$25k LENS test! Canon RF 400mm f2.8 and RF 600mm f4 REVIEW

hi i'm gordon from cameralabs and in this video i'm reviewing the two biggest and most expensive lenses for canon's esr mirrorless system to date the rf 400 millimeter f 2.8 which costs 12 000 or 12 500 pounds and the rf 600 millimeter f4 which cost 13 000 or 13 400 pounds yep that's a ton of money but actually no different from the latest ef mark iii versions of the same lenses designed for eos dslrs nor the equivalent models from sony either and while nikon's not yet released native zed mount super telephotos the existing afs models are also in a similar ballpark this i'm afraid is the cost of bright aperture full-frame super telephoto lenses now these kinds of lenses are unashamedly aimed at professional or very well-heeled sports and wildlife photographers you'll see them at the sidelines of every major sporting event or on location tracking down exotic birds and animals and while their price makes them a fancy purchase for most of us they can be affordable to rent for an event or a trip plus it's fun to see top end gear in action so in a similar vein to supercar reviews stick around to see what this sort of money can buy canon loaned me final production samples of both rf super telephotos and since the r3 wasn't yet available at the time i made this review i tested them on an eos r5 if you find any of my reviews useful please show your support by subscribing right let's get on with it first things first the rf super telephotos launched in mid 2021 share the same optics as the ef mark iii versions launched in late 2018 and that's because the super telephoto design is much the same whether you're aiming it at dslrs or mirrorless cameras so they share the same optics the same controls the same build and the same price too the main physical difference is the addition of a built-in ef to eos r adapter and canon's not even trying to hide that fact by coloring this extension in silver and grey this adapter in turn adds 40 to 50 grams to their weight and 24 mil to their length now you could of course use a separate adapter on the old df models to mount them on an esr camera but it adds a potential point of failure which may attract some pros to the rf versions beyond this native communication over the rf mount provides additional benefits most notably support for dual power supply on future esr bodies presumably starting with the r3 and that means that more power can be delivered to the auto focus motors allowing them to run faster both lenses also feature a faster diaphragm system which supports burst speeds up to 30 frames per second as well as aperture control in 8th ev increments for video canon also quote slightly improved stabilization whether the body at the end has ibis or not the rf super telephotos are also compatible with the rf tele converters if you need even longer reach like other rf lenses the focus distance windows of their ef versions have been removed and in their place at digital scales presented on screen or in the viewfinder unlike most rf lenses though there is no customizable control ring okay so here's the rf-400 2.8 at the top and the rf 600 mil f4 at the bottom both without their lens hoods fitted these are the naked lenses the 400 measures 163 by 367 mil and weighs 2 890 grams while the 600 measures 168 by 472 mil and weighs 390 grams so they're roughly similar in diameter but the rf 600 is roughly 10 centimeters longer and 200 grams heavier once you add their respective lens hoods though i thought the 600 felt notably heavier in my hands than the figures suggest but at roughly 3 kilograms each they're still way lighter than the mark 1 and mark 2 ef models back in 2018 canon made significant weight savings on the mark iii ef versions of these lenses by exploiting modern optics as well as shifting the balance more to the middle making them much easier to handle the new rf versions inherit this design which is also similar to sony's approach on its mirrorless super telephotos indeed while the older versions were very much the kind of lenses you'd have to use with some sort of stand you can just about swing these newer ones around handheld well be it for short periods both lenses share the same controls with generously wide and smooth manual focusing rings a spring-loaded ring control for motorized manual focusing or preset distance jumps and four focus hold buttons both lenses share the same control panel too seen here on the 600 f4 including distance limits for the autofocus three speeds for the motor assisted manual focus and a set of buttons and switches to preset that ring control distance and i'm going to show you all of this working in just a moment like most super telephotos filters are accommodated via a drop-in system and both new rs supertellies unsurprisingly take the same 52mm filters as the older ef versions both rf supertellies are also equipped with the same built-in tripod foot with quarter inch and 3 8 inch threads but sadly still no arca-swiss dovetail carved into them now they're not removable but they do allow the lens in the camera to rotate very smoothly through 360 degrees with very solid clicks at 90 degree intervals the feet also double up as carrying handles although there's also lugs on the barrels for attaching a supplied strap both lenses are also supplied with substantial cylindrical lens hoods that clip onto the end of the barrels and are screwed into position they offer great protection but obviously transform them into even larger objects cannon sells optional shorter hoods if you need something less likely to club a nearby photojournalist as you swing them around though the hoods also reverse over the barrels for transportation leaving the supplied padded caps to slide over to protect those huge lovely front elements the hoods are also tipped with a rubber ring at the end allowing them to be stood up quite securely without damaging the optics that's the 600 on the left with its supplied bag alongside and now here's the bag for the 402.8 with the lens inside canon switch from rigid flight cases to soft padded shoulder bags with mark iii ef models and the rf versions unsurprisingly inherit them they're well padded with comfortable carrying handles and a single strap to carry them over your shoulder unzipping a large flap allows you to access the lens with the hood reversed over