Here is the Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM

stevelee

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Jul 6, 2017
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In late 2019 I was on a cruise ship leaving Venice as it got dark. I stood on my stateroom’s balcony and shot pictures with my G5X II. Most shots were taken at ISO 3200, as I recall, maybe some at 6400. The results were amazing. Small camera, moving ship, mostly in the dark, high ISO, what could go wrong?

Of course the inky sky was noisy. But there was no detail in the sky, so noise reduction was not a problem: just apply enough so it wasn’t annoying, but not enough that it looked artificial. For the 13” x 19” prints I made, it probably didn’t matter, since the sky was in gamut territory with very little subtlety on that printer. The lighted parts of the scene, Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s, tower, etc., looked tack sharp.
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
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Aug 16, 2012
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In late 2019 I was on a cruise ship leaving Venice as it got dark. I stood on my stateroom’s balcony and shot pictures with my G5X II. Most shots were taken at ISO 3200, as I recall, maybe some at 6400. The results were amazing. Small camera, moving ship, mostly in the dark, high ISO, what could go wrong?

Of course the inky sky was noisy. But there was no detail in the sky, so noise reduction was not a problem: just apply enough so it wasn’t annoying, but not enough that it looked artificial. For the 13” x 19” prints I made, it probably didn’t matter, since the sky was in gamut territory with very little subtlety on that printer. The lighted parts of the scene, Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s, tower, etc., looked tack sharp.
I use a 1" sensor camera occasionally for general purpose and for travel when I can't take a DSLR or FF ILC. At the long end, it has a 220mm f/4 lens. That is equivalent to a 400mm f/7.3 lens so it should perform in terms in noise, dof etc as about a 0.25 stop wider than the 400 f/8.;)
 
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justaCanonuser

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Feb 12, 2014
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As you are a physicist, you might be interested in that I calculated the MTF values of the different slow lenses based on the Airy diffraction and the sensor MTFs and posted here: https://www.canonrumors.com/forum/t...of-f-5-6-f-7-1-and-f-11-lenses-and-tcs.39118/ (I didn't allow for lens aberrations or the Bayer filter).
It's true that you see more advantage with lower resolution sensors of increasing focal length at expense of f-number. I found from actual measurements of putting the 2xTC on the RF 100-500mm and R5 that the resolution increased by ~40% on going from 500mm f/7.1 to 1000mm f/14.
Sorry for my delayed reply (I had to work on quantum simulation topics as a journalist). Very interesting, I missed your diffraction blur related threads. I love geek threads, if they are connected with optics and sensor tech. Thank you!
 
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AlanF

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Curious about when you'd use the 100-400 over the 100-500L.
It's primarily going to be for my wife who finds the 100-400mm II too heavy, and I'll get her an R body so we can travel with two R bodies and two telephoto lenses for mutual back up in case any one fails. In addition, I might take it out on hikes to carry less weight if the IQ is good enough. I'll test it when it arrives st the end of the week and report back as usual. The older I get, the more I need lenses to be light.
 
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LogicExtremist

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Performance of the Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM Lens looks quite disappointing when compared to the older EF mount Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM C Lens.

Price is fairly similar, Sigma lens quality much higher, and does not use molded plastic aspherical lens element like the Canon lens.

The website www.the-digital-picture.com has added the Rf 100-400mm lens to its lens image comparison tool, and the Sigma is clearly sharper wide open at f/6.3 than the RF Canon lens wide open at f/8, see comparison here.

It would be great to see someone do side by side image comparisons of real world subject matter such as birds, to see how these differences play out in the field.
 
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Performance of the Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM Lens looks quite disappointing when compared to the older EF mount Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM C Lens.

Price is fairly similar, Sigma lens quality much higher, and does not use molded plastic aspherical lens element like the Canon lens.

The website www.the-digital-picture.com has added the Rf 100-400mm lens to its lens image comparison tool, and the Sigma is clearly sharper wide open at f/6.3 than the RF Canon lens wide open at f/8, see comparison here.

It would be great to see someone do side by side image comparisons of real world subject matter such as birds, to see how these differences play out in the field.
To be fair the Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM weighs only 635g compared to the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM C which is 1160g. I agree it would be interesting to see real world comparisons.
 
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LogicExtremist

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To be fair the Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM weighs only 635g compared to the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM C which is 1160g. I agree it would be interesting to see real world comparisons.
That's a fair point, the weight with lens hood would be a bit heavier, for a like-for-like comparison, I think it's 680g with a lens hood, but 480g is still quite a decent weight saving.

This is one Canon lens I really want to like, as it would be very easy to carry around! :)
 
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koenkooi

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LogicExtremist

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That's really soft, slightly out of focus or both!
The tests are done with lenses in sharp focus, so what you're seeing is softness.

I tried comparing it to the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM lens which gives an equivalent of 400mm f/9 and it looks a bit sharper then the APSC lens, see here

Guessing it's the full frame RF version of that popular APSC lens, with a bit more brightness f/8 vs f/9, otherwise pretty similar, you're not really getting much more optically, but way overpriced at double the price! :(
 
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