The topic of prices and how MSRP and street prices begin to differ over time came up in a recent thread, so I did a brief survey of 12 new Canon lenses from the last 3 years or so. The date is of the press release, the price is from B&H.


I thought it was an interesting bit of trivia:


  • 2006-August: 50mm f/1.2: $1,600 -> $1,480 (8%)
  • 2006-August: 70-200 f/4 L IS:$1,250 -> $1,210 (3%)
  • 2007-February: 16-35 f/2.8 L II: $1,700 -> $1,520 (11%)
  • 2007-August: 14mm f/2.8 L II: $2,200 -> $2,120 (4%)
  • 2007-August: 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS: $300 -> $260 (13%)
  • 2008-January: 800mm f/5.6 L IS: $12,000 -> $10,900 (9%)
  • 2008-January: 200mm f/2 L IS: $6,000 -> $5,300 (12%)
  • 2008-August: 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS: $700 -> $600 (14%)
  • 2008-September: 24mm f/1.4 L II: $1,700 -> $1,700 (0%)
  • 2009-September: 100mm f/2.8 L IS Macro: $1,050 -> $950 (10%)
  • 2009-September: 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS: $500 -> $450 (10%)
  • 2009-September: 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS: $800 -> $720 (10%)



The average difference between MSRP and street is 8.7%.