the barrel cannon was obviously thinking of future rf versions when designing the bag as it cunningly left enough space at the top to accommodate their slightly longer length unfortunately this now means there's no longer enough room to pack them away while a teleconverter is mounted and like the ef models there's also no space to include a mounted body either so you'll need to carry that separately i'd have preferred some means to accommodate a body in the bag even if it wasn't mounted to the lens okay now for some focus tests starting with the 400 2.8 wide open on an r5 body autofocusing using single af and the central area now even with a very close subject it's quick and pretty confident and for comparison here's the 600 f4 at f4 of course on the r5 under the same conditions and this time even though the bottle is now at the minimum focusing distance of about 4.2 meters there's no struggle switching to manual focus both lenses offer three different speeds and you're looking at the fastest here on the 400 2.8 notice the digital distance scale rather than relying on the mechanical window of the older ef lenses the slowest of the three speeds here allows for very precise adjustments if you prefer a smoother manual focusing experience with a constant speed both lenses are also equipped with a power focus or pf mode which uses the spring-loaded ring control to rack focus in either direction at one of two speeds depending on how far you twist it it's a useful feature and you can of course activate focus peaking for assistance but at these unforgiving focal lengths and apertures it's still a bit too easy to overshoot you can of course use the same power focusing during movies and also have access to the two different speeds as seen here on the 400 2.8 but again it's easy to overshoot your target canon's thought of that though and both lenses alternatively allow you to preset either one or two focus distances activated by twisting the control ring left or right this allows you to precisely return to an exact distance or two different distances with a simple twist of the ring and you're seeing it in action here with the 402.8 where i've preset the distance on the label and on the ornament behind it and now for comparison on the 600 f4 this feature is brilliant if you regularly need to refocus back to a fixed position where the action often happens such as a branch being used by a bird to perch it's also useful for video seen here on the 400 2.8 and i've left the sound on so you can hear me twisting the control ring as well as the optional beep to confirm focus you can of course turn this off if preferred and for good measure the same test with the 600 f4 again with that confirmation beep turned on the focus presets eliminate any chance of error but canon's autofocus has become so good for movies that in most situations you can still rely on simply tapping the screen to pull focus to wherever you like here i'm just tapping between the bottle and the ornament on the r5 screen while using the 400 2.8 and now for comparison using the 600 f4 in both cases the ao system does slow down to confirm when settling on the ornament but if you prefer an instant snap back and forth just use that preset feature next for stabilization with canon offering the same three modes depending on whether you want compensation full time or only in the vertical axis while panning or unless you take the shot canon quotes 5.5 stops of compensation is possible on either rf lens that's half a stop more than the ef versions but that there's no difference if you're using a body with ibis or not as censorship stabilization becomes less effective at long focal lengths here's a shot i took handheld with the rf 600mm f4 on the r5 at a 50th of a second with stabilization turned on this was the slowest shutter speed i could successfully handhold a perfectly sharp result under close inspection with this lens and to match it without any stabilization on the day required a shutter speed of 800th of a second so that represents four stops of compensation to show you the difference with and without his two images both taken at 50th of a second with is enabled on the left and disabled on the right it's quite different isn't it if you're shooting at low resolutions or not looking as close i found i could actually get fairly decent handheld results at a 13th of a second with the 600 f4 or even a sixth of a second and you can see the images taken at a sixth of a second with is enabled on the left and without is on the right obviously the longer you do handhold these lenses the more wobbly you're gonna get though they're pretty heavy stabilization is also invaluable when filming video here's a handheld clip i filmed with the rf600 f4 with is disabled where it's obviously ruined by shake and now here's the same subject but this time with is enabled and while i still can't keep the bag of coffee absolutely static the annoying wobble is gone and the footage can be usable i'll show you some more handheld video later on before i dive into image quality and real-life handling a quick look at the rendering of blurred areas starting with a pokeball test with the 400 2.8 wide opener 2.8 and now gradually closing the aperture in one third eevee increments where you'll see the blurred lights in the background mostly retaining a nice circular shape and only really revealing the nine bladed diaphragm system from f 5.6 onwards and remember if you're filming video you can also unlock access to finer eighth eevee increments and next the 600 f4 starting at f4 but moved a little further away due to its longer minimum focusing distance even from further away though notice how the background appears tighter due to the longer focal length and again gradually closing the aperture one third of an eva at a time where again the nine bladed diaphragm system is doing a pretty good job at keeping a mostly circular opening delivering mostly circular blobs at longer subject distances both lenses can still obliterate the background with a shallow depth of field here's a portrait with a 400 at 2.8 where you can see the depth of focus in a thin band running across the beach with everything in front or behind becoming very blurred and for comparison now with the 600 f4 from a longer distance to match the subject size on the frame it is pretty hard to shoot portraits at these kind