Paint it Black

No I am not talking about the silver 300d/Drebel, I am wheeling and dealing on a 20D at the moment, and was in a local store (not the one with the 18-55USM, haven't visited them yet), he had recently sold a 300mm F2.8 L lens, the guy had brough it back in with him to get some other gear, he had painted it black!

Apparently it was to conspicuous in white!

they are white for a reason... and a good one at that

What's the reason? I don't like them in white either, makes on a bigger target for a mugger.

They are white for heat dissapation in the sun. Black
gets hotter and could affect the lense if out in the sun
for a long time. This is especially a factor on long lenses,
that's why you see the sports photogs with the longer focal
length with white Canon lenses (and chimping WAY TOO MUCH ;-0


Who knows......

Rod

Heat also causes more noise in the digital world. Thats why if you shoot on a really cold day, you might get noticeably less noise.

Not sure if Canon had this in mind since white lenses have been around for a long time. But anyway, what idiot would paint a 300mm 2.8 L lens?

This seems like a better options than black to me:

While I'm a newbie to this, I've done my homework. The white design is for heat. Painting it black most likely looks nice, warranty is most definitely gone.

Sorry I didn't bookmark where I read it, but I did look into why all the Luxury "Canon" lenes are white. I did find more than one or two sites saying this.

I'd suspect Canon does it for the following reasons ...

... heat dissipation (30 %)
... marketing (70 %)

But I might be wrong on that one...

Best regards,
Andy

Wouldn't you just WANT a mugger to have a go while you are carrying that!?
One good swing and you'd plaster him to the sidewalk

Bring it on dudes!!

From what I understand (which admittedly might not be much) it is as much marketing as it is for heat.

Nikon's large lenses are black and I haven't heard/read any major concerns with heat in regards to them, so I'm not sure heat is such an issue.

But a friend remarked about how you can always tell Canon lenses at any event, just look at the white ones.

I bet marketing is the real reason but to justify it they brought up the heat issue.