billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

This has been thrown around more than the Kennedy assassination.
My feeling is Canon feels that white repels sunlight better than black and keeps the internal part of the lens cooler than if it were painted black.
I have all long black lenses and my lenses function fine out in the sun of Florida.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Really...have other manufacturers found the secret to thermal absorption that Canon missed?

DaveC Loc: Illinois

I had read that the type of glass used in some of their lenses way back would actually crack due to thermal expansion of the surrounding metals. The white eliminated the problem. I also have read that the reason NASA picked Nikon was partly for that and partly because Canon glass tended to crack under the rapid acceleration of launch.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

I don't know but every time I hold one of those White Lenses my knees shake and my credit cards catch fire.....$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Heat reflection...

Black absorbs light, transforming it to heat. Heat expands glass, messing with the optical performance.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I’ve always heard Nikon uses different glass. Canon glass expands more, so they need white barrels to reflect energy.

https://petapixel.com/2016/02/19/canon-lenses-white-instead-black/

imagesintime Loc: small town, mid-America

I suggest that all the wild guessers here google "Canon fluorite lenses". Other manufacturers that use fluorite crystals in their lenses also paint those lenses a light color.

BebuLamar

You need to match the color.

EdR Loc: Gig Harbor, WA

How true🌝

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

Who??What??

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

Look at my rig! It's in the "Mine cost more than yours" category! (Even tough it may not be true).

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Ostensibly, white painted lens barrels were originally intended for "tropical" shooting conditions. The fact that black objects absorb heat and white stuff reflects light and heat is good general science. Nowadays, however, it is difficult to separate science from marketing.

Since long lenses are usually the tools of outdoor, nature.sports photographers and photojournalists it makes sense to create these lenses with the assumption that the maybe exposed to heat and generally rugged working conditions. If, in fact, lens elements, and other components are affected by heat, anything that can be done to minimize this effect is good engineering.

All the rest is marketing. At one time BLACK camera bodies were considered the professional choice in that photojournalists preferred low profile gear. Nothing low profile about a person running around with several cameras around his or her neck and the ain't noting low profile about the Paparazzi. The "badge" of the veteran photojournalist was a "brassed" black body where all the black paint had worn off- the had a "golden look".

Some equipment was issued in drap olive or camouflage finishes to suggest the ruggedness of military-specific gear. It ain't mil.-spec. by any stretch of the imagination. When I was in the service, all the U.S. Army and USMC gear were painted drab olive or khaki and all the Navy guys had gear painted battleship gray. These colors had no function except to identify them as government property or government issue. Camouflage colored gear has no protective value against booby traps, claymore device and the predatory animals in the jungle or the forest will sniff you out and eat you- they have very little interest in the color of your gear.

Hasselblad, Rolleiflex, Leica, and some other makers produced gold-plated cameras with exotic leather coverings. There are a few cameras available in fashionable colors. Never wanted to pay extra for those fashion statements. If I showed up on an assignment with a gold-plated camera, my clients would refuse to pay my fees!

EdR Loc: Gig Harbor, WA

Sorry I forgot to quote reply.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

The original reason that SOME Canon L-series were painted white was that those lenses used fluorite elements that might be damaged if a lens absorbed too much heat from the sun and the metal components expanded.

Canon makes extensive use of fluorite in their telephotos, where it's very useful minimizing chromatic aberrations and maximizing sharpness. Besides being somewhat fragile and requiring special attention to things like heat expansion, fluorite has traditionally been expensive in sizes large enough to make into lens elements, as well as very difficult to shape into elements. In the 1970s and 1980s Canon pioneered growing their own fluorite crystals to increase availability, reduce costs, and give them greater control over purity. They also developed procedures that reduced loss during element manufacture. Canon has used fluorite extensively in their telephoto lenses... it's currently or recently been used in all but one of their 70-200mm zooms, both versions of their 100-400mm zoom and the 200-400mm f/4 1.4X zoom. It's also used in Canon's 200mm f/2, 300mm f/2.8, 400mm f/2.8, 500mm f/4, 600mm f/4 and 800mm f/5.6 lenses. Canon has been using fluorite extensively for many years and currently has lenses costing as little as $600 that use it.

There are a few Canon L-series painted an off-white color that don't use fluorite: 28-300mm, 70-300mm, 300mm f/4, 400mm f/4 DO. The reason for this is probably marketing... Canon lenses used widely by pros were very apparent at major sporting events, for example. While at first they were painted light tones to protect the fluorite, it probably evolved into more of a marketing decision, to make their lenses stand out in the crowd.

There are many other manufacturers who have produced off-white colored lenses, whether they used fluorite in them or not. Sony has several currently but to the best of my knowledge, they don't use fluorite in any lenses... so they are doing so for other reasons.

Just recently, within the last year or two, Nikon has revised many of their telephotos to incorporate fluorite. Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, 180-400mm f/4 1.4E, 400mm f/2.8, 500mm f/4, 600mm f/4 and 800mm f/5.6 lenses using fluorite are all designated "FL". However, Nikon paints their fluorite lenses black, so must have done other things to protect the element in its mounting. Nikkor lenses with fluorite are considerably more expensive than the non-FL versions they replaced. They also are more expensive than comparable Canon lenses.

Incidentally, reportedly Canon's use of fluorite eliminated them from consideration for use by NASA, who were concerned the lens elements may not hold up under the stresses of rocket launches.

DeanS Loc: Capital City area of North Carolina

Awww, just go with 120 grit carbon sandpaper.