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Canon Instant Lens Savings With Purchase Of Select EOS Bodies

Click To See Full Promotion and Rebates!

For all you loyal Canonistas who’ve been waiting patiently for a hot new lens rebate program, wait no more for it is upon us! The one fly in the ointment this years is they’re all in combination with body purchases, a promotion logic which the current build of our website doesn’t support. So, rather than look liking we’re pulling a fast one when the price isn’t reflected in the cart, we’re asking you to call us at 1-800-726-5544 where our helpful mail-order staff can fully and completely take care of you. You’re looking at savings of up to $280 for your troubles, so, give the promos a look over, then give us a call. We’re waiting.

Olympus M.Zuiko 75-300mm Reaches 600mm Equivalency

Like zoom? (Zoomy!) You know you do, come on… And that’s why you’re excited by Olympus’ new M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7. Because, for those of you not hip to the game, on the Four-Thirds and Micro Four-Thirds system, there’s a crop factor of 2x, meaning a 300mm lens will appear to have the same zoominess a 600mm did on 35mm film bodies.

For the record, 600mm is a lot.

I mean, 600mm is often the longest lens any manufacturer will make in a 35mm line-up.

So yeah.

As always, the name really tells you most of it, like that this lens is a little slow at 6.7 on the long end. What the specs don’t tell you is it weighs less than a pound and is a little over 4.5″ long as pictured. Yeah, seriously. Not even 5″ traveling size gets you 600mm equivalent. And, it looks pretty nice to boot.

Estimated retail? $900 or so. But you’ll pay it, because you know you love the zoooooooom!

Olympus Announces m.Zuiko 40-150mm f4-5.6

For all you Micro Four-Thirds fans, Olympus has a couple new ones today for you, starting with this new M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 which ways all of 6.3oz and, like in the big-brother Four-Thirds line, compliments the kit 14-42mm to make a fully covered 28-300mm equivalent range in only two compact lenses.

Now, I used the Zuiko 40-150mm that came out back with the E-410, and it was a nice lens. Compact and light, and fairly sharp. A bit slow, sure, but it was like a fifth the size of the 50-200mm I replaced it with (a lens that was so big in comparison I nicknamed it the “Leviathan”). So, I have every faith this newer, more compact model with the same range and f-stops will be a rather similar performer, and will be just fine for general use.

Also, it reportedly uses a silent motor, so it can autofocus during movies with being heard over the din of your memories.

Estimated retail when it starts trickling in? About $300 bucks.

Canon’s brand new L zooms -EF 8-15 f/4L and EF 70-300 f/4.5-5.6L IS USM

All new from Canon comes the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS USM, jumping right to the four-stop IS compensation tech and a minimally described

function that prevents erroneous operation when the lens is mounted on a tripod or monopod

-so I’m curious about whether it’s an “ON/OFF” switch or some hyper-intelligent artificial life-form that subsists in the flourite lens elements or the Flourine coating. We’ll see what our technical rep Brian Matsumoto says. It’s also got the dust and water resistant design of the other lenses we’ve discussed today.

The other new lens is an 8-15mm Fisheye Zoom. That’s delightful – a six inch close focusing distance, as fast an aperture as you’d expect from a fisheye, and 180 degree diagonal angle of view for APS-C and Full Frame formats. The EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM also features

a new fluorine anti-smear coating is applied to the front and rear elements to make lens cleaning easier than ever.

Which should bring some reassurance to the folks accustomed to putting protector filters on their lenses.

Check Canon’s press release at the source link for more deets about availability and Estimated Selling Price.

external link

Canon’s refresh of four lenses, beyond amazement.

The Refresh line up is as follows:

The EF 1.4X Extender and the EF 2x Extender which are supposed to offer faster autofocus and improved autofocus precision. There’s also talk of “an anomalous dispersion lens element for reduced chromatic aberration” -whether this is new from the Series II teleconverters, I’m not certain. They’ve also got this high-falutin new flourine anti-smear coating -somehow repelling both oil and water for cleaning with a dry cloth -and this coating is applied to all six new lenses. They also kept the weather sealing.

The refreshed EF 300 2.8 IS II USM has been beaten and starved to 82.9 ounces for decreased reliance on mono and tripods. It’s also been given adamantium bones… read more

Sony Announces 35mm, 85mm, and Zeiss 24mm Primes

Sony has also announced three new primes, one of which carries the Zeiss branding. As usual, the names of the lenses really tell you all the pertinent bits, and so, without further ado, those names are:

F2.0, 24 mm Carl Zeiss Distagon T* ZA SSM lens
F1.8, 35 mm Sony DT lens
F2.8, 85 mm Sony lens

The two Sony-branded lens are quite economic (although beware that the DT designation means it will only work on their crop bodies, A800 and 900 series users need not apply), at $200 for the 35mm, and $250 for the 85mm. The Zeiss carries a Zeiss-worthy price tag and will set you back a cool $1,250 when it hits the market.

Nikon’s AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 ED VR Loves Zoom

Do you love zoom? Of course you do. Everyone loves zoom. ZOOOOOOM! Sometimes I just run around shouting it in the face of anyone who wasn’t smart enough to run away. ZOOOOOOOOOM!

And, for you zoom-junkies, how about a new 10.7x NIKKOR lens? That sound good? Of course it does! And, this lens is for FX or DX, so you can zoom away on whatever Nikon DSLR you happen to have. Joy! Excitement! The zoomability is verily palpable.

Or, it will be. You know, once they’re actually shipping, which should, yet again, be a September thing. This lens’ll set you back a bit more than a grand, but zoom has a price and you knew that.

It’s up for preorder on our site. Go, love the zoom.

ZOOOOM!

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR Rounds Out Entry-Level Line

One last lens today, I promise. This one will be quick, it’s an affordable tele-zoom designed to pick up where the infamous 18-55mm VR kit lens leaves off. Literally. With the addition of this one lens you can extend a basic kit to 18-300mm f3.5 – 5.6, with VR all the way (VRATW, for you web kids). If you’ve been reading the other posts, you might take a fair guess that this’ll be out next monthish, and that you can get on our preorder list for it. The expected price is a very friendly $399.95. That’s pretty reasonable, don’t you think?

Nikon Announces New AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4G

In case a new DSLR body wasn’t enough, Nikon has also announced four new lenses, among them a new, FX-friendly 85mm f.14 portrait lens. As usual, the name gives you all the important specs, but for those thirsting for more it’s internal-focusing using a silent-wave motor and has a 9-blade diaphragm. Ooh. Aah.

It has an estimated MSRP of $1,699.95 and an availability date of… sometime, possibly next month(ish). You can put yor name on the preorder list for this on our site.

Nikon Introduces AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR

Look ma, another lens from Big Yellow. This one’s the “AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR,” and as the name might suggest it covers a working range of 24-120mm (the lack of a “DX” in that name means this is for FX or DX, on DX the range would be equivalent to 36-180mm. True fact.), and, er, it’s VR for you with shakey hands (or who just like sharp shots), and, yeah. The f4 constant pegs this as a mid-range lens from Nikon, and it’s not a bad constant aperture, especially on their ISO-fearless FX bodies. Like everything else, availability is Septemberish, and this one will MSRP for $1,299.95. Their USA press release has this wrong, but it’s right on their product page. Don’t trust that press release price, y’all.

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