Extending the reach of the Canon RF 100-500mm L lens with the EOS R7 camera March 12, 2024

 

In the original I can clearly make out passengers on their verandahs and service personnel doing maintenance on the vessel.

The Canon RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1 IS USM L is one of the best lenses we can buy for the RF mount.

For a lens which reaches out to 500mm it is light and compact. It is super sharp at all focal lengths, offers excellent AF and stabiliser capability and good handling.

However there are times when we might wish for a bit more reach especially when photographing birds and other shy little creatures.

In July 2021  I posted a comparison between simple cropping and using the RF1.4x extender, in each case using the R5 camera body.

I found then that the extender was of some small benefit with some subjects but not so much with other subjects. Downsides of using the extender include the cost, the loss of one full stop of aperture and the fact that on the RF 100-500mm, the lens must be zoomed out to the 300mm mark on the barrel before the extender can be mounted.

In this post I discuss a third option which was not available in 2021. That is mounting an RF mount APSC crop sensor camera to the lens. For my tests I used an EOS R7 which I rate the best current model for this purpose.  It is also the most expensive option if we have to purchase the R7 in addition to a full frame body.

However if we eschew the full frame pathway altogether the R7 is an attractive all purpose option for most kinds of photography.

I have also been testing the RF100-400mm f5.6-8 zoom on full frame and R7 crop sensor with and without the RF 1.4x extender.

My short take on these options is that the RF 100-400mm on the R7 or R10 is an excellent budget zoom option giving an effective focal length range of 160-640mm in full frame equivalents.

For the budget camera buyer baulking at the cost of the RF 100-500mm L on an R5, the RF 100-400mm on an R7 or R10 makes an attractive alternative.

A quick check on today’s prices in Australia shows the R5+RF100-500 is selling for AU$8844 and the R7+100-400 at AU$2998.

My tests did not show any benefit to adding the RF 1.4x extender to the R7+RF100-400mm combination. The extender gives us a larger image on the sensor but not necessarily one able to reveal more subject detail.

I appears that extenders work best with expensive high end, big white L lenses which have been developed in the expectation that extenders will be mounted for some subjects.

Anyway, back to the R7 + RF 100-500mm L combination.

My tests show that this pairing works very well, able to capture an impressive level of detailed subject information on the 32Mpx sensor.

I recently made some photos on Sydney Harbour which show this capability. For readers who are familiar with Sydney, I was at Bradley’s Head on a hazy, dull, cloudy day with mediocre visibility across to the opposite side of the harbour. Despite this I was surprised to find that the R7+100-500mm combination was able to capture an impressive amount of detail which was revealed after a bit of tweaking in Adobe Camera Raw.

All photos were hand held with the stabilisers working well. The autofocus was reliable and accurate which is pretty impressive given the haze and low contrast in the distant subjects.

I also photographed some creatures at close range finding the R7+100-500mm to work well for this situation.

One largely unsung capability of the RF 100-500mm lens is its ability to focus close. It can be used as a near-macro lens without any accessories.

The spider in the photo below was about 2 meters from the camera. I used the RF100-500+1.4x extender+R7 to achieve macro capability from a stand-back position. Sometimes, as was the case here we are unable or unwilling to get closer to the subject. Even at f16 depth of focus is only about 2mm. As the spider was moving back and forth about 100mm in the breeze I used servo AF and continuous drive to nail focus in the optimum place on about half the frames exposed.

It seems remarkable to me that such a high level of imaging capability is available to ordinary consumers in over-the-counter retail products. I suspect that we might get a bit blasé about this sometimes.

Here are some of the photos made with the R7 on the RF100-500L zoom. They have been downsized and compressed for the internet so I am not sure how much of the original detail will come through.

 

The stand-away-back spider close-up

Filigree feathers on the emu at Taronga zoo

Elizabeth Bay. The front row buildings are about 2.5 kilometers from the camera on a hazy day with low visibility and atmospheric distortion. But in the original I can clearly see house bricks which are 75mm deep and leaves 60mm in diameter.

Off to Manly for the day. The Catherine Hamlin, about 500meters from the camera,  carries number 24622. Just to the left of the number is a little sign which reads "mind your head". In the original file I can read this easily.

Australian brush turkeys are fearless. This one came up looking for a feed and is now moving away unfed.