Gold Stripe

Just a curious question about stripes???

I know that the Canon professional grade L series lenses come with a red stripe, but I have a Canon EF20-35 f3.5-4.5 with a gold dotted stripe. What if anything does this stripe mean???

I don't know but it might indicate a USM focusing drive. That's the only similarity I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure someone will prove me wrong. I can't wait.

The gold stripe in on canon lenses which have USM focus....well except for L glass which has USM...

Wow! I was right for once.

My 17/40 has USM and a red stripe. Now we are really in trouble.

Could it possibly be that there are 2 types of USM?

Perhaps a ring type USM and a conventional USM geared motor? Known as type I and type II ?

Oh Lord it never ends !

The gold stripe is on the mid-range consumer lenses, such as the 17-85IS, the new 70-300IS, the 28-105, etc.
The cheapies have a silver stripe (although I think some of the cheapies may have no stripe at all).

Jack

If the stripe was red, it'd be either the 17-40/4.0L (700$) or the 16-35/2.8L (1200$).

Best regards,
Andy

Gold stripe - USM
Red stripe - L series
Green stripe - DO

If a lens is both USM and L series only the red stripe is displayed as this is deemed to be more important. Also some lenses have USM but no gold stripe.

Fixed!

Ok,

Here’s what I know so far, I have Silver, Gold and Red stripped lenses, all have USM…

Red Strips have Canon’s UD glass
Green Strips have Diffractive Optics elements
Gold Strips??? EF-S10-22 has UD Glass? EF20-35 no UD Glass?

It looks like were making this more complicated than it really has to be;


Gold Stripe = Ring type USM nothing more nothing less,..

Red Sripes = "L" series,.
All "L" have USM anyway,. so they don't have a gold stripe as well.

Green stripe = "DO" or difractive optics.
All DO lenses have USM so they don't need another stripe either.

Other than green - DO optics,. the type of glass does not enter into it except by coincidence ( Red = "L" --- L = Canon's best so invariably it includes high end glass such as UD or Fluorite or both. Most Fluorite equipped lenses are white, but not all white lenses have fluorite.. etc.. )

Good answer, curiosity satisfied…

Thanks

Hahaha I like the silver = Don't the very cheapest of the USM lenses don't have the gold ring as noted above, but they do have a gold Ultrasonic word on the barrel.

L with ultrasonic has a red Ultrasonic word on the lens somewhere. No gold ring.

Gold ring can be EITHER micro-USM or full ring USM. Ring USM has the distance scale and full time manual (FTM). My 70-300 IS (non-DO) has a gold ring but I know for sure it is micro-USM. The 70-300 DO has a green ring only. Did not see what color the Ultrasonic word is. Exception to all of the above is 50 f/1.4, which is micro USM, but has distance scale and FTM.

UD glass is now used in many others and is not only limited to L lenses. 10-22 - good example as mentioned above. In fact the 70-300 IS has one UD element too.

Flourite is still limited to L lenses. AFAIK, white-colored L lenses. White means it MAY use flourite, but there are some white ones without flourite. However, flourite means white with red ring. (logical, yes, but a bit confusing)

Or if you're lucky and open the right box of Cracker Jack, you might get the very rare
purple-stripe lens from Canon (has USM and can only take pics of the purple one himself.....Prince!!). Check it out........just got mine!!

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Well my undies got a stripe too! Are they USM? usm=ugly skid mark?