Canon RF 800mm f/11 IS STM Review (good performance at bargain price)

RF 800mm f/11 IS STM review
View Post

A new Canon RF 800mm f/11 IS STM, from one of our favorite reviewers. A weird lens, someone might say, but read on to learn more.

At a glance:

  • RF-Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
  • Fixed f/11 Aperture
  • Retractable, Locking Lens Barrel
  • Gapless Dual-Layer Diffractive Optics
  • STM Stepping AF Motor
  • Optical Image Stabilizer
  • Customizable Control Ring
  • Compatible with RF Extenders

Dustin Abbott posted his exhaustive Canon RF 800mm f/11 IS STM review. This one comes after his Canon RF 600mm f/11 IS STM review, and is positive too.

From his conclusion:

It is rare that I refer to a Canon lens as “quirky”, but both the Canon RF 600mm f/11 IS STM and Canon RF 800mm f/11 IS STM telephoto primes definitely qualify as quirky.  Canon’s engineers were willing to overlook a number of typical design conventions and niceties to produce functional telephoto primes with massive reach and good performance at bargain prices.  Used in the right conditions, either of these lenses is perfectly capable of producing stunning images.

But those quirks do help define the lens, however. The loosen, extend, and tighten nature of getting the lens ready to shoot will result in some missed shots. The small maximum aperture means that this is a lens designed for very specific (read: bright!) lighting conditions, and so the opportunities to take full advantage of the stellar optics are limited by that physical reality. But the autofocus performance was better than expected, and that meant I was able to get frozen moments like this that will definitely prove a lot of fun for photographers who love birds in flight.

Read the review at Dustin Abbott’s site…

As usual the review comes with a huge set of sample pictures, comparison charts, and all the information you might want to know. Dustin’s reviews are what I look for when I am about to purchase new gear. And for those who prefer to watch their reviews, Dustin Abbott provides a comprehensive video-review (below).

More gear reviews by Dustin Abbott are listed here. You can follow Dustin Abbott on Twitter, YouTube, or on his website.

Also interesting: an interview with the engineers who developed these lens. Also, Canon already said there will be more such lenses. For more Canon RF 800mm f/11 and RF 600mm f/11 review stuff have a look here.

Canon RF 600mm f/11 IS STM[shoplist 62748]

Canon RF 800mm f/11 IS STM [shoplist 62749]

Click here to open the rest of the article

Olympus 300mm f/4 vs Canon RF 600mm f/11 – FF vs 4/3 Comparison

Olympus 300mm
View Post

Somewhat unusual yet rather interesting comparison between the Olympus 300mm f/4 and Canon RF 600mm f/11 lenses.

Our friends at Mirrorless Comparison compared the Olympus 300mm f/4 and Canon RF 600mm f/11 lenses for wildlife and bird photography. The former is for Micro Four Thirds and the latter for full frame. From their conclusion:

Traditionally, micro four thirds has always been the system we mention when talking about travelling light and reducing size and weight. On the other hand, full frame is supposed to be the system with the big heavy lenses, but also superior image quality. Well, in our case here, some of these claims can be challenged (with a few catches).

The RF 600mm F11 (and 800mm F11) is a brilliant idea from Canon. I was interested when they announced it, then I was skeptical about the aperture, but now I’m happy to say I really enjoyed taking pictures with this lens, and I quickly forgot about the slow aperture. I was using something very light, with excellent quality, autofocus and stabilisation. I thought there would be more tradeoffs than that.

[…]

Where does that leave the Olympus solution then? Well, rest assured, it is still a very strong competitor. The faster aperture of the 300mm Pro easily makes up for the smaller sensor, you get a premium build quality with weather sealing, state of the art stabilisation and a few welcome features like being able to focus much closer to small subjects, which adds to the lens’ versatility.

Read the review at Mirrorless Comparison

More comparison reviews are listed here.

Canon Patent: RF 70mm F1.8 STM Lens For EOS R System

canon patent
View Post

A new Thursday, a new Canon patent. Not surprising yet another one for the RF mount. The whole thing was spotted by asobinet.com.

Canon patent application 2021-131499 (Japan) discusses optical formulas for what appears to be an RF 70mm f/1.8 STM lens for Canon’s full frame mirrorless system EOS R. From the patent literature:

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

To provide a compact, lightweight and large-diameter optical system.

Patent Document 1 describes a double-Gauss type optical system capable of correcting various aberrations with a small number of lenses

However, the double-Gauss type optical system as disclosed in Patent Document 1 satisfactorily corrects various aberrations such as spherical aberration and curvature of field when the symmetry is broken due to miniaturization. Becomes difficult. In particular, when the optical system has a large aperture ratio, it becomes difficult to suppress sagittal flare and coma flare at an intermediate angle of view.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an optical system and an image pickup apparatus having high optical performance while being compact and having a large aperture ratio.

Embodiment 1:

  • Focal length 49.57
  • F number 1.85
  • Half angle of view 23.58
  • Image height 21.64
  • Lens overall length 59.59
  • BF 25.67

Embodiment 2:

  • Focal length 70.00
  • F number 1.85
  • Half angle of view 17.17
  • Image height 21.64
  • Lens overall length 83.52
  • BF 36.62

According to asobinet, the lens discussed in the patent literature has an optical design similar to the RF 50mm F1.8 STM. Maybe it is another excellent performer at an affordable price.

More Canon patents are listed here. Some particularly interesting patent applications we think might get into production are these: