Why doesn't Canon or Nikon make a 400mm f/4 AF(autofocus) lens? It seems like this would really fill a gap in wildlife photography. 400mm f/2.8's are very heavy and very expensive, while 400mm f/5.6's are a tad slow and incompatible with tc's. It would seem that a 400mm f/4 would be a great wildlife lens that you could pack with you, etc. You'd get a great 400mm at f/4 and a great 560mm at f/5.6 with a 1.4x tc, and the price would be much less than a 400 f/2.8. Maybe the mfg's figure that anyone who wants a 400 f/4 would just get the 300 f/2.8 and 1.4x tc. But it just seems to me that a 400mm f/4 would be more flexible than a 300 f/2.8 and 400 f/2.8 (due to weight). I'm curious as to what other wildlife photographers think about this?

-- Bill Meyer (william_meyer@stortek.com), March 04, 1999

Answers

Bill, this is all speculative of course, but I'll give it a shot.... Looking at Nikon, a gray-market AF-S 300 2.8 sells for $4,399.95 at B&H. and a TC-14E (also gray-market) goes for $459.95, so you have to make an AF-S 400 4 for less than $4,859.90 or no one will buy it (and you have to make it AF-S because it's big and you can't AF with Nikon TCs if it isn't AF-I or AF-S. Nikon does make an AI-S 400 3.5 manual focus lens which B&H sell for $4,599.95 (gray-market). I just don't see them being able to convert it to AF-S at a competitive price and sell enough to make back their development costs.

-- Geoffrey S. Kane (grendel@pgh.nauticom.net), March 04, 1999.

Bill, you have a point there. I think I will never understand the marketing strategies of the companies. They produce a 1200/5.6 or a 1200-1700 zoom which they cannot sell to anyone, but an adequate 400/4 or may'be an affordable 500/5.6 seems out of their strategy. In that respect, only Minolta seems to do an effort with an very reasonable priced AF 400/4.5 Apo. However, I don't know if Minolta can make a profit of this beautiful lens. Leica has may'be a better answer with their modular and flexible tele lens system. Leica prices are naturally prohibitive. Just a thought...

-- Ivan Verschoote (ivan.verschoote@rug.ac.be), March 05, 1999.

The only possible reason is that Nikon doesn't want any more of my money.. :-)

-- Chris Hawkins (peace@clover.net), March 09, 1999.

Have you thought about the brand new 500 f4 IS L that is out in GB and may be here now ? Great reviews.

-- Jeff Hallett (franjeff@alltel.net), August 06, 1999.

There is going to be a EF 400 f/4 IS using DO technology.

However, nobody knows what the cost is likely to be, it may turn out as or more expensive as the 300mm f/2.8 IS, in which case, I would rather have a 300mm f/2.8 and a 1.4x converter to give 450mm f/4 IS.

Andy

-- Andy Thompson (prsast@bath.ac.uk), April 10, 2001.