Canon announces the RF 800mm F5.6L IS USM and the RF 1200mm F8L IS USM

what I said was renting these lenses won't be cheap either compared to renting 600mm/400mm with TC. At some point I want to go to Himalayas for Snow leopards, Lynx, Pallas cat, Tibetan wolves, Himalayan wolves and Brown bears and given how shy those animals are(except for Pallas cat for some reason) both 800mm and 1200mm are perfect candidates to be rented for 7-8 day long trips.
Safe journey. :)
 
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Apr 23, 2021
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As someone who photographs wildlife for a living, I truly don’t understand the purpose of a 1200 f/8. We need light. I can’t remember the last time I shot over 5.6 for a wildlife shot. Dramatic light equals a dramatic photograph and f8 won’t be able to do this. Also, I don’t care how big your lens is, your subject has to be fairly close. The further away they are the more atmospheric conditions you are looking through, in other words, your photo turns to mush.
 
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These are not to scale. I expect those lenses to have after sales support for at least 2 decades until the early 2040s

It appears that the these lenses share more exterior metal/rubber/polymer parts in common with their shorter counterparts. The parts nearest to the lens mount is different.

RF 800mm

b5fd0470c96749dfb80924aa516b4ba2.png


RF 400mm

ff3ab31137e94460906d3c0b2ac86d76.png


&

RF 1200mm

d482a349010a4f46ac6f4fcf8dd6a5e0.png


RF 600mm

1926fe0be3524ddebee8aac2b2042dd0.png
 
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Aug 12, 2010
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As someone who photographs wildlife for a living, I truly don’t understand the purpose of a 1200 f/8. We need light.

I wonder how much wildlife photographers are aware of their impact on the wildlife they're attempting to photograph.

If you want to see an extreme example of how bringing tourists in to photograph wildlife has an adverse impact (despite only "tracks left and photographs taken"), watch "The Year the Earth Changed" (Apple TV) - narrated by David Attenborough. Pay particular attention to the section where they look at the impact on cheetahs.

In the quest to get closer to take photographs of wildlife for instabook, humans are actually making the survival more difficult for the animals they want to photograph.
 
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Don't get fooled folks. These are EF 400mm F/2.8 and EF 600mm f/4 with a 2X TC and RF adapter attached (the silver thing nearest the camera). The weights and MFDs are also exactly what you'd expect - even the MTF charts are identical.
Save your money and buy a TC. You may lose a tiny bit of corrected IQ but you'll save yourself £/$ 6,000 and still have two lenses, not one.
 
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AlanF

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I wonder how much wildlife photographers are aware of their impact on the wildlife they're attempting to photograph.

If you want to see an extreme example of how bringing tourists in to photograph wildlife has an adverse impact (despite only "tracks left and photographs taken"), watch "The Year the Earth Changed" (Apple TV) - narrated by David Attenborough. Pay particular attention to the section where they look at the impact on cheetahs.

In the quest to get closer to take photographs of wildlife for instabook, humans are actually making the survival more difficult for the animals they want to photograph.
Of course, some so-called wildlife photographers do cause damage and all of their activities should be condemned and we should all respect nature in the pursuit of our hobby. But, it's not photographers who are causing species extinction, it's you with your use of plastics, rearing too much beef with accompanying deforestation, burning fossil fuels via all of your energy demanding processes etc. On the other hand, it's David Attenborough with his team of nature photographers and all the enthusiastic amateurs who are bringing to the world what is happening and the love of nature that have the massive beneficial effects of highlighting and inspiring attempts to rectify these climate disasters.
 
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AlanF

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What hasn't been commented on so far is the minimum focus distance of the RF 800mm of only 2.6m compared with 4.2m of the RF 600mm and the 6m of the EF 800mm and RF 800mm f/11. That wouldn't be of much to me as I couldn't carry that lens on a nature hike, but that could be of real use to someone who wants to do macro photography without getting too close or photograph a small bird that suddenly appears close up.
 
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Prices are cheeper than expected and I could see myself wanting that 1200 on occasion paired with a 1.4x or 2x TC depending on the situation. I know a number of birders with a 600 that never has the 2x removed, but even then they want more reach. f/8.0 is obviously bright enough for the subject as a 600 f/4.0 + 2x TC combo has been in use for decades.

As for the 800, again it lets some 600 users skip to the focal length they use with the ability to add extenders later. I am not as excited about Canon's 800 as I am with Nikons. The Nikon 800 is as short and fat as a 500mm f/4.0 and being 1/3rd of a stop slower and with PF elements it is going to be lighter and a better pairing with a 400 f/4.0 on a long hike.
 
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AlanF

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Aug 16, 2012
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Prices are cheeper than expected and I could see myself wanting that 1200 on occasion paired with a 1.4x or 2x TC depending on the situation. I know a number of birders with a 600 that never has the 2x removed, but even then they want more reach. f/8.0 is obviously bright enough for the subject as a 600 f/4.0 + 2x TC combo has been in use for decades.

As for the 800, again it lets some 600 users skip to the focal length they use with the ability to add extenders later. I am not as excited about Canon's 800 as I am with Nikons. The Nikon 800 is as short and fat as a 500mm f/4.0 and being 1/3rd of a stop slower and with PF elements it is going to be lighter and a better pairing with a 400 f/4.0 on a long hike.
The price over here has just been announced as £19,099: it should be £15,000 based on the US price and adding 20% import duties/vat. We could fly to the US, buy it there and have a couple of weeks holiday shooting with it, and come back with change from the £4,099 difference in price. Canon UK are b*st*rds.
 
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