Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM Definitive Review | DA

Name: Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM Definitive Review | DA
Uploaded: 2023-07-16T21:50:25+00:00
Duration: 25 min 35 s

0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you my video review of the Canon
0:15
RF 100 to 400 millimeter. This is an F5.6 to F8 IS US. So IS means that it has a built-in image
0:24
stabilizer. USM refers to the nano-usm focus motor that is a part of
0:30
of the design. Now, this is an interesting counterpart to the RF 100 to 500 L-series lens that I
0:37
reviewed several weeks ago for a lot of reasons. The most obvious of those reasons, however, is that
0:43
the L-series lens retails at about $2,900 U.S. dollars, while this lens retails at a much less
0:50
expensive $650,000, meaning that you can literally buy four of these lenses and still pocket about $300
0:58
So for many photographers, no matter how good the RF lens is, and by the way, check out my review
1:05
it is a very good lens. But no matter how good it is, for many people, that is simply a price point that they just can't afford
1:12
And on the Canon RF mount, while there are some wonderful cameras and Canon has a lot of
1:17
strengths going for, what there hasn't been is a lot of options in the more affordable range
1:23
So I'm really happy to see a lens like this, and it's not quite as quirky as, say
1:28
the you know the 600 millimeter f11 and 800 millimeter f11 prime lenses a little bit more conventional but what it does
1:36
give you is a really compact package for this kind of focal length smaller than really anything that
1:42
i've ever seen before covering this focal length but also at that price point it is something that a lot of
1:47
photographers can afford that's not to say that it's not without some compromises to get to this
1:52
size and price and we'll explore those as a part of today's review first however a word from our sponsor
1:58
Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom Wallet, the minimalist, modern wallet that sets you free from a bulky traditional wallet while also making it easy to access your cards and money when you need them, thanks to their unique fanning mechanism
2:13
Visit PhantomWallet.com to check out their unique sizes, styles, and finishes that span from aluminum to wood to carbon fiber
2:21
You can even customize your wallet with new accessories like a money clip, cash holder, ID to store
2:28
and even the Jopolo tracking integration if you're the kind of person who loses their wallet
2:36
Use code Dustin 15 for 15% off when you're ready to check out
2:42
So let's talk about that package here for a moment because this is a truly compact lens and I
2:48
set it just for the fun of it. I set it up next to my Sony 200 to 600 millimeter G series lens and as you can see it is a fairly ridiculous
2:58
difference in size. This is a lens that is really very compact. It is less than 80 millimeters
3:04
in diameter, giving you a very conventional 67 millimeter front filter thread, right under 165
3:10
millimeters in length, and it weighs in at only 635 grams. And so that means that it is significantly
3:18
narrower, shorter, and lighter than what the L-series lens is. That L-series in at 1365 grams. In fact
3:28
I found it interesting. This lens at 635 grams undercuts even the 70 to 300 EF lens
3:35
IS Mark 2 lens, which was right over 700 grams, about 710 grams. And so this is a truly compact
3:41
package. And that I think is going to be one of its real strengths, because it's not just
3:46
price that limits people, but there are a lot of people that are just not physically capable of
3:50
carrying a large, heavy lens for any kind of extended period. So this enables them to
3:55
to get into this focal length, which is an extremely useful focal length, going from this wide
4:01
at 100 millimeters, all the way into this narrow at 400 millimeters. Obviously, there's a lot of applications
4:07
for that kind of zoom range, but this is a package where people can actually bring it along and
4:12
maybe even carry it for a significant period of time without being too concerned about the weight
4:17
Now, downsides to this package, some of them are the conventional ones that apply to any non-L-series
4:23
lens. Namely, you're never going to see weather sealing in a lens like this, and they don't even
4:29
include something like a lens hood. And so that means you're going to have to spend an extra about
4:33
$45 on a lens hood, though I'll also throw linkage to a very inexpensive $15 one from Velo
4:39
at B&H photo. 15 bucks get you a lens hood. And I just kind of hate to reward Canon for that nickel
