Nikon 800mm 6.3 - A lens I´d like to see from my brand Canon

It's clearly a wonderful lens, and just what some want, and gives me GAS. And, I could use it on some rare occasions. 800mm is a pretty specialised focal length.
For birding small birds, I almost always use my 600mm lenses with the 1.4x extender. Handheld some times. In the surrounding birding-ranges the birds are quite shy and far away. So the extra 240mm of the 1.4x are welcome.
Sadly, my copy of the Version II lens is more sharp as my newer Version III. Version III is more than 1kg lesser in weight...
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
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Aug 16, 2012
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For birding small birds, I almost always use my 600mm lenses with the 1.4x extender. Handheld some times. In the surrounding birding-ranges the birds are quite shy and far away. So the extra 240mm of the 1.4x are welcome.
Sadly, my copy of the Version II lens is more sharp as my newer Version III. Version III is more than 1kg lesser in weight...
For small birds, I use the R5 either with RF 100-500mm + 2x TC at 1000mm or far less frequently with the RF 800mm f/11. Both are surprisingly good. But, for fast BIF, 800mm is too long for me with its narrow field of view and I either zoom out with the TC to 600mm or better still use the bare RF 100-500mm at 400 or 500mm. I also do a lot of dragonfly shots, including DIF, and need to shoot at 2-4m. My main photography is hiking and shooting so the zoom is much better suited for my needs in general. Were I to go on a pellagic cruise or a safari again, I'd love to have that 800 f/6.3 with me. I occasionally take the 800/11 on a hike when my back is playing up and a few g less weight helps over the 100-500 + TC.
 
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For small birds, I use the R5 either with RF 100-500mm + 2x TC at 1000mm or far less frequently with the RF 800mm f/11. Both are surprisingly good. But, for fast BIF, 800mm is too long for me with its narrow field of view and I either zoom out with the TC to 600mm or better still use the bare RF 100-500mm at 400 or 500mm. I also do a lot of dragonfly shots, including DIF, and need to shoot at 2-4m. My main photography is hiking and shooting so the zoom is much better suited for my needs in general. Were I to go on a pellagic cruise or a safari again, I'd love to have that 800 f/6.3 with me. I occasionally take the 800/11 on a hike when my back is playing up and a few g less weight helps over the 100-500 + TC.
This is an well suited strategy. As I do own 2 600mm lenses, I do not want to spend 3000+ for the 100-500. (I own a 200-600 from Sony - but my 7RIV is so grany and the A9 II has to less pixels for small birds).
 
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Del Paso

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Aug 9, 2018
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Thumbs up to Nikon for not price gouging the UK! The price is €7,299 in the EU and £6299 in the UK, pretty close to the fluctuating exchange rate, and only 5% more than the USD price when allowing for our taxes.
Maybe it's about time Canon understand they have competitors...
Such huge price differences between US and Europe are hard to accept!
 
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D

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Just ordered mine. Hopefully get it this year. With my 100-400 S and this 800 I'll be selling off my 500 PF. Really looking forward to creating images I couldn't before, even with the 500 PF and 1.4X TC.

My 500 PF, TC, FTZ, unused 85 1.8, and my old Z6 have contributed about 2/3rds of the cost of this lens so to my mind its a cheap upgrade.
 
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Maybe it's about time Canon understand they have competitors...
Such huge price differences between US and Europe are hard to accept!
In German, we would say: "Dein Wort in Gottes Ohr" - from your lips to God´s ears. But as Canon is Canon, they keep up their prices. Such a lens would be at least 13.000 Euros ... 6500 for Fresnel Design, and the other half to keep their RF 800L 5.6 sales....

The price differene grew up in the last years a little bit. and will grow further in the next years as of high energy prices.
 
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Jan 27, 2020
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For small birds, I use the R5 either with RF 100-500mm + 2x TC at 1000mm or far less frequently with the RF 800mm f/11. Both are surprisingly good. But, for fast BIF, 800mm is too long for me with its narrow field of view and I either zoom out with the TC to 600mm or better still use the bare RF 100-500mm at 400 or 500mm. I also do a lot of dragonfly shots, including DIF, and need to shoot at 2-4m. My main photography is hiking and shooting so the zoom is much better suited for my needs in general. Were I to go on a pellagic cruise or a safari again, I'd love to have that 800 f/6.3 with me. I occasionally take the 800/11 on a hike when my back is playing up and a few g less weight helps over the 100-500 + TC.
800mm sounds great, but I agree the narrow field of view is a real challenge and a zoom makes it considerably easier for BIF. I have a 100-400 on my Olympus, so an equivalent 800mm reach on the long end, and almost always have to start zoomed out a bit before zooming in to 800mm. Given a choice, I would choose the 100-500mm over the 800 for overall use. 800mm would be for very specific occasions for more static subjects. (Not that I could afford this lens, nor could I afford a lens that I would use for more specific occasions).

But I must say, for anyone thinking about Nikon, the Z cameras and lenses are top notch. Alas, I am too attached to Canon color, otherwise I would have switched to Nikon.
 
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