Sooooo, f/11 you say? What’s Canon up to with these upcoming supertelephoto lenses?

I remember the Minolta 500mm F8 AF mirror lens back then. I think with the current sensor high ISO performance, F8 is ok? But F11? Especially if you are shooting fast moving subjects and need a relatively high shutter speed? I am not sure, we will see I guess.

I am not sure why Canon didn't just go the conventional mirror lens approach and just make a 500mm F8 and maybe a 300mm F5.6 or F4.5. Instead they go for a F11 and we are not even sure if its an optical lens or mirror lens now.
 
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For me it's not a matter of whether I would *choose* to shoot at f/11 on other lenses, but the fact that an f/11 lens doesn't afford me the flexibility to shoot faster if need be. Having an f/5.6 lens and shooting at f/11 is much different than needing f/5.6 but only having f/11. Yes, if the new cams resolve better at low light that's great, but I still would rather shoot at lower ISO values and a wider aperture. Every lens has its target audience, I get that, but I'm still baffled by Canon's aperture choices of many of these lenses being talked about. And I would argue I'm clearly not in the target audience for them. :)
Walking around and accidentally having a 5,6 with you? This will not happen.
Nice to have a ultra portable F11 just in case ...
Fact.
Yes, sitting in a blind or car a wide aperture makes sense, I use one.
 
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Walking around and accidentally having a 5,6 with you? This will not happen.
Nice to have a ultra portable F11 just in case ...
Fact.
Yes, sitting in a blind or car a wide aperture makes sense, I use one.

Ultra portable?? Think again...
Here is a comparison of lens lengths....these new lenses are pretty long....a 500/5.6PF is a much better walk around lens...add a 1.4TC for more reach.

Adjusted for length to mount and not sensor (-20cm from patent). Also one might want to add 0.9" to any of the lenses needed to adapt to the R cameras:

600/11 DO: 314.97mm or 12.4"

800/11 DO: 369.25mm or 14.5"

A few comparison lengths:

Sony 200-600: 12.5"

Nikon 500PF: 9.33"

Canon 400 f.2.8 III: 13.5"

Canon 400DOII: 9.16"

Canon 400DOII/2xTCIII(800 f/8): 11.26"

Canon 600III: 17.64"

Canon 800L: 18.15"

Conclusion: Long, skinny lenses....

Oh...and the lens they should have made: 600 f/8 DO: 11.78"
 
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Creamy backgrounds at f/11?? Well here is f/16 for the doubters....
https://flic.kr/p/2h8zDky]August 31, 2019.jpg[/url] by https://www.flickr.com/photos/100907765@N08/]Bird/Wildlife Photos[/url], on Flickr

No f/11 in lower light?....how about sunset SEO....just get creative....this one at 1/2500 840mm f/9 ISO 1000...easily could make up either SS or ISO to deal with an extra 2/3 stop of light loss and still make this shot:
https://flic.kr/p/2hSSPCm]November 29, 2019.jpg[/url] by https://www.flickr.com/photos/100907765@N08/]Bird/Wildlife Photos[/url], on Flickr
 
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Ultra portable?? Think again...
Here is a comparison of lens lengths....these new lenses are pretty long....a 500/5.6PF is a much better walk around lens...add a 1.4TC for more reach.

Adjusted for length to mount and not sensor (-20cm from patent). Also one might want to add 0.9" to any of the lenses needed to adapt to the R cameras:

600/11 DO: 314.97mm or 12.4"

800/11 DO: 369.25mm or 14.5"

A few comparison lengths:

Sony 200-600: 12.5"

Nikon 500PF: 9.33"

Canon 400 f.2.8 III: 13.5"

Canon 400DOII: 9.16"

Canon 400DOII/2xTCIII(800 f/8): 11.26"

Canon 600III: 17.64"

Canon 800L: 18.15"

Conclusion: Long, skinny lenses....