4:46
and diamond kind of thing. But so, I mean, those are some typical limitations that you're not going to
4:52
get those type of features. But what you've also got here is a fairly severely compromised range in
4:59
terms of a maximum aperture. So it starts at the slow end of what we used to see on say the EF 100 to
5:06
400 L series lens. It topped out at F5.6. This lens starts at F5.6 by 135 millimeters. It's at F6.3
5:16
Before you get to 200 millimeters, it's at F7.1. And shortly thereafter you arrive at
5:22
F8. So you're going to end up with a zoom range throughout that zoom range. You're going to end up with a
5:28
really slow maximum aperture. And that has a variety of consequences. The consequences, the most
5:33
obvious ones, are you're going to need a lot of light to keep your ISO down at a reasonable level
5:39
with this lens. And so this is really a more of a middle of the day kind of lens, not really a
5:44
dusk or daylight type of lens. Or in those situations, you're going to have to really jack up the
5:49
ISO, which obviously comes with some other serious hits to your image quality
5:56
Other aspect of this, however, is that many lenses, including this one, by the way
6:01
they achieve better performance optically when you stop them down. In this case, however, because the maximum matcher is so small
6:07
you only have a very small amount of headroom for stopping the lens down before you start
6:13
to run into an effect called diffraction. Defraction comes when you have a very small hole and as light comes in it kind of bends and as it comes out the other side it confuses and and blends together and so you get some reduced contrast and not as fine of detail Well obviously in a lens like this I mean typically stopping a lens down a fair bit would
6:32
arrive at F8. Well, here you're starting at F8. So even stopping down only one stop, you're at F11
6:37
two stops you're at F-16. And F-16, you're almost always going to strongly see the effects of
6:42
diffraction, particularly on a higher resolution body like my R5. So this is a lens that if you're
6:47
shooting something like the R6, you may get away with a little bit more in terms of stopping it down
6:52
but certainly not the higher resolution bodies. That's another side effect from that
6:56
Now, here's an interesting thing where it's a disadvantage because of that aperture, but it's
7:01
an odd strength for the lens in general. And that is that unlike the RF 100 to 500 L series lens
7:06
this lens is fully compatible with Canon's extenders. That really surprised me because I didn't
7:12
think such a compact lens would even have room for them, but it does. In fact, you're a
7:17
all throughout your range. Though, obviously you're going to have some serious limitations once again
7:22
If you put on the 1.4 times extender, yes, you're going to be able to reach up to 560 millimeters
7:27
but your maximum aperture is only going to be F11. You put on the two times extender, yeah, you can reach up to 800 millimeters
7:33
Your maximum aperture, though, is going to be F-16. So that's going to limit autofocus
7:38
It's also going to limit being able to get sufficient exposure in a lot of situations. And I wouldn't recommend going to the two-times extender for a whole lot of reasons, not the least of which
7:47
isn't sharp enough to handle the hit from a two times extender. A 1.4 times, maybe, but the very fact that it's compatible with those is certainly a mark in its favor
7:58
Now, as far as other features on the lens, it's pretty bare bones
8:01
You've got an AFMF switch. You've got an on and off for the stabilizer. Canon does say that it will detect when you are panning and it will adjust accordingly
8:10
And that seems to be the case, I think. You know, for example, this is from a shot of loons that we'll see a little bit later
8:17
and you can see that it's done the correct panning effect for that. There is a zoom here, and the zoom action is actually nice
8:24
I actually kind of prefer the zoom in a little bit compared to the L-series lens
8:28
mostly because the throw is enough to do in just one motion
8:32
I found the other just a little bit too long in terms of its rotation. You've got your manual focus ring, and then up front you've got the control ring
8:39
that you can put to a number of different purposes, and on the side of the lens you have got a lock mechanism that you can use
8:47
at 100 millimeters to prevent zoom creep. Pretty straightforward. One other thing, however, that is worth noting
8:53
in that this lens, you can focus down as close as 88 centimeters and get an extremely high magnification of 0.41 times magnification
9:01
