Luminous Landscape News Feed- 16 October, 2007 - New Olympus D3 and Canon lenses comi

News Feeds · #1 10-16-2007, 07:50 PM

16 October, 2007 - New Olympus D3 and Canon lenses coming

With the Photo East show in New York now just a couple of days away, the new camera announcements have begun in earnest. For the first time in several years I will not be at the show and reporting on it since it conflicts with other travel plans made long ago.

This means that you'll have to fend for yourselves in the wild and wooly world of online press announcements and product previews. But, today saw announcements from both Canon and Olympus. Here they are.

Oly announced the long awaited (4+ years) Olympus E-3 Digital SLR; a 10MP DSLR. The new camera features all the latest bells and whistles, including live view, dust elimination, a swiveling LCD, in-body image stabilization ,and a pro-grade weather proof body. In addition there are three new lenses, a 12-60mm f2.8-4.0, 50-200mm f2.8-3.5, and 14-35mm f2.0. (Remember to multiply these focal lengths X2 to get their 35mm full-frame equivalents, since this is a 4/3 format camera).

Canon has announced two new lenses, a 200mm f/2 L IS and an 800mm f/5.6L IS. The 200 is a replacement for the 200mm f/1.8L which was discontinued last year. It was one of the highest resolution lenses Canon ever made, and loved by many sports photographers as its the ideal focal length and speed for indoor sports such as court-side coverage of basketball or gymnastics. With the addition of Image Stabilization for the lucky few who can afford and need it, the best likely just got better.

The 800mm is a brand new focal length in Canon's so-called Super-Telephoto line and it's bound to be a monster. I found the 600mm almost impossible to handle comfortably in the field, and I can imagine that the 800 will require a built-in Sherpa to help schlepp it around. But I'm sure it will sell like hot-cakes to sports and serious wildlife photographers. No info yet on price or availability.