Do I go for the RF 800mm f11? Ummm!

Chilt

Chilt

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Nick
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Hey guys, so, I’m a wildlife photographer, and I have the sigma 150-600C on the Canon r6, great lens just my IS stops working so have to switch on and off again for it to work, bit annoying but use to it now, but I’ve seen the 800f11 and it seems sharp with quick auto focus, so you think it would be a nice addition to add to my setup?
Thanks
Nick
 
Chilt said:
Hey guys, so, I’m a wildlife photographer, and I have the sigma 150-600C on the Canon r6, great lens just my IS stops working so have to switch on and off again for it to work, bit annoying but use to it now, but I’ve seen the 800f11 and it seems sharp with quick auto focus, so you think it would be a nice addition to add to my setup?
Thanks
Nick
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I’ve got the 600 RF and love it!! I’ll try and get out for a walk today and grab some, suffice to say it’s a knock out.
 
Chilt said:
Hey guys, so, I’m a wildlife photographer, and I have the sigma 150-600C on the Canon r6, great lens just my IS stops working so have to switch on and off again for it to work, bit annoying but use to it now, but I’ve seen the 800f11 and it seems sharp with quick auto focus, so you think it would be a nice addition to add to my setup?
Thanks
Nick
Click to expand...

Try shooting exclusively at f/11 with the 150-600mm for a while and see if you find it restrictive. Personally I wouldn't find it a problem when shooting birds in flight but anything in a dark setting may be.
 
Mike.P said:
Try shooting exclusively at f/11 with the 150-600mm for a while and see if you find it restrictive. Personally I wouldn't find it a problem when shooting birds in flight but anything in a dark setting may be.
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This
 
It will be usable on all of two days in a year taking UK weather into account.
In the UK I find it difficult to manage with f6.3, so f11 is bit of a no go.

In better times I used to travel to sunnier countries with better light once or twice a year. And whenever I have been I have found some interesting wildlife which I was not able to photograph properly :(
This lens is very attractive to travel with to those places since I never carry my large telezoom.

mind you from what I understand the you do not get the full sensor AF with these f11 lenses. so you should take that into account.
 
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nandbytes said:
In the UK I find it difficult to manage with f6.3, so f11 is bit of a no go.
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Difficult with 400 f5.6 at 5.6 and so was 600mm f/4 at f/4.... f/11 is like super heavy tripod with shutter realease cable and zero wind.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Difficult with 400 f5.6 at 5.6 and so was 600mm f/4 at f/4.... f/11 is like super heavy tripod with shutter realease cable and zero wind.
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well for wildlife I suspect OP will want to get his shutter speeds high enough to freeze the subject which also eliminate share blur.
if you keep your shutter speeds high to freeze the subject i.e. wildlife, you will end up with high ISOs.

I can see the motivation behind this lens but its not really made with UK in mind as far as I'm concerned. But there are several places where this lens does make sense.
 
Chilt said:
Hey guys, so, I’m a wildlife photographer, and I have the sigma 150-600C on the Canon r6, great lens just my IS stops working so have to switch on and off again for it to work, bit annoying but use to it now, but I’ve seen the 800f11 and it seems sharp with quick auto focus, so you think it would be a nice addition to add to my setup?
Thanks
Nick
Click to expand...
F11 is not much light. For wildlife you need all the light you can get. For this, personally I only got results I was happy with once I got the 600 f4. But that’s a big investment which may or may not be worth it for you.
 
nandbytes said:
well for wildlife I suspect OP will want to get his shutter speeds high enough to freeze the subject which also eliminate share blur.
if you keep your shutter speeds high to freeze the subject i.e. wildlife, you will end up with high ISOs.

I can see the motivation behind this lens but its not really made with UK in mind as far as I'm concerned. But there are several places where this lens does make sense.
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Which probably means well beyond ISO 6400. I don't like pushing my older Canons to 3200, the 5ds to be honest is 800 max.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Which probably means well beyond ISO 6400. I don't like pushing my older Canons to 3200, the 5ds to be honest is 800 max.
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Even on the latest greatest cameras I don't like going beyond ISO6400. I have managed to salvage a few from ISO12800 but they aren't exactly wall hangers.
 
I don’t have the 800/11 but what I do have is a Nikon V2 with its fast hybrid AF and the Nikkor VR CX 70-300.

The crop factor on a 1 inch in 2.7 so this is 810mm at the long end. It is a known as a “fine weather lens” but I find it is better than that.

You can do the “equivalence” calcs if you like but that 800/11 on a Canon body is going to give you more headroom than the Nikon 1 outfit and a lot of people use the CX successfully for BIF ( see Thomas Stirr’s website ).

I have no problems winding mine to 1/2000 ( 1/3200 would be better sometimes ) with auto iso at 3200 ( using AI NR if nec ).

In short, if I had a Canon and a budget for that l, but not for the super primes and an extender, then it would look good to me.

[ in fact my next in line cheap light long reach system, should I give up on N1 ) is an oly em1.2 and an oly 100-400 ]

For a canon shooter I guess a possibility is the excellent ( by reputation ) 100-400 Lii and a 2x extender but maybe mixed views on EOS-R:

R5 with EF 100-400 is ii and 2x extender: Canon EOS R Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

Expert news, reviews and videos of the latest digital cameras, lenses, accessories, and phones. Get answers to your questions in our photography forums.
www.dpreview.com www.dpreview.com

richard
 
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Mike.P said:
Try shooting exclusively at f/11 with the 150-600mm for a while and see if you find it restrictive. Personally I wouldn't find it a problem when shooting birds in flight but anything in a dark setting may be.
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^^^This. Push the ISO and note the crazy-long (6m!) closest focusing distance of the 800/11. There's not a lot of difference between 600 and 800mm, handy perhaps but not game-changing.
 
HoppyUK said:
There's not a lot of difference between 600 and 800mm, handy perhaps but not game-changing.
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every little helps. These are essentially either bird spotter lenses (id, share and delete), landscape on tripod if sharpness is actually any good or most likely spy lenses. It is surprising how much detail you can resolve at 400mm on 5ds. I was shooting Liverpool seafront from birkenhead and could essentially make out people sitting in a cafe through the window.
 
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