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