix:
Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8 L II vs Tamron 17-35 f/2.8-4 – @ f/2.8
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=412&Camera=453&Sample=0&FLI=2&API=0&LensComp=391&CameraComp=453&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=2&APIComp=1
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L vs Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 – @ f/4
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=100&Camera=453&Sample=0&FLI=0&API=0&LensComp=391&CameraComp=453&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=0&APIComp=2
On the fair side, if one needs a weather sealed, metal construction, super quiet autofocus lens for a lot of landscape & nature photography, it would be wise to wait until the new lens is in retail store so one can purchase a used a ultra wide Canon lens at 1/3 of current retail price to put on one’s tripod with no need of IS to create beautiful photos.
Unless the price of the new Canon lens is lower than the current models, Canon is creating new lens to loos new sales for themselves. It would be nice to see Canon focus on lowering the current lens price to put them into more photographer’s hands to increase their revenue so they would be able to focus on building better & lighter mirrorless full frame & medium format cameras & lenses before Sony, Fuji, Pentax, Panasonic and Olympus take over that segment of market.