why are L lens white?


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pai

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a bit of a "duh" question, but i've been wondering about this for some time. canon L series is already marked with a red band around the lens, how come the longer ones are also white in colour? same thing with minolta G lenses, they all have the gold ring, but the newer long G lenses are white in colour...

is there any reason or history behind this? purely marketing gimmick?

maybe it's easier to show off a white lens. but why the long ones only?

i personally prefer black... not so attention grabbing...

how? anyone know why? :think:
 

Read this somewhere...

Cos the fluorite lens elements used for Canon L lenses are prone to distortion when overheated... thus the lenses are painted white to minimise the risk.

Of course, there's always the marketing factor. ;p
 

White is generally to keep the lens cool under sunlight as black absorbs heat when under the sun.
 

Snoweagle said:
White is generally to keep the lens cool under sunlight as black absorbs heat when under the sun.
Yes.. Fluorite elements cannot take mechanical shock. It will fracture. IIRC, longer lenses usually have metal barrel to take the weight, but the expansion/contraction coefficient due to temperature is greater, so if the lenses are black, they will absorb a lot of heat and expand and this may impose mechanical stress on the fluorite elements.

There was some discussion on this in this thread. http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=183622
See post no 44 onwards and filter out the OTs yourself. :)
 

wah... so if gaffer the white lens black, will make it prone to overheat... crack... explode... kaboom? :sweat: some more add one layer of insulation...
 

DeSwitch said:
not all L lenses are white. there are a few Black L lenses.
thanks, i know... my first post asked why is it that only most of the longer L lenses are white mah. :angel:
 

pai said:
wah... so if gaffer the white lens black, will make it prone to overheat... crack... explode... kaboom? :sweat: some more add one layer of insulation...
Won't kaboom lah.. but under the sun for a while see if there are any elements left.. Anyone wants to sponsor an L lens for this experiment? ;)
 

It seems that nikon long lenses are usually black as well. Though I saw white ones on the web but never see in reality. Nikon uses ED elements, so is that the reason they can survive higer tempertures better? Also, for eg, the 70-200 f2.8 and the IS version has no flourite elements, but it is still white. Will it matter if it is black?

That brings me to another question. Which type of elements are better in correcting optical errors. UD, Super UD, Flourite, ED or aspherical?
 

why so boring? can't we have pink, green, blue, yellow, red, purple lenses? :sticktong
 

Paul_Yeo said:
why so boring? can't we have pink, green, blue, yellow, red, purple lenses? :sticktong

Ha ha.. Think if there are diff colours it will be like our compact P&S, choose ur own colour. Who know if next time lenses become more of a fashion icon. Nikon and canon launches the "X-press" interchangable lens barrels. Or maybe those shops do heat wraps for ur lenses jus like what they doing for handphones now. ;p
 

may be they should start those silicon protector thingy with colour (like the one on handphone) on the lens to prevent knock or drop :think:
 

sweat100 said:
It seems that nikon long lenses are usually black as well. Though I saw white ones on the web but never see in reality. Nikon uses ED elements, so is that the reason they can survive higer tempertures better? Also, for eg, the 70-200 f2.8 and the IS version has no flourite elements, but it is still white. Will it matter if it is black?

That brings me to another question. Which type of elements are better in correcting optical errors. UD, Super UD, Flourite, ED or aspherical?
UD, Super UD, ED, Fluorite and APO are meant to correct chromatic aberration due to colour dispersion. Aspherical is used to correct spherical aberration and coma.

If not fluorite then the colour is probably cosmetic. There are some also painted camouflage colour.
 

zcf said:
may be they should start those silicon protector thingy with colour (like the one on handphone) on the lens to prevent knock or drop :think:

Yah, then all will have L lens :bigeyes: :bigeyes:
 

zcf said:
may be they should start those silicon protector thingy with colour (like the one on handphone) on the lens to prevent knock or drop :think:
Good idea!
 

Its more of a Marketing gimmick in my opinion, because really.... they want people to think owning a "white" lens looks pro.. because pro use them...

When people start photography, white lens was the lens that most people aiming to get, because they "think" it will give them better photos... Well, that is the marketing message from most (if not all) camera manufacturer anyway?

Hence in return meaning better sales...

I once told by my mentor, he said, in the beginning of the career, sometime it is better to look good first... that means building people's confident with you before even taking photos.. but then you also need good image to back it up.

But of course, white or black or any colour lens, it is just another piece of gear.

Hart
ps. Seen C**** advertising some time ago? "If its white, its Canon"
 

i bet those guys from canon looked at each other and figured out that white coloured lenses just look pretty damn cool..heh..
 

I find that those wide-angle and standard zoom lens (short zooms) are black in colour. Don't they have fluorite elements too? I know that those such as 70-200 models and long telephotos are all white, but being an L lens, they should all have fluorite elements which give the 'L' insignia.
 

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