Reichman on Canon's complacency and WA "problems"

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/tea-leaves.shtml

But this is now 2008, and there is a definite feeling out there that
Canon has not been as innovative recently as they have been in the
past. Many of its smaller competitors have introduced advances such as
in-body stabilization, providing shake reduction to all lenses. Sensor
shake for dust reduction was introduced by others first, as was Live
View. Articulated LCDs are finding their way into more and more DSLRs,
making Live View more usable for some, but this has not yet appeared
on any Canon DSLR.

But, lets not quibble over features. The point is that Canon is the
800 pound gorilla of the industry, and though they've done a lot of
innovation over the years, they have not, in my view, taken sufficient
advantage of their lead recently. This has left openings for other
companies to exploit, and they are now doing so.

An example of this is wide-angle lenses. It is no secret to anyone
that Canon's lens line-up, though very extensive, is not as strong as
it needs to be in the wide angle range, especially WA zooms. Full
frame high resolution sensors such as found in the 1Ds MKIII push
lenses very hard. Wide angles are harder to design than medium focal
length and long lenses, especially when used on DSLRs.

For this reason many demanding Canon users buy wide angle lenses from
Leica and Zeiss and use them with adaptors. This means no autofocus or
even autodiaphram, but for many critical users the superior image
quality of high-end lenses from these two companies makes the
compromise worthwhile.

Canon appears to be aware of this weak spot and has recently been
upgrading some of its WA lenses. But apparently not well enough, as
shown in this comparison of the Canon 16-35mm f2.8 L, Nikon 14-24mm
f2.8 G and Contax Vario Sonnar 17-35mm f2.8. Incidentally, I've been
shooting with the just-released Nikon 14-24mm and am astonished at its
image quality. This may well be the finest ultra-wide angle zoom ever
made; one that rivals most primes in its focal range.