# Canon Lens Price Increases



## Canon Rumors Guy (Jul 15, 2011)

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<p><strong>…and they aren’t even out yet (other than the 800).

</strong>Canon has announced price increases for the following lenses. Effective July 25, 2011.</p>
<ul>
<li>EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens $1499.00</li>
<li>EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens $7299.00</li>
<li>EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens $11.499.00</li>
<li>EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens $10.499.00</li>
<li>EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens $12.999.00</li>
<li>EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM lens $13.999.00</li>
</ul>
<p>This is probably a good sign we’re going to see the lenses shipping soon.</p>
<p><em>thanks Larry</em></p>
<p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">c</span>rÃ‚Â </strong></p>
```


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## neuroanatomist (Jul 15, 2011)

Looks like B&H and Adorama have already applied the new pricing to the preorders. For anyone seriously considering one of the superteles, Amazon will still let you preorder it for the old prices, e.g. $1000 less for the 500mm f/4L IS II. If you preorder that lens now, and receive it in December, locking up that $9500 compared to the new $10.5K price means a 10.5% ROI and a 25% annualized ROI - try earning that on another investment...


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## dstppy (Jul 15, 2011)

neuroanatomist said:


> Looks like B&H and Adorama have already applied the new pricing to the preorders. For anyone seriously considering one of the superteles, Amazon will still let you preorder it for the old prices, e.g. $1000 less for the 500mm f/4L IS II. If you preorder that lens now, and receive it in December, locking up that $9500 compared to the new $10.5K price means a 10.5% ROI and a 25% annualized ROI - try earning that on another investment...



No-credit intro cards are 24.99% . . . so I'm going to go with "what is paying off any existing balances first, Alex?"  Yes, yes, anyone spending this kind of bread on a lens shouldn't be carrying a balance. 

Good point though, neuro.

EF 8-15mm f/4L finally seeing the light of day? Anyone know the zipcode for hell? I want to check the weather forecast


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## 1982chris911 (Jul 15, 2011)

Anyone knows if those are only US $ related increases or are they applied worldwide ?


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## Stuart (Jul 15, 2011)

A lens or a small family car ? Gosh there must be a good margin in there somewhere.


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## c-law (Jul 15, 2011)

dstppy said:


> EF 8-15mm f/4L finally seeing the light of day? Anyone know the zipcode for hell? I want to check the weather forecast


48169 should do the trick.

Chris


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## TexPhoto (Jul 15, 2011)

I now feel like a genius for buying a used 400mm f2.8 IS 2 years ago. It's worth about 2K more than I paid. If canon keeps jacking up the price of the VII models the used one s will only go up.  But I want a 600 and a 200  .....


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jul 15, 2011)

neuroanatomist said:


> Looks like B&H and Adorama have already applied the new pricing to the preorders. For anyone seriously considering one of the superteles, Amazon will still let you preorder it for the old prices, e.g. $1000 less for the 500mm f/4L IS II. If you preorder that lens now, and receive it in December, locking up that $9500 compared to the new $10.5K price means a 10.5% ROI and a 25% annualized ROI - try earning that on another investment...




I'm wondering about your statement. Does amazon really say this?

I've found that Amazon does not lock in prices. They have cancelled my pre-orders in the past when prices increased, so that after waiting in line for a new camera for months, I had to re-order and go to the back of the line. Naturally, I did not, I went to Adorama instead for the re-order.

amazon does not seem to do this right away, so they may cancel your orders anytime, right up to the day before processing your order.


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## UncleFester (Jul 15, 2011)

Stuart said:


> A lens or a small family car ? Gosh there must be a good margin in there somewhere.



You know, that's a really good question. I guess if I were looking for a new car priced at around $27,000, I could get a descent used version/several years older in good shape for around 13-14,000 and put the savings on a lens.

Or. I don't like the idea at all of $500/mo car payment in a rickity economy, but would have no problem saving up for a super tele.

