helimat wrote:
Perhaps the demise of the DO line will open up the possibility of a rehashed 400/5.6. It had long been said that Canon never updated the model with IS as they did not want it to compete with the 400/4 DO.
If the 400DO is no more, might as well do away with the 400/5.6L and make a 400/4L.
NASA has been doing DO stuff for a while. It is one thing for guys like us to spend a couple of grand or so for a lighter lens to lug around when we are stumbling in the out of doors. It is a whole different ball game when you have to launch a camera/lens into outer space and every gram of weight you save means real gains probably orders of magnitude greater than for us lowly wildlife photographers.
While I have no intel on what Canon is, or is not, doing with DO I have seen speculation that the camera in this vid uses DO.
DO is listed as a 'Canon Core Technology.' Seems they're giving it some recent press even if it only appears in two relatively old lenses.
Back a few years ago, I think somewhere on one of the Canon sites, there was an interview with the guy who developed much of the DO technology. It was interesting because it touched on a number of the obstacles that were successfully overcome to bring the technology, and therefore the 400 DO, to market. Unfortunately I can't find that interview...
Isn't DO too much of a compromise in IQ (for weight & size) in a niche where few are willing accept a compromise in IQ.
Indeed with consumer lenses with consumer prices the theory might work, but given the price of big whites it takes a very special kind of user that takes the compromise over the superior performer.
The 70-300 DO cold have worked at 2/3rds of the price (max).
Sub micron feature Fresnel lens are damned expensive to make it's no wonder the DO lenses aren't exactly a bargain. Maye the problem is Canon has learned to make savings in body weight in normal RO lenses, that DO has been put on the back burner while they find a way to manufacture them that is much cheaper and concentrate on the RO lenses meanwhile.
Continuing to explore different applications of 400 DO. Here is a sampler, all shot with the lens wide open on 1DMkIIN.
The last image is a portrait of yours truly in action taken with his own 400DO lens/camera.
All shots are done handheld, fast PJ style, using natural light only.
