Hey Folks,

I have been following the new Canon lens prices with a bit of a fixation. It seems like all of the high end lenses (like the newly announced 500 f4 and 600 f4) lenses are significantly more expensive than their predecessors - it seems to be about 3 grand more per lens. Rumor has it that the price on the 300 F2.8 will also be about that much more.

Anyway, given these recent numbers, I was figuring that the new 200-400 F4 would probably be in the 7k range. Appalled by the idea of that prospect, I decided to check out what Nikon is charging. Their 200-400 is about 6500 bucks. A solid little mint and no real savings over the Canon. I just checked the Sony 300 f2.8 and it is also about 6300 bucks.

So, it has prompted a few questions:

(1) Have Nikon lens prices also risen recently?
(2) What, outside of shear greed, could be accounting for the increase in price of these lenses?
(3) Does it make you re-assess your relationship with 3rd party lens manufacturers?
(4) Are you thinking about 'skipping out' on the upgrade for the lesser expensive older model?

Just some thoughts...

Cheers
James