Barrel color

I was out this weekend taking some pictures in the Long Beach Harbor and decided to see how much difference there really was in the white L barrel color vs a black barrel. All I can say is wow. I didn't have any way to measure the thermal difference, but it was very significant. The white was very nice (almost cool) whereas the black barreled lens was hot to the touch. I'd like to see some technical data on the effect of the color if anyone has any. Has anyone done any testing to see the affects this had on the image?

The one thing that I also noticed was that the camera body gets a bit warm. Given all the sensitive electronics we are now toting around, I am curious how long before we have an off-white camera body.

They do have silver/chrome bodies

Never thought of the white lens being cooler but of course the difference must be huge. Black sucks up heat like nobodies business!

Canon, I hope.

A lot of heat must be generated by the camera innards, so it's heat dispersion/cooling that we need: a little compartment where we can put a lump of ice.

Regards,

Yes, Canon did. That's the reason they came out with the white colored lens barrels in the first place! I doubt they did it to make the long "L" lens users stand out in the crowd although I'm sure they didn't mind that side benefit for advertising purposes.

Sorry for the confusion, but I was looking to see if any of YOU have done any testing to see the affects of heat on your optics. Obviously Canon has done some, but I would like to see some independent analysis if anyone has it.


Thanks.

The only comparative testing I have done is put my finger on the black lens barrels versus white lens barrels, white cooler. However, I do blame the heat for the problems I had with my 28-135 IS as it looked like one of the optics went out of adjustment due to the heat. I used it frequently outdoors a lot as my primary lens and it would get very hot to the touch at the beach after awhile. Although my 75-300 IS also gets hot, I don't use it as often and have not yet seen any problems with it caused by heat (that I have noticed)

I have noticed that if I am out in the sun long enough even my 100-400 IS will get warm to the touch.

I can't see how short of destroying the lens you can figure out the effect on the optics caused by the heat, since the primary effect would be the glass distorting, which is something you would not want to actual happen.

You could take temperature reading off the surface and then do an engineering model to figure out the likely results, but in my mind it is easier to just buy the white lenses when they have them.

Just my opinion and experience,

Will the results of "independent heat testing" influence your buying of a particular lens?

Without considering "heat" do you see the qualty difference in "L" glass vs NON images.?

If not don't worry about it? If you do, then you'll buy "L" anyway.

In the end the worst thing that will happen is you own "L" glass, that "may" hold it's performance spec's longer as the temperature is going up!!!

I'm curious if the have "L" batteries, hopefully in white.