As far as I know, that is class leading for a lens like this. And so that is obviously another strength that comes with it
9:08
So there are obviously some things that are missing here, and there doesn't seem to be room in the design for something like a tripod collar
9:15
but it's light enough. Probably not going to need it. But, you know, what is here is while it's, you know, Canon's consumer grade of design, it feels, you know, nicely made, and I like the finish on it, and it worked just fine out in the field
9:28
Now, this lens does have Canon's IS system, so image stabilizer, and as noted, you don't have different modes to access on it, and so it's just one size fits all
9:38
At the same time, however, it's actually rated one half stop faster than what the L-Series lens is, so 5.5 stops versus five stops
9:47
you have an body with embodium stabilization. Canon says you can get up to six stops
9:51
I found that that's true, though, not with any kind of consistency. So, for example, I got this shot just on my mantle at one sixth of the second
10:00
That equals out to six stops of stabilization. But it was the only one of seven where I considered it even sufficiently stabilized
10:08
And what I found is that there are some shots. For example, I was able to get this shot of I wanted this little bit of running water in the spring melt
10:15
I wanted to be able to drag the shutter just a little bit to get a sense of that moving water
10:20
And so I handheld a pretty low shutter speed. I was able to do that. At the same time, however, I went out on my hikes and I was shocked at shots at say at like 100th of a second
10:29
where it wasn't well stabilized. And so the stabilizer seems to work well at times, but not always consistently well in a way that I'm accustomed to
10:39
And so some pros and cons there. Now, what is a serious pro is the fact that it has
10:45
as a nano-USM focus motor. Now while this only has one focus motor
10:49
I find that because of the smaller elements in the design, it really has just as much focus speed
10:55
as what the L-Series lens was. And I actually felt that I could go
10:59
from a minimum focus to infinity, I could rack that focus more quickly here
11:04
than what I felt like I could do with the L-series lens. And again, it's because of those smaller and lighter elements
11:09
The upside of this though is that I found autofocus to be very responsive
11:13
very quiet, very smooth in operation. And while I wasn't really in a great situation at this time of year, the problem is that there's still ice near the shoreline and birds tend to be out near the open water, but it's not safe to go out on the ice
11:27
So byproduct is it's hard to get close to birds at this point. But what I did find is that I felt like I could track action, you know, fairly good
11:35
And I feel like this autofocus system is going to be perfectly sufficient. What I did find is that I had no problem with, you know, birds, be either in my backyard or animals, and picking up the eye
11:45
very quickly and tracking appropriately and getting well focused shots, whether it's of my cats
11:50
or of turkeys that happen to be in the backyard. This chipmunk, I got good results in each one
11:56
of these situations, so autofocus gets very high marks for me. So let's talk about image quality
12:01
We're going to take a little bit of a deep dive into the image quality performance. There's
12:05
some good, there's some bad. Let's check it out and see what you get in this inexpensive lens
12:10
So taking a look at vignette and distortion, we can see that neither is very extremely
12:15
stream at 100 millimeters. You have a mild amount of a pin cushion distortion. You can see here
12:21
And a little bit of vignette. Now your standard correction profile is going to take care of all of that
12:25
However, if you manually correct as I have here, so we can see how much is there. There's a minus
12:30
seven that was required to correct the distortion and a very mild amount of vignette with a plus
12:35
32. And I slid that midpoint over to give us a nice linear correction
12:39
400 millimeters Again we can continue to see a little bit of pincush distortion a little bit less here and maybe a little bit more of the vignette I corrected with a minus five on the distortion and a plus 46 on the vignette
12:53
So while it is a little bit more on the vignette, it's still a nice and mild, and for an RF lens
12:58
it's actually quite low. Now, I didn't see any kind of huge issue with aberrations in a typical fringing kind of way
13:05
So here along the edge of this frame, we're looking for lateral chromatic aberrations that tend to show up along the edges of the
