Canon RF 300-600mm Update…. Again

[Ian K]

It is yet to arrive, however I do agree, I couldn’t say no at that price. That said you do see grey imports on eBay for less, so I suspect they’re still making money.

Wex are as pukka a company as B&H in New York. They’re likely the largest camera retailer in the uk. They always have the stall right next to Canon every year. This year they had two stalls at the show. One next to Canon and another next to Nikon and Sony.

 

[AlanF]

It is yet to arrive, however I do agree, I couldn’t say no at that price. That said you do see grey imports on eBay for less, so I suspect they’re still making money.

Wex are as pukka a company as B&H in New York. They’re likely the largest camera retailer in the uk. They always have the stall right next to Canon every year. This year they had two stalls at the show. One next to Canon and another next to Nikon and Sony.

WEX is my favourite company - 100% reliable and never causes problems. You have got me thinking, and I'm going another route which is better for me and what I do. Most of my shots when birding are with the RF 200-800mm at 800mm, with occasional zooming out. I found it outresolves the 100-300 + 2xTC when set to 800mm and is at least as sharp at 600mm f/8. So, I will stick with that and to complement it I think I will definitely get an RF 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM Z as it much smaller than the 100-300 and a covers a more useful range at f/2.8 for me. For urban and indoor use, I prefer black, but for nature with the extender white. What a dilemma!

 

[Michael Clark]

Yeah, people think that a TC should have minimal copy variation because they are relatively simple and have no moving parts. But, I've tested a few in the past and found variation. My RF 2xTC seems good. I was worried about my RF 1.4x but it's the same as two others I've tried.

Yeah, you an take an EF 2X III that will be better on EF Super Telephoto Prime A than EF Super Telephoto Prime B with a different FL than Prime A, then take another copy of an EF 2X III that will be better on the same exact Prime B than the same exact Prime A. That's why the crying about "welding" a 2X onto a shorter lens and selling it as a 2X longer lens 2 stops slower is a bit of a red herring. In those cases they're designed to be optimized for that focal length and factory adjusted to the rest of that specific lens. Back in the early 2010s, the generally accepted wisdom was that the EF 2X was optimized for the EF 300/2.8 and wouldn't do quite as well on the 400/2.8, 500/2.8, etc. But you still had variation because of individual tolerance variation of both pieces when using them together.

 

[Michael Clark]

And I paid just a little more for the RF100-500 and it is definitely better than The Sigma 150-600...

Those 150-600mm Sigma lenses get noticeably progressively softer past around 300-350mm. At least in my limited experience and what I've seen my friends do with them.

 

[Michael Clark]

Which is why Canon has blocked all 3rd party native glass from FF RF, and probably will do so in perpetuity.

Sigma's newer mirrorless native 150-600 is better optically than the EF glass while being less expensive, smaller, and lighter. Tamron's 150-500 is also excellent, and has extremely fast magnetic linear drive focus motors. (Sigma's 150-600 predates their magnetic linear AF, I expect their v2 will have that update.)

With no native RF competition, Canon can charge whatever they want for the 100-300/2.8 and 300-600/5.6. And they do/will.

Edit: For reference and comparison, the Sigma 150-600/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports is US$875+tax here in Japan at the current exchange rate of USDJPY=159.

View attachment 228504


The Tamron 150-500/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD is US$737+tax:

View attachment 228505

These are the types of options that RF users miss out on because Canon does not believe in competition.

You're not taking the tariffs into consideration in addition to the exchange rates for anyone wanting to purchase them in the U.S.

 

[Michael Clark]

Friends!
When will we understand that it doesn't make sense to keep arguing with sect members, political fanatics, trolls or Sony fanboyz?
They never listen, convinced to be the beholders of Truth.
Let them keep their cute little tinfoil hats on and enjoy spreading their drivel !
If they have time to waste, let's not waste our time answering them.

But it has been so dead and boring in here for so long. Now there are posts and interactions and engagements. I'm sure that helps the bottom line of the site owners. If I had a site with not much in the way of new news to post, I might even be tempted to create a troll account in order to get things hopping for a while to pull up my engagement numbers and sell more ads...

 

[Michael Clark]

Often, the best way to end the conversation is to let the other party have the last word.

No it isn't!

 

[Michael Clark]

The Canon EF 600mm f/4 DO IS BR USM was first announced as a working prototype in September 2015 during the Canon Expo in New York. 11 years later still not here. That is genuine vaporware, announced and never marketed.

Did Chuck Westfall ever comment on the proposed EF 600mm f/4 DO IS BR USM?

 

[Michael Clark]

I had one for a while. Bought it used and sold it a couple of years later for the same price that I had paid, essentially a free long-term rental.

I liked that it was the same size as my EF 24-105/4L IS. I was not a fan of the very busy bokeh, evident in the foreground here.

“Ribbit”
View attachment 228688
EOS 7D, EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM @ 300mm, 1/500, f/6.3, ISO 640

It was the only 300mm lens in Canon's catalog short enough to make it past security screening enforcing the "non-professional gear only" rules applied to ticket buying patrons (as opposed to someone with a media pass) at many major sports venues.

 

[Michael Clark]

The supertele lenses all used to have a meniscus lens in front (essentially a flat piece of glass to protect the first refractive element, a permanent clear front filter). Dropping those from the design was a significant part of the weight saving for both Canon and Nikon lenses.

The non-IS Super Telephotos had a flat plate. They were designed in the pre-digital era when reflection off the front of perfectly flat filters in front of digital sensors was not an issue since film was still used in all EOS cameras in 1996 and earlier.

The almost flat plates which were ever so slightly meniscus to avoid reflections from the front of a sensor stack bouncing off the back of the protective plate only appeared on the front of the original IS Super Telephotos introduced in 1999. On the spec sheets, Canon still called them a protection glass. In 2004 Chuck Westfall gave the following list of Canon lenses with the protective meniscus:

EF300mm f/2.8L IS USM
EF400mm f/2.8L IS USM
EF400mm f/4 DO IS USM
EF500mm f/4L IS USM
EF600mm f/4L IS USM

Two more were added in 2008: the EF 800mm f/5.6 L IS and EF 200mm f/2 L IS.

The IS II series introduced in 2011-12 lacked the almost flat plate.

The major shift of weight to the rear and the resulting advantage of smaller elements began with the EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS III and EF 600mm f/4 L IS III in 2018.

Note that the EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS II, EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS II, EF 500mm f/4 L IS II, and EF 600mm f/4 L IS II, introduced in 2011-2012, other than removing the almost flat cover plate while also using fluorite for the second element as well as keeping the fluorite fourth element (fifth element in the older lenses with a protective plate), did not shift much of their optical formulae rearward. Their weight savings, which did not approach anywhere near the same degree of reduction as with the 2018 EF 400/2.8 IS III and EF 600/4 IS III, were as much a result of reducing the weight of non-optical components throughout the lens as they were of changes made to the optical formulae.

The 2011 EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS II (The 2011 EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS II was very similar):


Blueberry is fluorite

The 2018 EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS III:


Green is UD, purple is fluorite

The 1988 EF 600mm f/4 L:


Green is UD, purple is fluorite

The 1999 EF 600mm f/4 L IS:


Blue is UD, pink is fluorite

The 2012 EF 600mm f/4 L IS II (The EF 500mm f/4 L IS II was very similar):

Purple is fluorite

The 2018 EF 600mm f/4 L IS III:

Green is UD, purple is fluorite