Oh...and the lens they should have made: 600 f/8 DO: 11.78"
The problem is that they have chosen to use very few elements in these new lenses, 9 elements in 6 groups, cf the ancient 400/5.6 which is 7 elements in 6 groups and 10.4" long. That keeps the cost down. To make it shorter, they would have to put in more groups. The 500PF is 19 elements in 11 groups, for example.
 
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I can’t use an F11 for any video I shoot, that thing would live in my closet. But I guess shooting something on the beach? Definitely not at magic hour but I guess something that has to be shot at noon from far. I can see it as tight shot from far in bright sun with reflectors used.
 
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Maybe I am missing something , but if the new sensor has greater dynamic range than f11 may become a lot more usable in conditions without bright light , like magic hour or allow you to use faster shutter speeds at f11 when shooting wildlife etc maybe what is hiding in between the lines is the new cameras will work better in low light conditions?
 
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Walking around and accidentally having a 5,6 with you? This will not happen.
Nice to have a ultra portable F11 just in case ...
Fact.
Yes, sitting in a blind or car a wide aperture makes sense, I use one.

Who said anything about walking around? ;-) If I were though, I'd rather not have an f/11 lens with me, regardless of portability. What can't be argued is this is a specialized lens with specialized purposes. You can see that from many of the responses in this thread. When you have to get very specific on when a lens would be useful, it's clearly not intended for the masses.
 
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Would be interesting if Canon could make a viewing adapter for these lenses so they could double as IS spotting scopes. I think they might be attractive to the digiscoping wildlife crowd but I’m not sure they are ready to embrace full time digital display vs their OVF’s. Fly by wire focus kind of complicates things.
 
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Maybe I am missing something , but if the new sensor has greater dynamic range than f11 may become a lot more usable in conditions without bright light ,
The new sensors (from any manufacturer) are not expected to have much greater dynamic range "in conditions without bright light".

What can still be improved is DR at base ISO (especially with further lowering of base ISO), but it wouldn't help f/11 tele lenses.
 
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You do know the reason the AF is slow because it is f/8 or f/11, so how does an 800 f/11 magically fix that
Go out and run a 100-400 II at f11, and then put a 2x extender on it and do the same. it is a world of difference. Yes, there will always be some level of focus issue at f11 due to light restrictions byt make no mistake that a lense designed to work at f11 will be immensely more efficient than a lens running a 2x extender.
 
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Go out and run a 100-400 II at f11, and then put a 2x extender on it and do the same. it is a world of difference. Yes, there will always be some level of focus issue at f11 due to light restrictions byt make no mistake that a lense designed to work at f11 will be immensely more efficient than a lens running a 2x extender.
you do realise that Canon cameras focus wide open? If you run 100-400 at f/11, the Canon camera still focusing at the widest available aperture. f/5.6 @400mm. Not f/11. Hence the difference in AF speed you pointed out.
make no mistake, that Lens designed To work at f/11 will be not immensely more efficient than a lens running 2x extender. Due to “light restrictions” as you put it
 
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you do realise that Canon cameras focus wide open? If you run 100-400 at f/11, the Canon camera still focusing at the widest available aperture. f/5.6 @400mm. Not f/11. Hence the difference in AF speed you pointed out.
make no mistake, that Lens designed To work at f/11 will be not immensely more efficient than a lens running 2x extender. Due to “light restrictions” as you put it
I’ve read here that R series cameras sometimes focus stopped down. I don’t know under what circumstances, though.
 
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Just for helping the phantasies how to use these "crappy smartphone style F11s"
700mm (500& 1.4x) F10, ISO200, 1/800sec, 16 years old sensor technology (EOS1D MII)
Sorry, the sun reflection in the eye is barely visible here in canonrumors.
View attachment 190773
Some take the smartphone to walk around, I will do with the 600 F11
And just think how nice that would be with subject tracking IS, which is a real possibility. (If the info is there to track AF, then it is also there for IS. Just need to figure out how to apply it.)
 
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