CANON RF 200-800MM F6.3-9 IS USM
Super-telephoto lens, almost-super performance
Every so often, a new superzoom telephoto lens grabs our attention. Mostly, it’s third-party lens-makers like Sigma and Tamron battling over stratospheric focal lengths or huge apertures, and Canon, it seemed, was content to focus on sensible quality and let other companies make the headlines. But the Canon RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM is a serious challenger to the superzoom throne.
The RF 200-800mm offers a record 600mm difference in focal length from wide to tele, for full-frame cameras anyway, and achieves this in a body weighing just over 2kg and 31cm long. However, compromises have been made, with the maximum aperture being limited to f/6.3-9, making it considerably narrower than other rival lenses with less ambitious focal lengths.
The RF 200-800mm is designed for full-frame cameras, but its reach can be extended to a whopping 3201280mm if paired with a Canon APS-C camera, such as the Canon EOS R7 with its 1.6x crop factor. The lens is also compatible with Canon’s 1.4x and 2x teleconverters, although you lose one or two stops in maximum aperture respectively. So Canon has finally turned up to the superzoom party – but has it found the secret formula for near-to-far perfection?
Build and handling
On first impressions, I was initially struck by the lens’s size. Given the focal length it covers, the overall size is quite remarkable, though its mediocre maximum aperture is probably a factor here. The lens is white, a finish that’s normally reserved for Canon’s more premium L-series lenses, but has been
employed here as it reflects more heat off the surface for better performance in extreme conditions. It also made me subconsciously assume that this would be a more optically impressive lens – and if intentional, that’s a smart move on Canon’s part. Given its huge 200800mm range, the lens is surprisingly lightweight, at just over 2kg. I used it mostly handheld in my testing while attached to the Canon EOS R5, and the weight was not troublesome when carried around, although holding the lens to my eye for long periods was tiring on the arms. At 31.4cm (12.4in) in length when collapsed, the lens should slip into a decentsized backpack, so wildlife and sports photographers can be spared a little less back pain.
The lens comes with a built-in tripod foot, which I found doubled as a carry handle as I walked
around, and an additional carry strap is included. I didn’t have any issues balancing the lens and EOS R5 camera on a tripod – even on unstable ground at my local bird sanctuary, it wasn’t much hassle to kick the legs into a strong and balanced position.
Unusually for a Canon non-L lens, a plastic lens hood is included – a small concession from Canon.
The lens hood is black, so it doesn’t match the white lens, and neither does it match the quality of the hood included with lenses like the Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM.
In terms of features, the switches on the 200-800mm are relatively simple, with one for AF-MF, one for OIS on/off and no options for different stabilisation modes or focus limits. Whether this was an engineering decision in terms of what it was possible to achieve, or Canon suggesting that the lens/camera is now smart enough to decide everything itself, or a cost
decision, I couldn’t say.
However, there are two custom function buttons on the lens as well as Canon’s customisable control ring, which also doubles as the manual focus ring when required. There’s also a ring to make the zoom tighter or smoother, which might be useful to those who need precise zoom. I found it a challenge to turn the lens all the way from 200 to 800mm in one go, even on a smooth setting, as it’s a big barrel to turn.
Performance
The Canon RF 200-800mm lens comes close to optical greatness, with only some minor quality issues towards the top end of the zoom range. The lens performs best through its 200-700mm range – between 700-800mm there’s a noticeable drop in image quality, with sharpness becoming murkier. I achieved better results using the 45MP sensor from the Canon EOS R5 while shooting at 600mm and cropping the image to the same aspect as 800mm. You can see the difference between 600mm and 800mm in the fine lines around the
robin’s features and feathers in the images above. However, the range this lens can achieve is astounding, and makes all the difference in the image of the airliner (previous page). At 200mm, the plane remains a dot in the sky, but zooming in to 800mm, you can almost read its tail number.
Where the lens comes unstuck is with its limited aperture. I tested the lens on birds in a wildlife park, shooting lots of fast-moving critters at high shutter speeds. Due to the f/9 aperture at the top end of the zoom, the camera ISO kept jumping higher than was ideal. With heavy cloud cover, it became a trade-off between going as slow with the shutter as I could while avoiding blur and keeping
the ISO down. Lower peak sharpness at 800mm, combined with reduced quality at higher apertures, meant that detail in feathers or fur was a little lacklustre.
Attaching the 1.4x and the 2x converter to the lens, I didn’t notice any perceptible drop in quality caused by the converter at the low end of the focal range, with shots from 200600mm looking good, with sharpness and contrast remaining consistent with the lens alone at the equivalent length; shots at the top end of the lens when used with teleconverters were also soft, and when the 2x teleconverter was used at 800mm the contrast also suffered, with shots becoming more washed out.
Finally, autofocus on the RF 200800mm is exceptional – AF on the Canon EOS R5 is one of the best around, but the lens had no problem keeping up. Bird-tracking autofocus flawlessly pinpointed each bird’s eye, with the RF 200-800mm following in near silence. Pulling from near to far focus was a little slower than with shorter lenses, probably down to the distance that the internal parts need to move, but I didn’t miss any crucial shots on account of the lens being too slow to find focus.