Why has Canon Abandoned F/2.8?

ppires85 wrote:

bigfatron wrote:

ppires85 wrote:

bigfatron wrote:

DavidNJ100 wrote:

Jonathan Brady wrote:

Look how big that front element is... now imagine it needs to let in another stop of light...

That is an exposed aspherical element, they all look like that as do fisheyes. Wide angles usually have the largest front elements. The exception is large aperture long telephotos.

There are lots of places where the subject is very close or very wide and the widest wide angle never seems like enough. This can include indoor shots to city streets.

I own the closest equivalent Sigma lens to this (the 12-24 II) and that is big and weighs a ton and is actually slower than the one above (f4.5-f5.6). Believe me, if you wanted that as an f2.8 you'd have to want it VERY bad.

Where is Sigma 12-24 big?

Its a fairly substantial lens (slightly heavier than the 16-35 f2.8L) and the heaviest non-telephoto I've owned. A faster version would probably be around a kilo I reckon. I like it a lot but its a lens you think about whether it goes in the bag or not before you lug it around all day.

Well, I never had the 16-35 for enough time to notice its weight. My concept of being heavy is the 70-200 2.8 L non-IS (couldn't feel the IS version yet). The feeling I had was that 12-24mm from sigma was almost same size and weight (actually lighter) compared to 24-105mm from Canon. Well... Truth be told that I'm talking about the sigma's first version. Lately they have been doing some heavy lenses.

edit: just saw that the 1st version is actually heavier (1.4 pounds) compared to the new one (1.2 pounds). The kit lens 24-195 is 1.5 pounds. 70-200 non-IS 2.8 is 2.9 pounds :00000000 , I considered that a behemoth for walking around.

I obviously should clarify what I was meaning. Yes, as a single lens its not a neck breaker like some telephotos but its nevertheless substantial. And a bag full of lenses at that weight per lens stacks up. Plus it occupies a reasonable amount of physical space.  And a similar lens in f2.8 guise is probably going to weigh a kilo or more (2.2 pounds in old money).