topic Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore! in EF & RF Lenses

We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

kvbarkley — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 15:18:12 GMT

Canon has introduced a new 70-300 II:

http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/galleries/galleries/tutorials/ef70-300-ii-usm_gallery.shtml

Has new nano-crystal USM for improved AF for still and video shooters

improved IS

Improved optics - now focuses a foot closer

An LCD display that can show a distance scale, the zoom setting (35 mm equivalent if you are shooting crop sensor!), an indication of how much IS is working.

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

Waddizzle — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 16:36:14 GMT

Thanks, Canon. Now I don't have to buy an "L" for my sons. "Look, your lens has an LCD screen, while my doesn't."

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

kvbarkley — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 15:32:57 GMT

As I should have stated above:

"Of course IQ is TBD"

Oh, and the distance dispaly has DOF markings!

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

RobertTheFat — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 15:32:53 GMT

@kvbarkley wrote:
As I should have stated above:
"Of course IQ is TBD"

Killjoy!

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

kvbarkley — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 16:03:45 GMT

I hate to keep piling on my own post, but it would be really neat to have the LCD display a "DOF" readout with the minimum and maximum range of the DOF.

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

Waddizzle — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 16:38:37 GMT

@kvbarkley wrote:
I hate to keep piling on my own post, but it would be really neat to have the LCD display a "DOF" readout with the minimum and maximum range of the DOF.

I could have sworn Rudy Winston said that it had DOF readout in the LCD. It sure looked like it, too.

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

kvbarkley — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 16:47:41 GMT

It has the little hard to read DOF 'range' marks on the distance scale, just like shown in the little window on lenses that have that feature. I meant a display that uses the fact that it knows the Aperture, sensor size and focal length to calculate something that says:

Near DOF = 5 ft

Far DOF = 25 ft

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

Waddizzle — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:19:22 GMT

I think it does it like many lenses.

They may just have lens at minimum aperture [f/22] and at the minimum focusing distance.

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

kvbarkley — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:11:44 GMT

But that is the nice thing about the LCD, they can change it to display the DOF distance in feet like I indicated above. Even something like:

Max DOF : 125 Ft

Focus Dist: 100 ft

Min DOF: 50 ft

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

Waddizzle — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:23:03 GMT

@kvbarkley wrote:
But that is the nice thing about the LCD, they can change it to display the DOF distance in feet like I indicated above. Even something like:
Max DOF : 125 Ft
Focus Dist: 100 ft
Min DOF: 50 ft

How many different "focus distances" should it display? Or, should it display a continuous real-time readout? Doing that would probably consume too much memory space. Simply emulating the scale on side of lens is sufficient, IMHO.

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

kvbarkley — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:33:56 GMT

Just the current one, just like the scale.

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

Waddizzle — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:59:20 GMT

@kvbarkley wrote:
Just the current one, just like the scale.

Just the current one, as in the current focusing distance? Hmm, that sounds too much like a real time readout of current focusing distance, which still sounds like way too much memory.

I have no doubt that progamming memory space inside of a lens is a premium commodity. I helped build rocket payloads way back in the day, and squeezing as much programming into a very small memory chip was a constant challenge.

It's not that they didn't know how to program various functions, they had to squeeze it all into a memory chipset that was much smaller than what the original prototype devices used. Everyone would be told that so much memory space is available, and so everyone would build and instrument that required a sizeable large chunk of that memory space, completely ignoring the requirements of the other instruments. First came, "make it work", followed by "make it fit."

Re: We won't have the 70-300 to kick around anymore!

kvbarkley — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 18:05:26 GMT

Indeed. Current microcontrollers like the Arduino Uno have the same issue, so I realize the problem. But the current design allows at least 3 different displays and my suggestion would take up as much memory as the "retro" distance/dof scale. But we really don't know how much room is left. Can't hurt to make a suggestion.

I think my suggestion is as useful as the real-time IS usage indicator, which I don't really see a use for.