13:12
as both the green and purple fringing on either side of these kind of high transition
13:19
things areas but we just don't see it so no problem there and while we're not going to see
13:24
any kind of strong fringing here in the out of focus area what I did see quite often as you can
13:29
see right here is just a little bit of blooming around some of these transition areas where
13:34
it's more like spherical aberrations that are keeping you from having really great contrast
13:40
Here's another case in point here. And so you can see it really doesn't go quite to the extreme of actual fringing
13:47
but neither is it a kind of pure transition line. You can just see that texture kind of blooming along the edge of that
13:53
Even if you look at the chain here, again, it's not quite to the level of aberrations
13:58
but definitely not that really high degree of contrast. So basically just a little bit of reduced contrast that do point to aberrations
14:07
but not so much in the form of fringing. Fringing is fairly well controlled
14:11
So here's a look at the test chart, and this is out 100 millimeters, F5.6 is our maximum aperture here
14:18
And so as you can see looking at things globally, it looks okay, zooming into the center
14:23
We have fairly good resolution and contrast here, looking pretty good. If we move off center towards the mid frame, we see that that starts to drop, though
14:34
particularly when it comes to contrast, where we're just not getting quite the high detail
14:38
and if we move down here towards the corner, we can just see that those textures are starting to look kind of muddy and blurred
14:44
not really able to distinguish. So, I mean, in this case, our 50, or, excuse me, 45 megapixels of resolution
14:51
maybe a little bit higher than what this lens is capable of. Stopping down a full stop to F8 gives us some improvement in the center of the frame in terms of that contrast and resolution
15:02
a much more obvious improvement here in the midframe to where things are moving into what I call good territory
15:07
Down on the bottom, however, we still don't really sharpen up all that much
15:13
If we move on up to F11, we can see that there is continuing to be some improvement here in the edge of the frame
15:20
though it never reaches what I would call excellent levels. Now, just for a little bit of maybe unwanted perspective, but again, F11, which is where we got our best results across the frame
15:30
compared to wide open F4.5 on the RF 100 to 500, we can see in the middle of the frame
15:37
I mean, obviously our resolution and contrast is a little bit better on the RF lens wide open, or the L lens, I should say, 100 to 500
15:47
In the midframe, though, that, you know, the gap grows to where it's much more obviously sharp, wide open than what the 100 to 400 is at F11
15:56
And down here in the corner, it's just not even a competition
16:01
I mean, at its best, this lens really doesn't scratch the surface of what the L-series lens is capable of doing
16:07
off in the corner of the frame. This is pretty obviously a case of the old saying you get what you
16:13
pay for. Now our minimum aperture is a variable aperture and that at 100 millimeters it's F32
16:19
and then at 400 millimeters it'll be as small as F45. I would avoid anything past F-16 because
16:27
of the simple rule of diffraction. You get that aperture that small and you know light starts to
16:32
get bent and confused. It ends up robbing contrast as you can see here
16:37
that we're much sharper at F5.6 than we are at F32. And so I would use F-16 as a practical limit
16:44
Now, the next marked position on the zoom range is 135 millimeters
16:49
and already our maximum map has dropped to F6.3. So we've already lost some light even by 135 millimeters
16:57
Pretty much the same performance as what we saw earlier in that the center looks pretty good, moving off to the mid-frame
17:03
You definitely see some drop-off in terms of contrast, resolution and then corner performance being okay but fairly weak particularly when it comes to contrast
17:15
Now by 200 millimeters our maximum aperture is F7.1 so we're continuing to close down. I would actually
17:21
recommend closing down further to F8 and you'll see why. You can see that while it's only one
17:28
third of a stop in terms of light gathering you just improve your contrast so much by stopping
17:33
the lens down that bit to F8. It's just really obviously better
17:37
at F8 than it is at F7.1. All across the frame, you can see even in this area where it's weakest
17:44
It is better still down here at F8 relative to F7.1. Though, as before, the corners never really get as sharp as what we saw from the L-series lens
