Buying the 800mm as I HATE CROPPING

DaelpixPhotography

DaelpixPhotography

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David
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Decided to buy the Canon RF 800mm F11. I'm off to WEX to trade in some unwanted lenses and camera body.
I've made the decision because I'm hating that I have to crop so many images because I'm too far away. I feel that the 600mm isn't worth it considering I'm only gaining 200mm, so going with the 800mm instead.

I can live with it being F11.
 
Hi david, how many shots have you taken at f11?

Is it for birds/nature?

will the AF work quick enough at f11, or will it work at all
 
Just looked at my almost 40,000 images in LR - I have only knowingly taken about 400 at f11 and above and they were 75% insects or flower shots, some that I used for stacking - and with such I some extra lighting - flash/defuser etc,.

(and I have taken lots of bird images) ......... OK I agree the AF system is now a lot better than the "older" contrast based system ........ but UK light even in summer can be poor

as said above it will really be interesting to see how you get on - I'm not in any criticising your choice.
 
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Good luck and hope it works.......you obviously do not live in Scotland!!
 
nc_killie said:
Good luck and hope it works.......you obviously do not live in Scotland!!
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I don't no. But I'll be heading to Argyll in September to my usual spot. Can't wait !!
 
and of course most of the time you will be operating at low shutter speeds and/as well as high ISO's

so have you compared "cropping" with the images you expect to get for using an 800mm at f11 - noise?
 
800mm isn't all that long, in many cases.

I use the 100~400mm Panasonic lens quite a lot which is equivalent to an 800mm full frame. For many subjects, I still end up cropping to get the image I want.

Stampe Formation Display Team Sidmouth G9 P1014411.JPG
 
I’ve been using the 600/11 on an R7 for a while and it’s very good. Higher iso settings on the recent R-series cameras make F11 perfectly usable in UK light and I’ve had good results for bird photography. The main downside I’ve found with the 600 is the minimum focus distance which is 4.5m and longer (6m I think) for the 800 so that rules out doing garden birds unless you have a long garden :) Not an issue if you’re doing aeroplanes though…
 
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magicolor1 said:
I’ve been using the 600/11 on an R7 for a while and it’s very good. Higher iso settings on the recent R-series cameras make F11 perfectly usable in UK light and I’ve had good results for bird photography. The main downside I’ve found with the 600 is the minimum focus distance which is 4.5m and longer (6m I think) for the 800 so that rules out doing garden birds unless you have a long garden :) Not an issue if you’re doing aeroplanes though…
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Yep true. I'm not too keen on the minimum focal distance. The 800mm is worse than the 600mm.

I'm not parting with the EF 100-400mm.

I just hope it's not too big of a focal distance at 800mm. I could go for the 600mm but I'm unsure to be honest.

BillN_33 said:
Hi david, how many shots have you taken at f11?

Is it for birds/nature?

will the AF work quick enough at f11, or will it work at all
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Looking at Lightroom. I've only taken one photo at f11 with the EF 100-400mm. Most were at f5.6.

Yes it's for wildlife.

I've been going to RSPB Leighton Moss lately and I'm always cropping in after taking the shots at 400mm. I then learned not to waste time in taking anything that's far away. Although I didn't go with my own advice on Friday when I went. And I made a mistake at shooting an egret and avocet at 170mm instead of zooming in more:rolleyes::headbang:

I took just over 4000 shots:wideyed:, sorted them out and came up with 70 keepers. Most shots were flight which is why I had so many.
 
With 800mm the field of view will be very narrow this makes it difficult to even locate what you want to photograph in viewfinder - it is bad enough at 600mm
 
I have tried using my 100-400 Fuji with a 1.4x telecon on a crop body, giving (IIRC!) 840mm EFL (35mm equivalent). Trying to find a relatively big bird on the wing is ... challenging when racked out to the long end, so I dial it back to ~210mm EFL to find the subject then zoom in and hop I keep the bloody thing in the frame! Sometimes works... MUCH easier when the Buzzard's on or near the nest about 50' away (and the AF seems snappy enough on a static subject too.)
 
4wd said:
With 800mm the field of view will be very narrow this makes it difficult to even locate what you want to photograph in viewfinder - it is bad enough at 600mm
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For the last few years my most used combo has been the canon 300mm f2.8 is mii with a 2x tc, I’d got used to finding stuff with it and had no qualms about the step up to 800mm with the canon 200-800mm, haha, oh boy! That extra 200mm makes life much harder, but I’m getting used to it with practice then I go and stick the 1.4 tc on it and have to start all over again :)
 
Tysonator said:
Can this work on any other brands of cameras, as it appears not to have a connection to the terminals on a nikon hot shoe ! ?
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Both Olympus ee-1 and Nikon df-m1 dot sight are cold shoe and battery operated. So they'll work on any brand (mostly - unless you have something special like minolta hotshoe)

Olympus version is nearly half the price of Nikon one.
 
nandbytes said:
Olympus version is nearly half the price of Nikon one.
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Thanks for that information. (y)

I hadn't realised the difference in price, because I bought mine second hand at considerably less than the Olympus's new price.
 
