Something few will be excited about
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 6:55PM The last couple of weeks have had many photography enthusiasts wetting themselves with the slew of prodict announcements. Nikon unveiled their long-awaited D700 follow-up, the D800 (and the sans AA filter D800E), Olympus with their OM-D E-M5 (quite a mouthful, but I'll stick to calling it the OM-D), and even Canon jumped into the fray with a refresh of their professional workhorse, standard zoom, the EF 24-70 USM II.
The new Canon EF 24-70 USM II. Still no IS.
All fine and dandy, but very yawn-inducing for people like me. I admit the OM-D looks great and will probably feel and use great, given the steady evolution of the Micro 4/3 system and it's fast primes. But there is one piece of news that did not elicit a "meh" — Canon's new EF 28mm f/2.8 IS USM.
Canon EF 28mm f/2.8, now with IS and USM. Hmm.
It looks like a promising lens, even if they jacked up the price to an MSRP of US$800. Why would I want one? It fits on both crop and full-frame/film Canon bodies, it's a good field-of-view for both (45mm-equivalent on crop) for the type of shooting that I do, and it's small. If it's ring USM, then it's also quiet and fast-focusing. I can get my deep DOF with zone focusing on my Canon film bodies.
It's not very exciting news, and it won't be for most people, but this is probably the first time that I'm intrigued about Canon kit in a while. I'm weird, I know. I wonder if I can get myself a review copy...