It looks like upgrades are coming to Canon’s 70-200mm lens lineup. A new report states that Canon will be announcing not one, but two new 70-200mm lenses next month.
Canon Rumors is hearing that the official unveiling will be in early June and that one of the lenses is 100% going to be a new 70-200mm f/4L IS II. The lens will be a followup to the original 70-200mm f/4L IS that was released in November 2006 (so it’s had a nice 12-year run).
The second lens is “95%” going to be a top-of-the-line 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III, replacing the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II that was announced 8 years ago in April 2010.
“All of the tips we’ve seen point to this lens coming, but we haven’t actually seen the ‘f/2.8L IS III’ in writing,” Canon Rumors says.
Canon’s 70-200mm roster consists of four lenses: the $650 f/4, $1,200 f/4 IS, $1,350 f/2.8, and $2,100 f/2.8 IS. It looks like Canon will be focusing on keeping the image stabilized models fresh while letting the non-IS f/4 and f/2.8, released in 1999 and 1995, respectively, age a little longer.
No word yet on what the new lenses will cost or when they’ll begin hitting store shelves. As long as Canon sticks to its planned announcement date, we should be hearing official details within a few weeks.