17:56
under any circumstance. Here's a real-world shot at right under 200 millimeters and F8
18:02
And you can see out in the real world, just for a little bit of perspective, this shot
18:06
actually looks quite good. and across the middle of the frame here. I mean, you can tell that you've lost a little bit of Christmas
18:11
towards the edge, but I think it all looks acceptably sharp here
18:16
And really, there's quite a lot of detail across this frame, all things considered
18:20
And so, you know, that's an image where I think that the lens, you know, has really handled the situation fairly well
18:26
which goes to show that the lens like this, one of it's maybe not the first purpose you'd think of it
18:31
is as a landscape lens. But it can, because it's so lightweight and portable
18:36
it could be a very effective landscape lens when you're looking at bigger scenes
18:40
Now, by 300 millimeters, we've reached our maximum aperture of F8, which is where we'll remain throughout
18:46
300 millimeters, you know, again, looks fairly good in the center of the frame, not perfectly pin sharp
18:52
but, you know, an improved a little bit by F11, a more obvious improvement in the midframe where contrast is obviously better at F11
19:01
though our F8 performance doesn't look too bad here in the midframe, down into the edge
19:06
you know it okay at F8 a little bit better at F11 where you can just see more detail is there and you can see that contrast has improved somewhat
19:15
Moving on to 400 millimeters, and you can see that, again, mid-frame performance, just
19:21
slightly lower than what we saw at 300 millimeters, and again, you can see that if you stop
19:26
down to F-11, you're getting a little bit more contrast there. I do think that our mid-frame performance is a little bit weaker
19:33
It stops down. you know, it improves a little bit in terms of contrast there and down into the corners
19:39
Corners remain, you know, fairly weak here and improved a little bit at F11
19:44
Jumping back to the L-series lens here for a moment, comparing exact same settings
19:49
A few things are going to stand out. I mean, first of all, obviously the L-series lens gives you better contrast in detail
19:55
We've already seen that. One thing I'll also point out, however, is it is delivering a brighter performance at equal settings
20:01
And so that tells me that this lens is maybe. even darker still at F8 than what we might hope for because it's definitely looking better
20:10
and more detail and brighter at the same settings on the L-series lens and down into the corners
20:17
I mean, it's just no competition in the corners. The L-series is really kind of a night and day improvement there
20:24
Now, that's not to say you can't get good results at F8 400 millimeters with this lens
20:29
We can see here once texture pops in that, you know, we've really got quite good
20:34
detail in this frame to where the subject area is nice and crisp and if we pan over
20:40
here you can see there is a lot of detail and you know real-world contrast here
20:46
looks fairly good and frankly I mean it's looking fairly good right off towards
20:50
the edge of the frame here not a bad result there at all likewise here up
20:55
close again 400 millimeters and f8 we can see on Ferrari's face that we've got
21:01
you know quite good detail and you know there's a lot of very fine
21:04
hairs that are able to be delineated here on the 45 megapixels of the R5 sensor. And so really quite a good
21:11
result there as well. So as noted, the RF 100 to 400 has a very nice maximum magnification
21:18
of 0.41 times at 88 centimeters. And that gives you obviously a very high degree of magnification
21:26
And detail up close is, you know, fairly good, all things considered. That had some nice real world
21:31
applications allow me to get really close to, you know, objects like this and obviously really
21:37
defocus a background. And that'll going to give us a transition into talking about the bouquet
21:43
because a lens like this, and here's another shot where I needed a shot for a thumbnail of my
21:49
review, long-term review of my 35 millimeter F1.4 G master lens. And you can see again at 400 millimeters
21:56
and F8 that it's just crushed out the background. And so everything is nice and smooth
22:01
That's kind of best case scenario for this lens. Here's another, you know, in a similar situation where I'm able to isolate a subject
22:09
And as we can see, if we pop in on the subject, we've got nice detail right under 300 millimeters for this shot
22:15
But you can see looking towards the background that it's really nicely blurred out
