Is Canon's Unique 800mm f/11 Lens Worthwhile?

When Canon announced their RF 600mm f/11 IS STM and RF 800mm f/11 IS STM lenses, they raised a lot of eyebrows. No doubt, the lenses are unusual, but they also offer ultra-long levels of reach at highly affordable prices, especially compared to other lenses that reach such focal lengths. How do they hold up in practice? This great video review takes a look at the 800mm f/11 and what you can expect from it.

Coming to you from Christopher Frost Photography, this excellent video review takes a look at the Canon RF 800mm f/11 IS STM lens. No doubt, the 800mm f/11 is one of the more unusual lenses to come along in the last few years, offering extreme reach at an impressively affordable price with the tradeoff of a very narrow maximum aperture. The consequence of this is that it limits the situations you will be able to shoot in; certainly, this is a lens meant for shooting outdoors on days with abundant available light, but if those are the scenarios you will primarily be using it for, it looks like a great option that provides good image quality. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Frost.

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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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15 Comments

What an awesome lens for us mere mortals. Price is right for a real Canon 800mm lens and for most shooting looks to be superb. I see this as a boon to hikers who can now have a real lens for wildlife while in the wild. As the video says a 10,0000 dollar lens is worthless if it stays home because you can not carry it with you. As the video also says, a good reason to drop other systems for Canon besides Canon's already superior AF to all others.
Way to go Canon, you hit a home run with this awesome lens. Thank you.

It does look like a great useful lens. It's similar to how shooting long has been for a long time with MFT lenses, but with better sensors.

I've never felt a need to switch to any system from any other system. If you like this arrangement for instance but have a Z whatever, if you really want this arrangement there's no reason why you can't enjoy both. ;-)

As I said, better sensors. Full frame sensors are miles ahead of MFT sensors. That can't be denied. I still love my MFT camera tho.

You're free to believe what you like, it doesn't make it true. I own MFT and FF cameras, I see the difference. That doesn't stop me from using MFT cameras, even though their sensors are inferior in comparison.

I don't disagree, it's great to have such a long lens that can fit in a small backpack! However that f/11 is going to be a real pain to work with when shooting wildlife. Animals tend to come out in the wee hours of the morning, or after sunset, when light is scarce. The silver lining here is that sensors nowadays can practically see in the dark so maybe it's moot.

I agree but with f11 the ability for background separation which often helps to make the shot is greatly reduced.

DoF is really shallow at these focal lengths anyway. The DoF of an 800mm f11 lens focused at 20m/65ft is just 40cm/16inches.
When focusing 5m away, just 2cm/1inch. You want it any shallower really?

I see important, however, that as the OP mentioned, birds and atmospheric conditions usually require shooting early in the morning. That is the main reason I often think I need wider apertures. However weight is also a limiting factor when one walks or climbs 10 hours to do a shooting.

Are you serious? Remember this is an f11 lens. What happens when the light is fair to poor? or when you really want to get that crucial separation between subject and background? Why do you think most serious wildlife photographers swear by their f2.8 lenses? I'm not one of them I do with an f5.6/6.3 which just about manages...but f11!

I guess you're thinking about 7 figures a year wildlife photographers. Those can, and should, buy 20 thousand dollars worth of equipment.

But anyone else? This lens is perfect. I wouldn't mind having to shoot at 12800 ISO. Wildlife for me is a hobby.

The lens I was referring to, the one I use, is the Sigma 150-600 which is just over the £1000 mark which is a long way off from the 20K lenses you were on about.
It depends what you find acceptable, shooting at a fixed aperture of f11 no matter how you want to cut it is very limiting and is certainly not perfect.

You did mention f2.8 telephoto primes.

But whatever. No one mentioned the lens to be perfect, on the contrary everyone told you about the shortcomings but weighted the benefits more. Don't know why you have to be on a personal cruzade to convince others that this lens sucks but you do you

That’s not what I said. I never mentioned the make, you just knee jerked it. With a 1.4 extender on my 600mm it gives me 840mm! So no I’ve never used an actual 800! Though I’m not sure what point your attempting to make. While focal length and the reach it gives is important so it’s the speed of the lens. Any lens with a fixed f11 aperture has very limited use, would you not agree? If not why not?

600mm isn't 800mm. Also portability. Canon was brilliant with this lens and I bet most complaining are not Canon users.
Speaking of worthless lenses the hyper expensive Nikon noct Z lens is heavy and not versatile at all. I can use the f11 800mm all day long for birds at my feeders, while walking all over the AZ or SW during the day and not wear out.
Try that with ANY other 800mm or 600mm with a 1.4 TC. No tripod allowed either. You can't.

You just sound like a Canon fanboy, looking for any excuse to rip Nikon no less.