To each his own but I think the better value is in the lens over the car.


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## kubelik (Jul 16, 2011)

I wish I could do lens payments just like car payments. I'd be seeing a 400 f/2.8 II on my doorstep. As it stands, I'm thinking maybe ... next decade?


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## distant.star (Jul 16, 2011)

Hey, that's Hell, MI. Interesting place. I know a guy who grew up there.





c-law said:


> dstppy said:
> 
> 
> > EF 8-15mm f/4L finally seeing the light of day? Anyone know the zipcode for hell? I want to check the weather forecast
> ...


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## dr croubie (Jul 16, 2011)

dstppy said:


> Anyone know the zipcode for hell? I want to check the weather forecast



7517, Norway

my ex-local dutch shop looks like they've passed the price-rise on already. doesn't make much difference, cos nothing's in stock anyway. 300 2.8 v1 was already â‚¬4500 a few weeks ago when i looked, 300 2.8 v2 is now â‚¬6500, 400 2.8 v2 is â‚¬10, 000, 600 f4 v2 isâ‚¬11500, and 800 f5.6 is â‚¬75 more (and in stock). 600 f4 v1 is in stock for â‚¬8200, think that's about the same as before.
and they're listing the fisheye zoom as â‚¬1500, not sure if that's higher than before.

ouch.

i'd sell my house and car for one, but don't have either to sell...


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## dnhjr (Jul 16, 2011)

Canon can keep those prices. I'm happy with my good old $1200 400/5.6L.


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## NXT1000 (Jul 17, 2011)

just that japanese yen gone up and us dollar gone down. 

i want to buy canon super tele prime, but i cannot take the weight of those lens.


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## macgregor mathers (Jul 17, 2011)

A couple of years ago a local shop listed an EF 800mm, and whomever typed the price dropped one of the digits. Local law at the time was that companies had to sell products for whatever price they've advertised it, so I could have bought the lens for roughly 10% is price.

Damn, maybe I should have used the opportunity, rather than send a warning by email. They didn't even say thanks ...

[Since than local law was changed, saying if it's clear the price is in error, e.g. as in that case, the seller isn't obligated to honour the advertised price.]


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## Flake (Jul 17, 2011)

This is just typical Japanese business practice! The cost of development or getting manufacturing right has risen, so they're going to pass those costs on to the end customer, not for them a reduced profit margin, they're so blinkered & greedy, & have such little respect for their customers that it's passed on.

Well I won't be buying any of them at these prices, and if they think that this will assist them in their competetiveness with Nikon they've got another thing comming! The new lenses are almost double the street price of the old ones, and 50% dearer than the Nikon equivalents, at this level that's a lot of money, enough to buy a body. If I were a user of this type of lens then I'd be switcing away from a company which shows me no respect and doesn't really care whether I stay with them or not.


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## Edwin Herdman (Jul 17, 2011)

Flake said:


> This is just typical Japanese business practice! The cost of development or getting manufacturing right has risen, so they're going to pass those costs on to the end customer, not for them a reduced profit margin, they're so blinkered & greedy, & have such little respect for their customers that it's passed on.


You may want to turn that mirror around...this little rant comes off, unintentionally perhaps, as being borderline racist. Really, you wouldn't expect an American company, for example, to raise prices if there was a massive earthquake and manufacturing cost increases on top of that (personally I wouldn't know)? :

And Sigma's price on one of their new lenses puts the lie to "typical Japanese" even further.

Please think before you type...or don't bother.


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## Flake (Jul 17, 2011)

Racism is word that now means someone who dissagrees with a socialist, it lost its real meaning long ago when left whingers inserted it into every debate they thought they were in danger of losing! As you say don't bother to type, because you cannot stand people to have an opinion different to your own. It's the socialists who are the real haters & the enemies of freedom & freedom of speech!

