{"id":10637,"date":"2021-02-27T14:43:36","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T19:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=10637"},"modified":"2021-03-11T09:13:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T14:13:04","slug":"review-canon-rf-70-200mm-f-4l-is-usm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-canon-rf-70-200mm-f-4l-is-usm\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Canon RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS USM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Canon’s RF mount lens lineup continues to grow, we are finally starting to see some of the staple lenses for advanced amateurs come forward. While Canon released the compact and excellent RF 70-200mm f\/2.8L IS <\/a>last year, many enthusiasts were hoping for a similar treatment for the very popular f\/4 telezoom line. Well it’s here: the RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS, and Canon has made it very small indeed. Let’s check it out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS USM on the Canon EOS R5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you’ve handled any of the RF mount lenses, you already know how this lens feels. The lens is constructed of Canon’s engineering plastics on a metal mount, with the distinctive off-white color of Canon’s L series telephoto lenses. The lens is well assembled and feels rather solid. The broad rubberized zoom ring moves extremely smoothly, though requires more effort to twist than the old internal EF designs. The focus-by-wire manual focus ring turns smoothly, but without much damping. Unlike the f\/2.8 lens, the 70-200mm f\/4L has its control ring at the end of the lens, and it turns with satisfying clicks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The two RF 70-200mm lenses: RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS (left), RF 70-200mm f\/2.8L IS (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like the faster f\/2.8 variant, the RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS features an extending zoom design, which keeps the lens incredibly compact. The lens extends about 2 inches when zooming to 200mm. The extending barrel is well constructed, however there is a tiny bit of play in the barrel when extended, unlike the rock solid extending barrel of the f\/2.8 version. Also like the f\/2.8 version, the RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS can’t take RF teleconverters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS extends significantly when zooming<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The lens is just slightly longer than the RF 24-105mm f\/4L IS, and is actually very slightly lighter than that lens. As a result, this lens will fit in most any bag with ease, and can be carried around without worrying about weight. The f\/2.8 version was small for its aperture, and the f\/4 version is even smaller, making it an obvious choice for backpacking or other situations where size and weight are important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The RF 70-200mm f\/4L is only a little bigger than the RF 24-105mm f\/4L<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the RF 70-200mm f\/2.8L comes with a removable tripod collar and the EF versions of the 70-200mm f\/4L had space for one, neither is the case with the RF 70-200mm f\/4L. While this does mean that you won’t be able to simply twist the lens inside the collar to switch from landscape to portrait orientation, the lens is certainly light enough to operate without a collar, and the balance on a tripod is perfectly fine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS with its included lens hood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The lens comes with a white plastic lens hood. The hood is fairly large for the size of lens, but it’s definitely more compact than the monstrous hood packaged with the f\/2.8 lens. On my f\/2.8 version, I tend to leave the stock hood at home, and I purchased the ES-83 hood for the RF 50mm f\/1.2 to replace it, as it is tight to the lens and doesn’t add bulk in the bag. With the 70-200mm f\/4L hood, I don’t feel that it is so large as to require replacement, though it is still a bit larger than the ES-83. It’s worth noting that the hood bayonet on both 70-200mm lenses in the same, so you can interchange all of the hoods with each other. In fact, the ET-83G hood that comes with this lens would make a nice replacement for the 70-200mm f\/2.8L if one wants to keep the white color while slimming the hood down a little. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The side of the RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS on the Canon EOS R5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The side of the lens features four switches, just like its f\/2.8 brother. There’s a focus limiter, which I found wasn’t generally needed, a manual focus\/autofocus switch, and then two switches for the Image Stabilizer: one to turn it on or off, and the second to switch between the three IS modes (full, panning and only when tripping the shutter). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focus Breathing<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The RF 70-200mm f\/4L\u2019s extending design also comes with a notable change in the level of focus breathing compared to the EF versions. Similar to the f\/2.8 lens, the RF 70-200mm f\/4L focus breathes in the opposite direction to its EF counterpart. The RF lens will appear to zoom out when focusing closely, while the EF version will appear to zoom in when focusing closely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the RF lens appears to be quite a bit shorter than the EF version for close focus work. The RF version makes up for this by being able to focus considerably more closely, and so the maximum magnification of both lenses are similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Autofocus and Stabilization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS features dual nano-USM focus motors. This technology has already proven to be excellent, and indeed the focus on the RF 70-200mm f\/4L is extremely fast, quiet and accurate. In single shot mode, focus locks nearly instantly and with outstanding accuracy. In continuous focus, it’s easily able to keep up with tracking moving subjects while shooting at 12 or 20 fps bursts on the R5 and R6. