First test
“CANON DESERVES PRAISE FOR BLESSINGTHIS LENSWITHA REALLY USEFUL MINIMUM FOCUS, 90CMAT 100MM”
and it meshes with the EOS R5’s advanced AF features, including people and animal eye detection. I went to my local lake to see how the lens fared with birds in flight, set to face+tracking mode, animal detection, continuous shooting and continuous focusing. The pair did a great job; once acquired, you could see the AF box tracking the eyes of flying gulls. The system wasn’t infallible, but worked very well for gulls and ducks – comparatively large birds – while shooting in bright light. The same set-up on starlings in a darker environment was also effective. Canon deserves praise for blessing this lens with a really useful minimum focus, 90cm at 100mm – and 1.2m at 500mm. This isn’t macro lens territory, but still useful if you don’t have time to change to a more suitable lens, or don’t have that lens choice with you. An option to limit focus range from, say, minimum focusing distance to 3m would have been handy. The lens delivered consistent performance across the three tested focal lengths, 100mm, 300mm and 500mm. Sharpness across the frame was very good at maximum aperture, and improved further one or two f/stops down from this. At the two smallest f/stops, diffraction impacted image quality noticeably; the smallest
value throughout the range is best avoided. The takeaway point on optical performance is that this lens is impressive, and very capable at its maximum and wide aperture values. The RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 is compatible with the RF 1.4x (£559) and RF 2x (£719) extenders, if more telephoto power is needed. But these only fit on the lens when it’s set to 300mm or longer, so with the 1.4x extender, you get an effective range of 420-700mm. WC
TEST PICTURES I tested this lens at 100mm, 300mm and 500mm settings on a Leofoto LS-365C tripod, with a remote shutter release. The lens’ minimum aperture values are not shown due to a lack of space. Raws were processed in Lightroom.
100mm
300mm
500mm
ALL INTHE DETAIL The lens’ left side is populated by a handful of control sliders, that were good to use and low profile enough to avoid accidentally switching
F/4.5
F/4.5
F/5.6
F/5.6
F/7.1
F/7.1
F/5.6
F/5.6
F/8
F/8
F/8
F/8
F/8
F/8
F/11
F/11
F/11
F/11
Verdict The Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM is a remarkable lens. Its optical, focusing and handling skills are deeply impressive, while the focal length range is really useful, making it suitable for people, travel and scenics, as well as action and wildlife. Add its close- focusing skills – 1.2m at 500mm – and it’s more than handy when seeking that precious detail. The downside, of course, is the price – but you get what you pay for, and I can see this lens being very popular with photographers of all genres. PROS Optical skills, autofocusing, portability, IS, useful close focusing (especially at 500mm), compatible with RF teleconverters CONS Price, tripod mount not Arca-Swiss compatible A SMALL WORLD The RF 100-500mm has a great minimum focusing distance of 90cm at 100mm – and 1.2m at 500mm. This southern hawker was shot at the 500mm end, close to the minimum focusing distance, and the file is shown here uncropped, so you can appreciate how useful the lens is for close-up shooting. Shot on a Canon EOS R5 with an exposure of 1/1600sec at f/8 and IS0 2000. Raw processed in Lightroom
F/11
F/11
F/16
F/16
F/16
F/16
F/16
F/16
F/22
F/22
F/22
F/22
F/32
F/32
F/32
F/32
F/22
F/22
54 Photography News | Issue 94
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