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It’s no secret that the greatest lenses for wildlife images are among the many most costly lenses you should buy. Finding a flexible, good-quality lens with the attain and prowess wanted for photographing distant animals is a troublesome feat should you don’t have an enormous finances, however the Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM lens may very well be simply what you’re on the lookout for. With one of many widest focal ranges on the market, it’s a wildlife photographer’s dream — and, supplied you’re capturing in favorable circumstances, no animal will likely be out of attain.
We’ve taken it to a nature reserve, photographed birds from our window and zoomed in on the moon to evaluate its efficiency in all-light circumstances for static and transferring topics, emulating real-world capturing circumstances to check its mettle.
Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM review
Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM: Design
- Big and heavy
- Annoying amount of lens creep
- Solid and well-built
- Custom buttons difficult to access
There’s no beating across the bush right here — this lens is huge, and it’s heavy. Weighing about 4.5 lbs (simply over 2 kilograms), this factor makes itself identified each in your digicam bag and out within the subject. Needless to say, it bought fairly heavy after some time, even when resting in a conceal, but it surely feels stable and well-built and is dust- and weather-resistant, though we by no means bought caught out within the rain to totally take a look at this.
We discovered it irritating that it didn’t have a zoom lock, because it had an annoying quantity of lens creep after we held the lens vertically, which meant we couldn’t carry the digicam round our neck (as if its weight didn’t already see to that). We discovered the zoom ring a little bit on the stiff facet, and, to be choosy, the lens really appeared fairly ugly when it was zoomed all the way in which in on a topic.
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Specifications
Focal size: 200-800 mm
Maximum aperture: f/6.3-9
Weight: 4.5 kilos (2.05 kg)
Image stabilization: 5.5 stops
Filter thread: 95 mm
Dimensions (in): ⌀4.03 x 12.37
Dimensions (mm): ⌀102.3 x 314.1
In addition, it has a management ring, AF/MF change, picture stabilizer change and two customized buttons, though we discovered these buttons exhausting to press as they aren’t inside simple attain when holding the digicam’s hefty weight. When we took our hand away to attempt to press both of the buttons, it threw your complete weight distribution off.
It has a pleasant huge lens hood, though we’d have preferred this to have a door with a view to make the most of a polarizer, significantly after we have been photographing waterfowl.
Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM: Performance
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- Struggles in the dark with f/6.3 aperture
- Good autofocus performance
- Excellent image quality
For wildlife photography in generally favorable conditions, this lens performed very well overall. Its obvious downfall is the limited maximum aperture — f/6.3 performs just fine during the daytime, but as the light levels fell at dusk, or even when we went into a heavily wooded area, we had to push the ISO up higher than we’d have wanted.
Luckily, we were shooting with the Canon EOS R6 II, which has excellent noise handling, so we were able to save a lot of our images. But if you often shoot at dawn or dusk, we’d recommend investing in a wider telephoto lens so you won’t need to rely on denoise software.
The autofocus was also good, but at higher focal lengths, it’s at the mercy of how steady your hand is. It generally performed very well, but it suffered when we were shooting in harsh conditions, or if there were distractions or foliage in front of our subject.
Overall, though, its performance is very good for the price. Images are sharp and it captures color very nicely — certainly more than well enough for wildlife or moon photography.
Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM: Functionality
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- 5.5 stops of image stabilization is crucial
- Versatile focal length
- 2.6 ft (0.8 meter) close focusing distance at 200mm is great for insects
As much as it suffers from a fairly wide maximum aperture, the 200-800mm focal length offers versatility that many other lenses don’t. There’s a Sony super-telephoto with a 400-800mm range, but you’d be stuck if a subject came too close to you — with the Canon, you’d be able to zoom out easily. We never found ourselves wishing we had multiple lenses, as the 200-800mm can cover a lot of subjects, near or far.
Plus, although it doesn’t have the close focusing capabilities of a true macro lens, it can focus as close as 2.6 feet (0.8 meters) at 200mm, which is great for photographing butterflies and insects at a fairly close range.
The 5.5 stops of image stabilization were a lifesaver, and pretty crucial for such a long focal length. Even just for compositional purposes, we still struggled to follow subjects on occasion at the full 800mm, and if there had been no image stabilization, we’d have had no chance.
Should you buy the Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM?
Overall, this lens provides excellent value for money. You get a lot of lens for the price, and although it’s not a low-light champion, it still produces beautifully sharp, contrast-y images, while the versatility of the focal length is hard to beat.
Considering the very best wildlife lenses are telephoto primes costing upwards of $10,000, it’s one of the best you can buy for most wildlife photographers — that is, for anyone who’s not a serious pro.
If the Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM isn’t for you
Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM
Another great wildlife lens with a little less reach, but a little more aperture. This lens would be better in low light if you don’t need a huge zoom.
Canon RF 800mm F11 IS STM
This 800mm prime lens is perfect for bird photography or capturing distant animals on a budget — but the f/11 aperture means good lighting is essential.
Canon RF 400mm F2.8L IS USM
If you’re a pro photographer and have serious cash to spend, this 400mm prime lens with an f/2.8 aperture will see you through any light conditions.
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