I had been expecting to see alot of discussion about the new Canon IS lenses. To my suprise, there has not been any postings on this since the first week of June.

I was wondering if anyone has any updates on expected prices and availability dates ? Specifically the 500/4 and 600/4 .

-- Matt Swope (vswope@voyager.net), July 12, 1999

Answers

If you read French, or know someone who does, check out http://www.photim.com/ click on "Les infos" and then on the "... nouveaux tilis Canon" item) for a recent commentary on these lenses. That does not mention prices (except to say that they will be high), nor availability. One of the posts in the Nature Photography Q&A on Photo.Net speaks to the issues of availability and price.

The French web site for Canon, which can be reached at http://www.canon.fr/reroutage/chassimage.htm claims an availablility date of September '99 for the 600mm lens and July '99 for the others, and cites list prices ranging from 39,000 to 77,000 French Francs including taxes (about US $6,500 to $13,000). Ouch!!!

-- Michael Lopez (mlopez@econ.ag.gov), July 15, 1999.