Having worked for a Japanese company I know a little about the business model, and it's not always pretty. I do not accept that this has anything to do with the earthquake, it's to do with problems on the manufacturing line being passed to the customer, many other companies would have absorbed that cost.


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## Hesbehindyou (Jul 17, 2011)

Flake said:


> This is just typical Japanese business practice! The cost of development or getting manufacturing right has risen, so they're going to pass those costs on to the end customer, not for them a reduced profit margin, they're so blinkered & greedy, & have such little respect for their customers that it's passed on.
> 
> Well I won't be buying any of them at these prices ... *If I were a user of this type of lens then I'd be switcing away* from a company which shows me no respect and doesn't really care whether I stay with them or not.



You seem to be taking this personally, yet were never going to use nor buy these lenses anyway. Why so outraged? Changing prices to reflect changing costs is a pretty common business practice over much all of the world, not just Japan.


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## 1982chris911 (Jul 17, 2011)

Flake said:


> This is just typical Japanese business practice! The cost of development or getting manufacturing right has risen, so they're going to pass those costs on to the end customer, not for them a reduced profit margin, they're so blinkered & greedy, & have such little respect for their customers that it's passed on.
> 
> Well I won't be buying any of them at these prices, and if they think that this will assist them in their competetiveness with Nikon they've got another thing comming! The new lenses are almost double the street price of the old ones, and 50% dearer than the Nikon equivalents, at this level that's a lot of money, enough to buy a body. If I were a user of this type of lens then I'd be switcing away from a company which shows me no respect and doesn't really care whether I stay with them or not.



Was just thinking about certain US and European defense contractors in regards to businesses with their own governments ... Lockheed Martin F 35 lightning or Airbus A400M anyone ;-) ...


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## click (Jul 17, 2011)

I've been pretty tolerant of high prices from Canon. But, my threshold has been breached. $13,000.00 for a 600mm lens? Do they really expect to sell them for that? On general principles, I expect those who can afford it will wait until it falls to $11,000 or so. Even then, it's super high priced. I suspect this could be a ploy to empty the coffers of the old designs.


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## 1982chris911 (Jul 17, 2011)

click said:


> I've been pretty tolerant of high prices from Canon. But, my threshold has been breached. $13,000.00 for a 600mm lens? Do they really expect to sell them for that? On general principles, I expect those who can afford it will wait until it falls to $11,000 or so. Even then, it's super high priced. I suspect this could be a ploy to empty the coffers of the old designs.



Well I am quite sure that we will see lower street prices after the Olympic Games in London ... but good timing for Canon to let all the Press Agencies/ Pros upgrade their equipment before ... I guess that the 200-400 f/4.0 TC 1.4 will also be available quite some time before ...


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## Edwin Herdman (Jul 18, 2011)

Flake said:


> Racism is word that now means someone who dissagrees with a socialist, it lost its real meaning long ago when left whingers inserted it into every debate they thought they were in danger of losing! As you say don't bother to type, because you cannot stand people to have an opinion different to your own. It's the socialists who are the real haters & the enemies of freedom & freedom of speech!
> 
> Having worked for a Japanese company I know a little about the business model, and it's not always pretty. I do not accept that this has anything to do with the earthquake, it's to do with problems on the manufacturing line being passed to the customer, many other companies would have absorbed that cost.


What the hell does this have to do with socialism? If anybody's anti-business in this thread, it's you. You seem to have an irrational hatred for companies selling products at a price they can actually make money at. It's like crazy people protesting against Target because their mispriced $70 iPad purchases were refunded.

It also seems that I should not have bothered putting in the words "unintentionally" and "borderline" because you're getting more and more racist by the second. "I worked with lots of black people and came to know their inferior ways..." is essentially what you're saying.

I don't really care what you think, Flake, about Canon revising their lens prices upwards, and neither does anybody else.

