L lens of Canon : What is L Lens and Why it Costs So High

L lens of Canon is the most feature rich aspherical Lens for DSLRs. Cost of a L lens is few times higher than its normal EF Lens counterpart. The most asked question is why Canon L Lens is named as L Lens. Canon Europe says L stands for Luxury, before that statement in a pdf file (and still now) many professional believes that L is for Aspherical Lens, that is universally present in Canon L Lens series.

Usual Characteristics of a Canon L Lens

L Lens is NOT a standard word associated with Digital Photography, it is Canon specific. Quite obviously, the characteristics varies. For example, we have stated that L Lens is for DSLRs, but there is Compact Digital Camera from Canon, that has fixed L Lens. Still, there are some typical features present in L Lens :

• Along with aspecrical optic components, one fluorite or ultra low dispersion glass element is present.
• Front does not rotate – this is to make the usage of special effect filters more effective.
• USM is of finer quality.
• Usually the size and weight is higher than EF counterpart.
• Usually the body of longer ranges is a combination of Metallic White and Black with a red ring around the front part of the lens.

Usage of Canon L Lens

Due to the high price of Canon L Lens, its usage is usually limited to professional photographers and Photo Journalists. L Lens are available as wide variety as of EF series, although not all EF has the L counterpart. Canon L Lens has the Prime Lens, Zoom Lens, Telephoto, Tilt Shift, Wide Angle and Macro series.

The highest publicly available L Lens is of 800 mm Focal length, that costs US$11,999.00. 1200 mm lens?has been discontinued and was of special order only with a price tag US$89,579. A standard 24-70 mm L lens costs US$1349.00.