of distances though you'll need to either shout at your subject or phone them or use some sort of walkie-talkie these lenses are really designed for sports and wildlife so here's a sequence of shots taken with a 400 at 2.8 on the eos r5 using its mechanical shutter at 12 frames per second and that speed was maintained during the burst i used servo af for continuous autofocus and set the area to human face and eye detection with the r5 placing a box over nick's face throughout under close inspection the majority are pin sharp and on the occasional time a frame didn't quite hit the sharpest focus the following one did so there's plenty of keepers to choose from and now for the 600 f4 again using the same settings although i briefly let go of the shutter a couple of times here to test the re-acquisition i've not skipped any frames though for this presentation as before i was relying on the r5's face knight detection and servo af set to case one for general purpose shooting these are the default settings like the 400 2.8 i enjoyed a very high albeit not quite 100 perfect hit rate but better results may be possible by adjusting the case settings now for birds in flight using brighton's fast and often erratic seagull population especially where there's donuts or chips involved i'll show you a mix from each lens and indicate which one you're looking at in all cases the aperture was set to the maximum value and i used face eye detection with animals selected in the menu once again i use servo af case 1 which is the default setting although again you may enjoy greater success by adjusting the settings such as case 3 with its increased sensitivity that said as you'll see i enjoyed a very high hit rate using the default settings especially considering the birds quickly darted in and out of the frame this time i switched from the mechanical to the electronic shutter unlocking the r5's top speed at 20 frames per second albeit with the increased risk of skewing due to rolling shutter now swinging a super telephoto lens back and forth to follow a fast moving bird is pretty much a worst case scenario for rolling shutter and you will see some skewing on the buildings in the background of some of these shots so if your subject has a lot of sideways motion you may prefer to shoot with a mechanical shutter instead at least with the r5 in practical terms the erratic nature of these birds rules out tripod or even monopod support for most shots with you instead having to hand hold for the quickest reactions unsurprisingly doing so with a 400 2.8 or 600 f4 grows old pretty quickly anytime you pick up either lens for the first time you're generally impressed by how light they are for their size but after swinging one around for even just a few minutes you'll want to take a break of the two the 400 2.8 unsurprisingly proved more practical for this kind of relatively large and close bird and in use is also a little lighter and more manageable especially when fitted with the hood okay next i'm going to show you a bunch of photos i took with both lenses all at their maximum apertures and all straight out of the r5 i've included many in my corresponding review at cameralabs.com if you'd like a closer look at your leisure see you soon [Music] super telephotos are also ideal for capturing distant subjects with video especially since canon's video autofocus is so confident so before my final verdict here's a quick compilation of clips filmed in 4k at 100p on the r5 and slowed by four times on my timeline so the canon rf 400 2.8 and rf 600ml f4 are not just super telephotos in every sense of the term but clearly make the statement that eos r is ready for pro sports and wildlife photography they may only represent a mild update of the ef mark iii versions launched in 2018 but canon designed those with mirrorless in mind so there's no point reinventing optics that are still at the top of their game but the rf versions are more than just the ef models with built-in adapters native rf communications support faster burst speeds finer aperture increments in video improved stabilization and the chance to exploit faster focusing on upcoming bodies with dual power drive if you already own or have access to the ef mark iii versions i'd probably still stick with them but new buyers with mirrorless bodies will certainly appreciate the enhancements of the rf models especially since they cost the same as the ef versions speaking of price these are of course eye-wateringly expensive lenses unashamedly aimed at pros agencies or very well-heeled enthusiasts who demand uncompromised performance but again they're no more expensive than the previous ef versions nor sony's equivalents this is how much bright aperture super telephotos cost if you desire this reach at a lower price you'll have to compromise on aperture canon's rf 600 millimeter f11 an rf 800 millimeter f11 leverage the low light autofocus and viewfinder brightness of modern mirrorless cameras to deliver a surprisingly good experience at a very reasonable 700 or 900 dollars respectively then there's the plethora of long zooms you can adapt from sigma and tamron's ef ranges while we pray for native rf versions but again the 400 2.8 and 600 f4 are not designed for most of us they're used by the photographers you see at the sidelines of major sporting events or tracking down rare and exotic wildlife they're not trying to be affordable they're trying to deliver uncompromised performance at very long focal lengths and in that respect these new rf lenses deliver the goods and importantly show canon now considers eos r to be a serious platform for pro sports and wildlife photography i realize few of us will actually buy one of these lenses but i hope you enjoyed seeing what they and the system can now do and if you enjoyed it you can show your support by simply clicking that subscribe button no need to smash it just a normal clip will more than suffice and as always if you loved it there's links below to buy me a coffee or buy yourself my in-camera photography book thanks for watching and i'll see you next time bye

Channel: Gordon Laing

Views: 54,987

Rating: 4.9441428 out of 5

Keywords: Canon, RF, 400mm, f2.8, 600mm, f4, super-telephoto, mirrorless, lens, review, professsional, pro

Id: UPcvCWJnmGk

Length: 19min 41sec (1181 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 19 2021