![\"\"](\"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rf800_collapsed.jpg\")
<\/a>If you haven’t visited my site before, I review cameras and lenses from a real-world shooting perspective. You won’t find lens charts or test subjects here. I take a look at how a piece of equipment works for me out in the field. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The RF 800mm f\/11 looks unlike most any lens I’ve seen from Canon before. It looks immediately like a low cost lens, and in my opinion is fairly ugly aesthetically, but there’s also a sort of utilitarian simplicity to it. The lens is constructed with a liberal use of engineering plastics on a metal mount. The optical design is rather simple, and there is a LOT of air inside the lens, such that the overall package is surprisingly lightweight. When stowed for storage, the lens is less than a foot long, which prevents you from carrying it in most shoulder bags, but fits a lot of lens cases designed for consumer grade supertelephoto zooms like the Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary. If you need reach in a size that can fit in a shoulder bag, the sister 600mm f\/11 is considerably shorter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The lens has a 2 inch collapsible section that is locked and unlocked via a ring at the rear of the lens. This ring is actually a switch lock, not a friction lock, so it turns smoothly and with a satisfying positive click at either end of the rotation, giving you tactile feedback when you lock and unlock. To use the lens, you must extend it to shooting position. If you fail to do this, the camera will remind you on the screen before you can use the lens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The extending tube is all plastic, but there is no play or wobble in this part of the lens. I will say that the extending motion of the tube itself can be a little sticky and jerky, but it isn’t sloppy. The midsection of the 800mm f\/11 feels like most any Canon RF lens, with a matte finish polycarbonate. There is a broad rubberized manual focus ring and a silver control ring following that. The last third of the lens is taken up with a flared section that is covered in a textured plastic that almost looks like rubber. This section is bizarre looking, but the flared shapes molded into the barrel feel great, and give your left hand something to grasp positively when shooting with the lens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the lens is of moderate weight in absolute terms, it is a featherweight for an 800mm lens, and as such can be carried around for extended periods with no problem. I also found that I had no issues at all handholding this lens while out hiking. It’s a joy to use in the field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While slow in f-stop, it is still an 800mm lens, and so the front element is still a reasonably large 95mm. The 800mm takes standard 95mm front filters, though I think they are of limited use in a lens such as this. I really only see practical use for a polarizer when needed to cut reflections of wet foliage or the like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The RF 800mm f\/11, like all of Canon’s consumer-grade optics, does not come with a lens hood. The official lens hood for the RF 800mm is the Canon ET-101, and it will cost you a rather exorbitant $55 if you choose to pick one up. I chose to purchase the JJC version of the hood, which is very well made, has the button lock like the official hood, but costs just $18. You can see the hood mounted to the lens at full extension below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interesting omission for an 800mm lens, the RF 800mm f\/11 does not have an option for a rotating tripod ring. In its place is a small block with a 1\/4″ tripod socket directly on the bottom of the lens. A quick release plate can be attached to this to allow for tripod mounting the lens, though without the typical ability to rotate from horizontal to vertical within a collar. I’m currently using a long Arca-Swiss style plate on the lens, and it works well and balances well on a tripod, though I am currently limited to using the drop notch for vertical photos. While not as convenient as a tripod collar, Kirk Enterprises also makes an L-bracket for the RF 800mm and 600mm lenses<\/a>, which work just like those on a camera, allowing easier switching from landscape to portrait orientation. I think this is reasonably priced for what it is (costing about half what Canon typically charges for a lens collar), and will likely pick one up at some point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 800mm f\/11 has to cut a few corners to hit that sub-$1,000 price point, and one of those is the focus motor used. The RF 800mm f\/11 uses the Canon STM stepping motor to focus, but the implementation here is pretty good overall. The lens doesn’t focus as quickly as something like the 100-400mm f\/5.6-8, which was built with a Nano-USM motor, but it does focus quickly enough for most tasks. The biggest downside to the lens for focusing is that the lens can only be focused in the central part of the image frame due to the fixed f\/11 aperture. While this is definitely more limiting than other mirrorless lenses, the area of usable focus is similar in size to a typical full-frame DSLR. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Edit 4\/20\/2023: The focus area limitation is only present on cameras made pre-2021. The R3, R6 Mark II and R8 all feature improved autofocus systems, which expand the focus area of the lens to about 80% of the frame. This significantly improves the experience. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That central limiting frame does limit the effectiveness of the animal detect eye autofocus, though, as you will need to keep the eye within the central box to ensure the camera can continue to lock focus. For things like birds, this really isn’t generally a problem, but it does make tracking birds in flight more difficult than it would otherwise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Focus is reasonable in speed, but will suffer a little when dealing with very rapid changes in focus. Accuracy, though, is excellent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing the lens does include is an optical Image Stabilization unit. The IS unit on the RF 800mm f\/11 is quite good, claiming around 5.5 stops of extra stability for hand holding. Like most claims, I did find the 5.5 stops to be a little optimistic, but was able to fairly regularly get sharp shots at 4 stops slower than normal, or around 1\/50s. I could get occasional sharp shots around 1\/25s, or 5 stops, but not regularly enough to rely on it. This is a very solid performance for such a long lens, and it really helps in getting sharp shots, due to the dark aperture and extreme focal length. The shot below was taken at 1\/20s, and is pretty sharp, but I was braced on a windowsill and took multiple shots with electronic shutter to achieve it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on my experience with lower-cost telephoto lenses, an 800mm lens for under $1,000 would seem to be a recipe for optical disaster. Canon surprises quite a bit here, though, with a very strong optical performance given the design constraints. