The first day on the new summer season brought one of the two new Thai Cargo Boeing Triple Seven Freighters to Amsterdam. The aircraft are operated by Southern Air and this flight routed from Hong Kong via homebase Bangkok and Adana (Turkey) to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol with callsign SOO9801. Rumours are they intend to start regular operations into Amsterdam. We'll wait and see....

Good ol' 707 5N-ABK of Nigeria Airways parked on the B-ramp (at that time) at Amsterdam Schiphol where I photographed her nearly 26 years ago on March 15th, 1984 parked beside a Douglas DC-9 of KLM. The bird was only 11 years old, being delivered to Nigeria Airways in January 1973. Its end was a sad one as it crashed on take-off from Lagos, Nigeria on December 20th, 1994. I still do love smokey four-holers....

The first of a series of photos of slides from the old shoebox: Air Aruba Boeing 767-200 PH-AHM taken at Amsterdam on October 6th, 1991. The aircraft was leased from Britannia (G-BYAA) and was actually returned to Britannia after lease 4 days after this shot was taken. The aircraft is still with ThomsonFly, though reportedly stored since January 2009.

It looks Nikon isn't the only one getting greedy. Recently Nikon introduced a new 300 mm prime with a way-too-expensive price tag and now Canon does the same with their new EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II lens. The new one has a price tag of 2969 Euros compared to the “old” version of 1499 Euros. Has Canon gone mad?? What makes this lens so special that you have to pay twice (2x) as much. It looks like Canon and Nikon are getting greedy. It can only mean that a lot prosumers are forced to shift to other brands like Sigma.

Back to the lens itself: according to the Canon press release has some new or improved features:

• the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM features a re-designed optical system, consisting of 23 elements in 19 groups.

• A high-performance fluorite element is used at the heart of the lens path, coupled with five ultra-low dispersion (UD) elements, drastically reducing chromatic aberration throughout the zoom range.

• A high-speed Auto Focus (AF) system matches the abilities of the recently-launched EOS-1D Mark IV and EOS 7D Digital SLR (DSLR) cameras.

• The new model also features a ring-type USM AF motor, which combines with a new high-speed CPU and an optimised AF algorithm to make auto focusing both faster and quieter.

• A reduced minimum focusing distance of 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) and improved 0.21x magnification will allow photographers to get closer to subjects without needing to swap lenses.

• An updated Image Stabilizer mechanism also offers a shutter speed advantage equivalent to four-stops.

• Compatibility with a range of optional Canon accessories also allows users to pair the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM with the Lens Extender EF 1.4x II, Lens Extender EF 2x II, Extension Tube EF 12 II, Extension Tube EF 25 II, and 77mm filters.

To see the press release click here.