Here Comes Another Extreme Canon Lens

Here Comes Another Extreme Canon Lens

Canon has taken advantage of the additional capabilities offered by the RF mirrorless mount, creating a variety of highly capable lenses that push the boundaries of lens design. It looks like they have no intentions of slowing down, with yet another high-level professional lens likely on the way soon.

Canon Rumors is reporting that Canon is readying the RF 200-500mm f/4L IS USM lens for announcement in the fourth quarter of this year. This lens will be the replacement for the highly respected EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x, a popular lens that offered a built-in teleconverter which could turn it into a 280-560mm f/5.6 lens with the flick of a switch. As you may have noticed, the new version doesn't have a built-in teleconverter, but it does top out at 500mm instead of 400mm natively, given more reach at the f/4 aperture and helping to reduce both its size and weight, which have been big priorities for Canon in their supertelephoto professional lenses. 

The new lens is rumors to come at a price of $15,999, which will undoubtedly limit it to mostly professional outlets and dedicated professionals. That being said, if it performs anything like its EF predecessor, it is sure to be an impressive option. Look for the lens later this year. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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10 Comments

I'm loving the cool lenses but these prices are just.... Bonkers. I mean we can still get an EF mount in this lens in great condition for under 5k. If they could have kept this lens around 10K that seems like it would make more sense.

Looks like a Sony 200-600mm! I do not know personally but in the past with the mirror cameras if you added a teleconverter (extender) it would put the combo above f/8 and AF was/is affected I learned with my Canon camera. But the Sony 200-600mm with a 2x teleconverter yes puts the 200-600 at f/11 or more but only affects focus tracking so as the manual states but I have never had any problem even at 1800mm in APS-C mode. I have followed birds in flight and with AF-C on getting 10 FPS with sharp images even when cropped.
So Canon is playing catch up and so is Nikon.

Sony 200-600mm is way slower than this lens, not even on the same planet. IQ will be far superior as it's a L lens.
Finally Canon cameras focus easily at f 22 as proven over and over with the 800mm f11 and 2x TC.
This includes eye AF on hummingbirds etc.
The Canon DPAF II has been shown over and over to be gar more accurate than Sony AF even their latest AI AF.
Not sure where you get your information, but you sound like a Sony fanboy troll trying to justify making a huge mistake by going with Sony.

I have a Canon T2i from 2009 and when I went Sony in 2014 bought a Sigma 150-600mm but I had read about the problem of camera and telephoto plus the extenders. Sigma and Tamron came out with the 150-600mm before Sony and Sigma scored better the reason I bought a Sigma. Before that I had the wild lens 60-600mm. When I read about the AF problem I tested on by Canon with the 150-600mm and I also bought the 1.4x and 2x. When I put the extenders on making the combo above f/8 AF did not work. But when all put on my Sony A7RM2 everything worked even out to 600mm plus 2x to 1200mm and in APS-C to 1800mm.
You are looking at a f/4 lens at $16,000 way more than a hobbyist will ever lay out.
I use the F5.6–6.3 day and NIGHT and thanks to high ISO's of my cameras and dynamic range I have no need for a f/4 and at just under $2K very affordable for wildlife like deer in the foggy mornings also it is internal focusing. If you need it and can swing it and play with more power to ya! I deal with the facts found before you were born. Canon is so far behind the curve. The last image using the Sigma on the A7M3 2019 before the Sony.

Holy highlight recovery, Batman!

With zebras set a 109+ and turning the EV knob to Neg direction, now down to -5 and just increasing shadows and blacks everything gets normal but with feather details, the magic of the camera. The 24-240mm is even great, first and last image.

Please write a little less, and use that time to calibrate your screen, because your colors are overworldly saturated (and i'm hoping the screen is the only problem)

All these 100-600mm zooms are 100% useless to me... Regardless of price. Please just give me a little bit faster, only a little heavier 800mm lens (a glorified 800 F11) for like $2500 or less.... Or forget it.
It seems kind of crazy to me, that the best choice for my shooting is a $1000 F11 lens.
Unless they do that, and I doubt they ever will, I'll never buy another birding lens from Canon.

One other thing, I was doing a lunar eclipse with my 12MP A7S with a Canon film FD 80-200mm f/4 at 06:57am Oct. 8 2014 Blue Hour with a $25 adapter when Sony had just a few lenses. Also a lens that was made before the A7 cameras and was for APS-C cameras could be used on later full frame A7 cameras at 12-18mm (18 if you remove the light shield) the E 10-18mm f/4 OSS making it possible to get a 12mm wide image BEFORE a 12mm lens was ever thought of. Also the mod 1 and mod 2 cameras still have on camera apps like the Digital Filter that will capture the sky and ground separately at two different settings each and send a raw or jpeg or both to the SD card, still can by a 2015 model brand new A7M2. Or use Canon EF-S or EF lenses also with $20 adapter. Also at the start Sony gave Capture One at only $30 vs PS and Lr costing $800+ for each and each full update and Canon users had to use Canon SW that did really nothing in 2013. You may call me a troll but I have been there and done it before for real. Lastly has Canon ever ever had cameras back in 2013 that had any of those options or even today? Today you can buy the old A7M2 brand new with IBIS and captures Video too! I bought my first and a couple lenses with points on my credit card and still only use points. Would you stay Canon with all that offered by another brand? Sony is decades ahead of Canon or Nikon. Can you see the pirate in the sand in the third image made by nature? Also the A7S has has bracketing 5 @ +/- 3EV where Canon was limited by 3 @ +/- 2EV, it was the HDR era, the third image also at f/22.

I reached out to my local shop and told them I am ready to place a deposit.