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The lens only has one aperture, so there is no stopping down for additional depth of field or sharpness, and for the most part, the RF 800mm doesn’t really need it. The lens shows very good sharpness across the frame, with a bit of softening at the edges. For a lens this long, this compact and at this price, I’m very pleased. The order of magnitude more expensive 800mm f\/5.6 will be sharper, but I think the vast majority of shooters will be very happy with the level of detail the lens can produce. Click here<\/a> for a 100% crop of the shot below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the 800mm f\/11 is a fixed aperture lens, there’s only one aperture to discuss here. Since there are no aperture blades, the iris opening is perfectly round, and while the slow f\/11 aperture won’t blur backgrounds to the degree an 800mm f\/5.6 would, the 72mm physical aperture is still big enough to provide plenty of subject separation in most instances. The bokeh from the 800mm f\/11 is generally quite pleasing, with a soft rendering and evenly illuminated specular highlights. It’s a surprising strong point in a budget telephoto such as this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The RF 800mm f\/11 is a lens that uses diffractive optics (DO) to help increase focal length while keeping the lens compact. DO lenses have historically been very low contrast lenses. This is still true to a degree, but Canon has made strides in improving the DO optics to reduce the less desirable traits. As such, the 800mm f\/11 does natively produce files with lower contrast than a lot of other modern lenses, but not nearly to the degree that Canon’s earlier DO lenses showed. As such, the RAW images have a very nice tonality out of camera, and can take small tweaks to contrast easily, giving a great native file from which to work. Color is also typically Canon, and I noticed no unusual color casts with the lens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The RF 800mm f\/11 can show a small amount of lateral chromatic aberration, but this is easily cleaned up with RAW tools or the lens profile when shooting JPEG. Longitudinal chromatic aberration is well controlled, and I saw no evidence of purple fringing in any of my shots to date. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 800mm f\/11 shows a low to moderate amount of pincushion distortion. The lens profile for JPEG or in Lightroom fully corrects this. Given the subject matter typically shot with 800mm lenses, I would expect one could also leave it uncorrected most of the time without any issue. The lens shows some mild vignetting that can also be completely corrected with the lens profile, or by a +25 correction in Lightroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The lens is so long that you will almost never be shooting with the sun in the frame, and due to the extreme magnification, I would not recommend shooting at the sun unless it is very low in the sky or partially obscured by cloud cover, as there is the chance to damage your sensor if left focused on the sun for too long. As such, direct lens flare isn’t much of a concern with this lens. There is a slight loss of contrast from veiling flare, so I would recommend picking up a hood for the lens, but with a hood mounted, you will likely never need to worry about flare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, the lens produces fairly high quality images, which is a very pleasant surprise given the budget nature of the lens. It’s just wonderful to have this much reach in a lightweight and affordable package, and still be able to produce quality images. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Canon RF 800mm f\/11 IS STM continues the trend of unique and relatively high quality consumer-grade lenses from Canon. Like I discussed in my review of the 16mm f\/2.8 STM and the 100-400mm f\/5.6-8, I’m having a lot of fun with these lightweight lenses from Canon. When the lens was first announced, like many I dismissed it immediately as too slow and limited. If you are in that camp, and you want a lightweight and compact lens with a lot of reach, I would strongly recommend trying out this lens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was quite pleased to see that image quality is very good for such an optic. While not reaching the lofty heights of Canon’s big white supertelephotos, the RF 800mm f\/11 produces images with good sharpness, nice bokeh and an overall pleasing rendering that punches above its price point and weight. The biggest compromise for that size, cost and reach is the fixed f\/11 aperture, which means that this lens is going to require higher ISOs for fast shutter speeds, especially in lower light situations. The slow aperture also limits the autofocus area (on older RF bodies)<\/em>, which can make it a little more difficult to track subjects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While dedicated bird photographers will likely want to save up for the considerably more expensive 600mm f\/4 or 800mm 5.6, those who are more casual wildlife shooters, or simply want to be able to carry a very long lens while not breaking their back will be well pleased with the 800mm f\/11. It’s a really compelling lens, even at its current $999 price point. Recommended!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click on an image to enlarge<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve been reviewing a lot of Canon’s interesting light weight consumer-grade optics as of late, and continues with today’s review of the Canon RF 800mm f\/11 IS STM. The 800mm f\/11 was announced alongside the similar 600mm f\/11 lens, providing super-telephoto reach with a slow aperture and an affordable price. Like many of Canon’s lower […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[462,30,464,463,461],"class_list":["post-11239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-800mm","tag-canon","tag-diffractive-optics","tag-f-11","tag-supertelephoto"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rf800_collapsed.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28RGq-2Vh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11239"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11622,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11239\/revisions\/11622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a>Autofocus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Image Stabilization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Image Quality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Sharpness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Bokeh<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\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
Cons<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Image Samples<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>If you enjoyed this review, please take a look at my other reviews in the Review Index<\/a>.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"