Canon 70-200 F2.8L IS discontinued?

CxThree · Jul 20, 2009

I saw rumors of this this weekend when Adorama listed it as discontinued on their site. I shrugged it off as a problem at Adorama. It looks like the Canon Rumors Guy has got more info from Adorama. Anyone else heard of this?

Edit: Crap. The link to the Canon rumors guy's facebook page is not working. Here's the txt.

Helen Oster, the Adorama customer service ambassador has confirmed that the 70-200 f/2.8L IS has been discontinued.
No word on the replacement.
Hopefully this isn’t some kind of inside joke I don’t know about.
From DPR
CR’s Take
I placed a call to Canon Canada’s national order desk and they have none in stock. There was also no ETA on a new shipment. No ETA on a current product from Canon is a rarity.
Thanks Ed
cr

inTempus · Jul 20, 2009

Interesting. I'm glad I have mine, it's one of the best lenses Canon has ever made. I'm sure whatever replaces it will be great too, but it will be a while before I ditch my 70-200 f/2.8 IS for something new.

If you want one, there's plenty of them out there.

CxThree · Jul 20, 2009

I got one a few months ago and if this rumor is true, I am VERY glad I did. Wait.. Regardless of the ruomr, I am VERY glad i got it. This thing ROCKS. That's why I am surprised to hear anything about it being discontinued. Makes me wonder what is coming..

MichaelPieren · Jul 20, 2009

I just got mine last week. Took advantage of the $200 instant rebate. I asked a number of different shops, while shopping prices, if they were coming out with a replacement or just trying to stimulate sales with the rebate because of the slow economy. None were aware of anything new coming out and frankly didn't know what they could come out with that could replace such an excellent lens. Really glad I got mine.

Michael

rufus5150 · Jul 20, 2009

From what I understand (and take this all with a grain of salt) is that the IS in the 70-200 2.8 is of an older variety and capable of about 1.5-2 reliable stops of stabilization. Later canon lenses are offering IS technology capable of 2.5-3.5 reliable stops, though they advertise more. My gut feeling says a 70-200 2.8IS MkII is likely in the works.

inTempus · Jul 20, 2009

Yeah, I don't think Canon is dropping that focal range. They would be crazy to do that given the popularity. As Rufus suggested, it's likely being replaced with an updated version with tweaks and changes.

You never know how those things go though. When they start messing with perfection sometimes the replacement isn't as good as the one it replaced. I'm in love with mine. It will take a good year of them testing and reviewing the replacement and saying it's superior to my old version before I make the switch to something newer.

soylentgreen · Jul 20, 2009

What's to tweak on that lens? If anything give us IS on the 24-70 f/2.8 or update the 100-400 to a straight f/4. Re-tweaking already great glass is starting to irritate me.

usayit · Jul 20, 2009

soylentgreen said:
What's to tweak on that lens? If anything give us IS on the 24-70 f/2.8 or update the 100-400 to a straight f/4. Re-tweaking already great glass is starting to irritate me.

As mentioned, the 70-200 f/2.8 L could use an update to the IS'er. It would be dumb to not update it as it is one of their most popular telephoto zooms. The 100-400 IS is about due for an update as well. If my memory is correct, the 100-400L IS is one of the or the first Canon lens with IS and thus also has the older 2 stop IS. IMO, the 24-70 f/2.8 doesn't gain much from IS.

usayit · Jul 20, 2009

btw.. Re-tweaking (ie forward progress) is a good thing.....

JustAnEngineer · Jul 20, 2009

If they can figure out how to offer us something slightly better for slightly less money, I won't complain.

Baaaark · Jul 20, 2009

usayit said:
btw.. Re-tweaking (ie forward progress) is a good thing.....

That's what engineers make their living doing. They usually are trying to make the current better.

JustAnEngineer said:
If they can figure out how to offer us something slightly better for slightly less money, I won't complain.

Listen to the Engineer.

FrankLamont · Jul 21, 2009

Heard about this but I couldn't confirm it.

I wonder how they're going to improve it, although I hope it has something to do with the two words 'lighter' and 'smaller'. Maybe they'd put in the 'smart-IS' thing, so you don't have to switch between 1 and 2, but...

Now, they should discontinue the 24-70mm and add IS to it.

HelenOster · Jul 21, 2009

CxThree said:
I saw rumors of this this weekend when Adorama listed it as discontinued on their site. I shrugged it off as a problem at Adorama. It looks like the Canon Rumors Guy has got more info from Adorama. Anyone else heard of this?

Unfortunately, I mis-read an email from our purchasing department and advised a customer incorrectly that this lens had been discontinued.

All the rumors have stemmed from there....we have not received any notification from Canon that this lens has been discontinued. I hope that sets the record straight, and I apologize for any confusion and inconvenience that I may have caused, inadvertently.

Sincerely

Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador

[email protected]
www.adorama.com

soylentgreen · Jul 22, 2009

FriedChicken said:
Heard about this but I couldn't confirm it.

I wonder how they're going to improve it, although I hope it has something to do with the two words 'lighter' and 'smaller'. Maybe they'd put in the 'smart-IS' thing, so you don't have to switch between 1 and 2, but...

Now, they should discontinue the 24-70mm and add IS to it.

There you go.
Canon develops Hybrid image stabilization system: Digital Photography Review