First test
Canon mirrorless system owners who need telephoto pulling power have a brand-new 100-500mm lens as an option, but at a hefty £2979, it’s an expensive one Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM PRICE: £2979 CANON.CO.UK
handling combination, weighing just under 2.3kg – with the lens 1.53kg on its own. The lens has three IS modes: one is for static subjects; two is for panning and corrects vibration at 90° to the panning direction; and three is for subjects with erratic motion, kicking in at the point of exposure. Assuming the minimum-advised, non-IBIS-assisted shutter speed is 1/500sec, a 6EV benefit takes you down to 1/8sec, so I took sets of test shots down to this speed at 500mm. This was indoors, in favourable conditions, and the IBIS system performed very well. I got critically sharp shots at 1/8sec, but don’t expect that outdoors in a breeze. The lens has a Dual Nano USM focusing motor, so images zip into sharpness rapidly and silently,
CONVERTS TO CANON’S EOS R mirrorless system are spoilt for choice with 23 lenses, including 14 L-series optics, available at the latest count. If an ultra-telephoto zoom is what you need, Canon recently announced an RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM, a non-L lens selling at £699, joining the RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM, an L-series lens selling at almost four times the price, at £2979. It’s pricey, though much cheaper than the fixed, fast-aperture long primes Canon offers. Despite its ultra-telephoto credentials, the 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 is remarkably compact. At 100mm, it measures 21cm, increasing to just over 29cm at 500mm, and another 8cm with the bayonet lens hood SPECS › Price £2979 › In the box Lens cap, dust cap, tripod mount ring, bayonet lens hood, pouch › Fittings Canon RF › F ormat Full-frame › F ilter size 77mm › Construction 20 elements in 14 groups › Special lens elements One Super UD, six UD › A utofocus Yes, Dual Nano USM › Aperture range F/4.5-7.1 to f/32-51 › Diaphragm Nine blades › M inimum focus 90cm at 100mm, 1.2m at 500mm › Magnification 0.33x › W eather sealed Yes, dust- and moisture-resistant › Image stabiliser 5EV benefit, 6EV benefit with EOS R5/R6 IBIS › Coatings ASC (Air Sphere Coating), fluorine › D imensions (dxl) 93.8x207.6mm › Weight 1.53kg with tripod mount › Contact canon.co.uk
fitted. For a lens with a 500mm focal length, this is impressive, but it is costly: its maximum aperture is a modest f/7.1. That said, with the excellent, high-ISO performance of the latest EOS R cameras, shooting at superfast speeds to compensate isn’t bad. As you’d expect, the lens is well- featured. A rotating collar stops zoom creep, and although this is not a firm lock, it was enough to prevent the zoom barrel sliding down when the lens was carried on the shoulder – and a removable tripod mount is fitted as standard. The downside is it’s not Arca-Swiss compatible, which is disappointing, and an oversight from Canon in this day and age. Manual focus is electronic and smooth, with options in the camera menu that let you vary focusing direction and responsiveness. There’s the choice of a distance scale in the EVF/monitor. The final ring on this lens is for lens control; programme it to perform various functions, via the menu. Zooming through the whole focal range requires a one-third rotation of the zoom barrel, which moves anti-clockwise to get to a longer focal length. From 100mm, with one hand cupping the lens from its underside, I managed to zoom to about 200mm before altering my grip. I could zoom the whole range if starting with my left elbow out at 90°, but that wasn’t a natural or supportive position. I tested the lens on an EOS R5 body, and the pair were a good “A REMOVABLE TRIPODMOUNT IS FITTEDAS STANDARD. THE DOWNSIDE IS IT’S NOT ARCA-SWISS COMPATIBLE”
BIRD IN FLIGHT This gull was shot with the Canon 100-500mm at 500mm, using an exposure of 1/1600sec at f/8 and ISO 500 in shutter-priority. The camera’s AF was set to servo, face+tracking and animal/eye detection, and shooting was in continuous mode. The camera/lens combo did a fine job of tracking the bird’s eye in flight, as you can see from the above enlargement of one of the shots. Pictures here are shown full-frame and the Raws were put through DxO PureRaw
Issue 94 | Photography News 53
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