This may have just been the result of the fluctuating exchange rate. Near the end of March, the dollar to yen ratio spiked at around 85 yen to the dollar, and now it's back down around 79. But my guess is as good as anybody's; we don't have any insider information at the moment. I haven't found an official press release about the lens price increases, and the only source I know of is on the Canon Rumors page.

The January price spike was announced by Canon USA as being put into place by them. All those terrible Japanese people working at Canon USA!

What matters here is that the lenses are going to become more expensive, and how that impacts buyers matters. It may make people shy away from these lenses, and I wouldn't blame them since they were expensive to begin with. But on the other hand it's not clear to me how big these increases are, since I don't have the old figures to compare these with. The 8-15mm fisheye zoom price, for example, looks pretty much like I remember it having looked.


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## ronderick (Jul 18, 2011)

Reading the news about lens price increase is not a good thing for Monday morning.... :'(

Well, before we go any further, it would be nice to see actual results from these lenses at the hands of pros to see whether if it's worth the increase (for anyone who's considering of buying it).

However, I'd be more worried about the impact on prices for current used MK-1 version of these superteles...


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## distant.star (Jul 18, 2011)

Please, Edwin, do not speak for me.

I do care what Flake thinks.




Edwin Herdman said:


> I don't really care what you think, Flake, about Canon revising their lens prices upwards, and neither does anybody else.


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## UncleFester (Jul 18, 2011)

Flake said:


> This is just typical Japanese business practice! The cost of development or getting manufacturing right has risen, so they're going to pass those costs on to the end customer, not for them a reduced profit margin, they're so blinkered & greedy, & have such little respect for their customers that it's passed on.
> 
> Well I won't be buying any of them at these prices, and if they think that this will assist them in their competetiveness with Nikon they've got another thing comming! The new lenses are almost double the street price of the old ones, and 50% dearer than the Nikon equivalents, at this level that's a lot of money, enough to buy a body. If I were a user of this type of lens then I'd be switcing away from a company which shows me no respect and doesn't really care whether I stay with them or not.



I don't know a lot about Japanese business practice, but I wonder what effect the increase will have on current line-up. They should hold their value better and probably won't see them go for cheap on CL - the ol' "used-IS I-telephotos-not-a -bargain,-may-as-well-by-new-from-Canon".


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## celliottuk (Jul 18, 2011)

Pricing is an art. Part of that art is to push prices up to the point that the consumer won't buy in sufficient quantities to hit internal sales goals, so, if these prices are too high, Canon will reduce them.


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## fman (Jul 18, 2011)

Those who make business using these lens need to recalculate now if it still worth the price. There is no point of going emotional here. Who were planning to by these lens for fun can be easily scared away, especially considering the possible price drop after the Olympic games.

Price is mostly indicating some kind of supply-demand balance.
As demand of these lenses is unlikely to see an unpredictable huge increase, this is an admission from Canon that they expect (at least an initial) supply shortage of these lens. 

This is bad news when thinking about long rumored lenses. If Canon is expecting a supply shortage in flagship products, will they risk announcing/introducing something that they may not be able to supply just as it's happening now? Non-flagship products are quicker to see a competition...


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jul 18, 2011)

fman said:


> Those who make business using these lens need to recalculate now if it still worth the price. There is no point of going emotional here. Who were planning to by these lens for fun can be easily scared away, especially considering the possible price drop after the Olympic games.
> 
> Price is mostly indicating some kind of supply-demand balance.
> As demand of these lenses is unlikely to see an unpredictable huge increase, this is an admission from Canon that they expect (at least an initial) supply shortage of these lens.
> ...



Certainly Canon wants them on the market before the olympics, but they will be handing out loaners at the Olympics as well. The PJ organizations who buy large lots of lenses every year do not pay the same price as a individual does.


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## TexPhoto (Jul 18, 2011)

Oh dear god people.  It's a business, they can set prices where they want. Buy or don't. Ferraris are expensive, that does not make Italians racist, or require tolerance on anyone's part.


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