Nobody is surprised that this lens exists. Variations of the Canon 200-400 f/4 with built-in 1.4x teleconverter have been floating around for years; I saw this lens on display last year at the PDN PhotoPlus Expo in New York City. If there’s any surprise here, it’s that the lens is finally ready for production. The first batch of these lenses should start shipping in 2-3 weeks, and they can already be ordered from B&H and Adorama for $11,799.
If you have somehow missed all of the discussion about this lens, or simply ignore talk about $12,000 lenses on practical grounds, it is a unique piece of equipment that is worth closer inspection. Even as a simple 200-400mm f/4L lens, this would be a compelling piece of large aperture glass. The optics (33 elements in 24 groups) include flourite and low-dispersion glass with sub-wavelength structure coatings, insuring that the lenses produce as little chromatic aberration as possible. The lens is also sturdily built with magnesium alloy and environmentally sealed to keep out dust and rain, and has 3 image stabilization modes. It also has power-focusing modes aimed at video/film makers; these are smooth, electronically controlled focus shifts between preset focus points.
But of course, this lens’s real claim to fame is it’s integrated 1.4x teleconverter. With the flip of a switch, the lens becomes a 280 – 560mm f/5.6 lens, and because the optics in the teleconverter are matched to this lens (as opposed to the general optics of a standard teleconverter like Canon’s 1.4x III), the highest image quality is maintained when extended. I expect this lens to be very popular with sports and wildlife photographers that have large budgets.
