So, it seems that the rumor grapevine from Sony’s and Canon’s marketing departments are both signalling something interesting…
It seems both Sony and Canon are working on a 200 – 600mm telephoto zoom lens. Canon is planning to have it be a non L lens, price competitive with Tamron’s and Sigma’s 150 – 600mm lens offerings while Sony hasn’t signaled what quality level they’re going to market their lens as. Both lenses are planned for 2018.
I imagine Sony’s will not be price competitive and will be marketed as a G lens… probably the most expensive G lens in the line ( ~ $2000). Sony charges a significant premium for their lenses regardless of competitor’s offerings.
Which is very frustrating… since that means the small fortunes that sports and wildlife photographers pay for Canon telephoto lenses will be nothing compared to the cost of buying Sony’s equivalent lenses.
I mean for God’s sake, Sony is also planning to sell a 400mm f/2.8… The Canon version costs $10,000. What’s Sony going to do!? Charge $14,000????
Because that’s the current price premium Sony demands for its 70 – 200mm f/2.8 compared to Canon’s equivalent lens… 37%. (Canon’s $1900 – Sony’s $2600)
Apply that same math to Canon and Sony’s future 200 – 600mm lenses…
Canon’s 200 – 600mm lens priced at $1500… which makes it competitive with Sigma and Tamron but still signals that Canon is of a higher quality…
That would make Sony’s 200 – 600mm G lens retail at $2000+.
I get the feeling that we are now entering into some extremely unfortunate pricing territory… Sony may very well destroy all of the traction they gained recently by pricing their telephoto offerings at insane levels.
So we have that to look forward to next year.
Yay.