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Running – Canon EOS R5 with Canon RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS USM @ 200mm, f\/4, 1\/1000s, ISO 125<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 70-200mm f\/4L IS features optical image stabilization that is rated for 5 stops on its own, or up to 7.5 stops in conjunction with the IBIS of the R5 and R6. These estimates are often overstated in comparison to real-world usage. I found that to be the case here as well, but it still does an excellent job. In my testing, I could fairly consistently get sharp shots at 1\/4 second at 200mm, which is around 6 stops of extra stabilization beyond what I could normally achieve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Canon’s 70-200mm lenses have always been excellent optically, and even with the design change to an extending zoom, the same is true for the RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS USM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS is, as you might expect, a very sharp lens. The lens starts out sharp over the majority of the frame right from f\/4, with the corners at 70mm and 200mm lagging a little bit. These sharpen up when stopping down to create excellent cross-frame sharpness at smaller apertures throughout the zoom range. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blue Windows – Canon EOS R5 with Canon RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS USM @ 96mm, f\/11, 1\/400s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you read my comparison between the f\/2.8 and f\/4 versions <\/a>of the RF 70-200mm lenses, you’ll note that the RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS does show some field curvature at the edges near the long end of the zoom range when stopping down. As such, the extreme corners are softer at f\/8 than they are at f\/4 when shooting flat field subjects at close range. This effect diminishes as you focus further away, and in real world usage, it never once caused an issue. It may be worth knowing the effect exists, but you are unlikely to ever encounter it in real world shooting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As 70-200mm lenses are often used for portraiture or for isolating details, often you will want to blur the background of your images. The RF 70-200mm f\/4L can’t do the more extreme shallow depth of field of its faster brother, but it can still provide plenty of subject separation. The quality of the bokeh is actually quite good, with generally softly rendered out of focus areas, soft specular highlights with no onion rings, and just an overall pleasing appearance. There is some mechanical vignetting towards the edges which elongates highlights, but this is the norm for most every lens out today. In all an excellent performance here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wilted Flower – Canon EOS R5 with Canon RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS USM @ 191mm, f\/4, 1\/125s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS shows outstanding color and contrast throughout the zoom range, and right from f\/4. Images are punchy with excellent color saturation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens exhibits a small amount of lateral chromatic aberration, which can be seen as a red and cyan fringe around detail at the edge of the frame. This is of course easily correctable in software. The 70-200mm f\/4L exhibits very good control of longitudinal chromatic aberration, and I didn’t encounter any visible fringing in the areas fore and aft of the focus point in my time testing the lens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dual Architecture – Canon EOS R5 with Canon RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS USM @ 70mm, f\/7.1, 1\/160s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Distortion Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The 70-200mm f\/4L IS exhibits a small amount of barrel distortion at the wider focal lengths, with a moderate amount of pincushion distortion towards the long end of the zoom. Neither are complex in nature and are easily dealt with in postprocessing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the big issues with the older EF 70-200mm f\/4 lenses was their tendency to flare rather dramatically with the sun in frame or just out of frame. Thankfully, Canon has made rather large improvements in this area with the RF version of the lens. While ghosting can still appear in the right circumstances, in most situations, I found ghosting to be minor, with minimal loss of contrast with the sun in the frame. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ducks on the Icy River – Canon EOS R5 with Canon RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS USM @ 176mm, f\/13, 1\/2500s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vignetting is also reasonably well controlled, with minimal vignetting at the wider focal lengths and only moderate vignetting as you move towards 200mm. Stopping down a stop or two will get rid of almost all traces of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, the RF 70-200mm f\/4L IS USM puts in an outstanding performance, with excellent sharpness, great color and contrast, good bokeh and very good control of lens aberrations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pros<\/h4>\n\n\n\n