Tysonator said:
Has any used a canon ef 200-400mm f/4l is usm extender 1.4x, ?
I know I have not as I can never afford one because if I buy this the wife will want something for almost 4 grand !
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yes - any specific questions?
 
TimHughes said:
yes - any specific questions?
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Is the image quality still excellent when the 1x4 is engaged, and I suspect it is better than bolting on a 1x4 to a 100-400L Mkii for instance ! ?
Is it worth the price in buying or would it be best just to buy a 1x4 extender Mkii or iii ! ?
 
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Tysonator said:
Is the image quality still excellent when the 1x4 is engaged, and I suspect it is better than bolting on a 1x4 to a 100-400L Mkii for instance ! ?
Is it worth the price in buying or would it be best just to buy a 1x4 extender Mkii or iii ! ?
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yes it's better as the 200-400 can resolve more pixels than the 100-400 mkii. Per DXO testing with 5DR it's 33 mpix vs 24 mpix without extender. With extender will be less for both but 200-400 will be better.

is it worth it? only you can say
 
I've found myself wanting to crop shots from my 1000mm lenses are you sure you don't actually need the 1200mm f8 that would give you more light too (along with a hernia?)
F11 is somewhat challenging but it's the same for both the semi affordable 600 & 800 options

Given the choice between the 600/4 & the 800/5.6 I'd rather have the 600 & crop sometimes. Sadly I'm going to have to live with slower super telephotos & generally have to live with manual focus too.
 
I would save your money and go for this option

Canon RF 200-800mm F/6.3-9 IS USM Lens​

 
As well as buying the lens, I'm also buying either a 4TB or 8TB external hard drive because I only have just over 200GB left on my SSD. I take video (gopro) and I want to keep random video files. Plus I want a spare battery since the spare I was using has gone with the old camera. I'm going with a cheaper battery than buying the same battery.

I just using the money I get from the trade in. So I cannot buy another more expensive lens.

On a side note I'm surprised I used the spare when I went to Leighton Moss last Friday, because I never have to change it. I put it down to the weather being warm and the camera being hot.
 
nandbytes said:
I don't think f11 works for UK weather apart from the one sunny spell we had last week between 6-10am
Summer is done now :p
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I saw an article a while back about the UK photographers fascination with the need for f2.8 lenses and the conclusion was the weather. Photographers operating south of the French Riviera we more f4 types
 
Dael_Pix said:
I feel that the 600mm isn't worth it considering I'm only gaining 200mm, so going with the 800mm instead.
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I'd rather have f11 at 800mm rather than 600mm. But then I doubt there is much utility in either.
I would really buy this off eBay at bargain basement prices, and there are certainly disappointed people offloading theirs.
For good enough price I would try it, then probably sell on after a while.
It only really makes any sense on r6 and R3 lower resolution sensors because f11 is already diffraction limiting even at 20mp.
 
TimHughes said:
Per DXO testing
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From my experience I would not pay ANY attention to this site whatsoever. They list some incredibly mediocre Canon lenses as resolving quite well, and have overrated Sigma 35mm DG by an order of magnitude.

They either use some very specific methodology that doesn't translate to real life such as dead centre, at infinity and wide open, or worse they are heavily biased or plain incompetent.
 
My first thought when those F11 lenses came out was that they wouldn’t be any use for at least for what I do , photography in the UK mostly, there just isn’t enough light ,certainly not at the time of day you will be photographing animals or birds
I don’t think I’ve ever been able to use anything near F11 quite often there’s not enough light to use 7.1
I’m not sure what they cost nowadays but I would be trying to get a second hand EF prime :)
 
LongLensPhotography said:
From my experience I would not pay ANY attention to this site whatsoever.
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As the saying goes: "different folks, different strokes".

Many others seem to find them useful.
 
Lens has arrived.

I'm getting up at 4am tomorrow morning to get somewhere at first light in hopes I'll see otters.

I'll take the 100-400 and 100 macro.
 
Thanks Tim. I'll need all the luck I can get.

I'm off to RSPB Leighton Moss again. Only place I know of that's decent for wildlife. Otters were seen in January. I know it was 6 months ago. But they're still around.

Going early so I have a better chance in seeing them.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
It only really makes any sense on r6 and R3 lower resolution sensors because f11 is already diffraction limiting even at 20mp.
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Of course it is the lens that causes diffraction, not the sensor. There would certainly be diminishing returns with a high resolution sensor, but never a poorer resolution. In practice, we rarely see the effects of diffraction unless we are cropping hard. The effects are present, but not very noticeable with all the other issues of aberrations, small focus errors, motion blur, flare, noise, etc.
 
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