22:19
Now in this shot, the background isn't quite as far away. And so once again, we're really nice and close
22:24
And the black background is nicely blurred. This is a fallen log with, you know, various things growing on it
22:30
So you can see here that, you know, in a little bit higher contrast scene, some of the contrast hasn't held up quite as well
22:38
And the defocused area is slightly more busy because it's not as out of focus
22:42
You can see in this shot, though, where the ratio is not quite so favorable
22:47
Detail is okay here on this, but you can see that our background is looking much more busy here
22:54
And it doesn't handle situations as well when you're not quite as close to your subject
22:58
And this shot is another, I was shooting some wild turkeys in my backyard, ugly beast
23:04
But let's move away from the ugly beast and look at this background, which really to me is, it has that what you would call nervous quality
23:12
And you can just see that it's not rendered in a way like a high-end lens would
23:17
Obviously, it isn't a high-end lens, but there are areas where the more budget design shows up
23:24
And that's in these ratios where your distance to subject to the background isn't as favor
23:28
All in all, it's a okay performance and, you know, it's really good enough to get the job done
23:34
but neither is it exceptional in any way, really. So as I noted in that segment, you get what you pay for
23:41
And in this case, while I think this image quality is sufficiently good
23:45
and particularly if you're shooting with the lower resolution bodies, you'll probably be even happier with it
23:49
But it's certainly not at the L-Series lens in terms of performance. Of course, that lens, as noted at the beginning, is somewhere near four and a half times as expensive
23:57
so you really shouldn't expect this lens to hang with that lens
24:01
And it doesn't. But at the same time, I think for many people, its image quality is going to be good enough
24:06
to get you shots you're going to be happy with. And at the end of the day
24:09
I think that that's going to be what matters for a lot of people. The L-Series lens is simply out of the grass for many photographers
24:16
while this lens is not going to be. So I think that that makes it a great value
24:21
an intriguing proposition for many photographers in the here and now. The only fly in the ointment that I see for the future is that I know from past experience that both Sigma and Tamron have made 100 to 400 millimeter lenses that have fewer compromises than this lens does
24:36
So should they ever get around to making RF versions of those lenses, this lens is probably going to have some serious competition at that point
24:43
But right now, it doesn't. And so if you're looking for an inexpensive telephoto zoom lens, the RF 100 to 400 millimeter F5.6 to F8 IS USM
24:54
is a very good option. I'm Dustin Abbott, and if you'll look in the description down below
24:58
you can find linkage to my full text review, also to an image gallery. You can see more photos there
25:03
There are buying links down below if you'd like to purchase one for yourself. Linkage there to follow myself or Craig on social media or to check out our new channel. Let the
25:10
light in TV. You can get channel merchandise, become a patron. And of course, if you haven't
25:15
already, please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube. Be sure to ring that bell so you get
25:20
notification when new content drops. Thanks for watching. Have a great day. And let the Biden

Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM Definitive Review | DA

dustinabbott.net

Schneider-KREUZNACH x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE Review | Impressive!

Nikon Z5II Review | Is This the Best Sub $2000 Camera?

Viltrox AF 28mm F4.5 Chip Z-Mount Review | The Most Fun for Under $100

Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8L IS Definitive Review | 4K

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Review - Budget Excellence

Sailboat freezer working better than ever! #svaguaazul #sailboat #boat

How to Use Lens Correction Settings on Canon EOS M10 - Chromatic Aberration Correction

How to Enable or Disable Servo AF on Canon EOS M10 - Activate Continues Auto Focus on Canon Camera

Performing 24 hours worth of pull ups to set a world record

Everything To Know About These 20X25 Compact Binoculars

US Navy will use Tomahawks to chop enemy ships

German offshore wind farms asked to install radar amid safety concerns

Up next in 10

Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM Definitive Review | DA

dustinabbott.net