Canon's highly anticipated dream lens, the 200-400mm f/4 with a built-in 1.4x teleconverter that was seen at the Olympics has been used "in the wild." CanonRumors reports that one of its readers, Ben, got to use the likely $11,000 lens in South Africa for a bit after speaking with a product manager...
Ben's first impressions point to a perhaps-difficult-to-use switch to flip the teleconverter into place, but that it gets easier if you have the lens on a monopod (almost a necessity anyway, wouldn't you say?). Autofocus is supposed to be extremely quick, too.
Does this mean we could see this lens soon? Perhaps. It was also reportedly a production model -- updated since the Olympics. If we do see it early next year, no doubt it'll be in limited quantities.
Could we have a quick poll of fstoppers to learn who might be planning on buying an $11,000 trick lens? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
how's this a trick lens? Nikon has one for sports too at 6700 without TC. I think the price is probably lesser than 11 grand since its a rumour?
Thought I'd get to see the images though :
As a Nikon shooter, I'm not. But it is a very, very, very cool trick!
it's actually THE lens for football (called soccer by some), you can actually shoot the entire game without swaping to 70-200 or using second body
One of the AP shooters here in Houston uses it regularly at NFL games, says he loves it.