The stars were apparently aligned yesterday as, for once, a lens migration worked out as i was envisioning. I had been looking at lenses to rent for an upcoming long weekend on the coast of Maine and, as usual, I have in the back of my mind that I would consider purchasing the rental lens. One of the weak points of my current lens inventory is the ultra wide category. My 17-40mm lens is an older design with some shortcomings and lacks image stabilization.

I have tried to sell this lens on a couple of occasions over the past couple of years without any success. A $200 Canon instant rebate for this lens expired on Sunday and so, as of yesterday, it cost $200 more to buy new. I decided to put up a new Craigslist ad and within a few hours had someone interested. So, with the proceeds of that sale I headed down to Best Buy who had a single copy of the EF 16-35mm f/4L IS lens in stock, with a $100 instant rebate still in effect. The lens is back ordered on Canon's own US online store.

The only nagging situation is that this lens is an EF lens and needs the EF to RF converter to work with my EOS RP bodies. But, the equivalent RF lens, the 15-35mm f/2.8L IS lens costs $2,300. That's not going to happen.

I luckily had a window of clouds and sun rather than complete overcast to test out the lens and headed over to lock E5 in the late morning. Luckily, there was a pleasure craft locking through the Waterford Flight of Locks up to the Mohawk River to provide some added interest.

Here are some samples, all five file HDR composites.