Lens drooling day at my local camera shop :)

[Manfr3d]

My local photo shop invited everyone to their annual
Canon day to checkout (=drool over) all Canon lenses from 14
to 800mm and all Cameras and accessories.

I'm planning to try the 85mm/1.2 II and 200mm/2.8 L II.
Which lenses would you checkout? Recommendations? My
girlfriend advised me to not try lenses out of my budget.
She probably fears that I'll be talking about them for
the rest of the year :)

[Rocketman766]

I'm jealous...our local shop specializes in Nikon and can "order" Canon gear, but rarely has any on the shelf.

[Manfr3d]

Mission accomplished. My subjective conclusions are:

Loves: Canon 135mm/2.0 L (size, weight, reach, optics), Canon 400mm/5.6 L (handling, weight, reach, optics)
Likes: Canon 100mm/2.8 Macro, Canon 17-40mm/4.0 L, Canon 70-200mm/4.0 L IS (weight, optics, flexibility)
Not for me: Canon 16-35mm/2.8 L II (heavy, 17-40 seems a better deal), Canon 24-105mm/4.0 L IS (not my style, I'd prefer a 17-40mm + short tele), Canon 200mm/2.8 L II (too long and too short)
Dislikes: Canon 14mm/2.8 L II, Canon 85mm/1.2 L II, Canon 24-70mm/2.8 L, (all of them were way too heavy for me)

I'm glad I had the opportunity to checkout all that glass for free,
that saved me numerous buy-, try- and sell-a-lens cycles. I would
recommend anyone to attend a Canon roadshow if you are planning
your kit. (The guys are nice and friendly too btw.) :D

[Shizam]

Dang too late,
I was going to say try all the TS-E lenses as they're quite the experience.

Sam

[Manfr3d]

hehe, true that :D

[bhowdy]

It really would not be a good thing for me to walk into a camera shop that had Canon gear on the shelves and available to test! :barb

[catspaw]

wait. this isn't normal? I can go into my local camera store and try anything they have in stock, which is just about everything except the really rare (uncommon or sell out fast) lenses.

[Manfr3d]

I think they will be thrilled to unpack every lens for you, especially if you don't intend to buy anything :D

[catspaw]

I think they will be thrilled to unpack every lens for you, especially if you don't intend to buy anything :D

they have at least half the lenses on display and I've played with several of them -- and bought some. but they didn't know that when I walked in before my first purchase and played with a Nikkor 60mm micro. Even let me put it on my camera or any of their cameras. Awesome folks.

When I wanted to see a G10 up close, they opened up a box for me since they didnt' have a display one and let me play with it a while even though I ended up not buying it from them.

I'm just so so so much more appreciative of the store now!