Lens: Canon RF 100-500mm ƒ/4.5-7.1 L IS USM (Photography Museum)

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Canon RF 100-500mm ƒ/4.5-7.1 L IS USM

Compact super-telephoto zoom released in 2020 and purchased in the spring of 2024. Bought in combination with the Extender RF1.4x. With the extender mounted, the lens can only be set to between the 300 and 500mm positions, yielding a constrained 420 to 700mm.

When I purchased my first R-series camera (EOS R6 Mark II), the RF 100-500mm ƒ/4.5-7.1 was high on my list of future purchases. It was also more expensive than any other single piece of camera equipment that I owned.

However, I was not in a rush to get this lens as I already had the Tamron SP 150-600mm ƒ/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 lens covering the super-telephoto range. While longer and slightly faster, the Tamron 150-600mm is also 46% heavier (26% with the Extender RF1.4x) than the RF 100-500mm. As my interest in bird photography increased, so to did my interest in the this lens. A healthy rebate of CA$350 made the purchase more palatable.

(The Canon RF 200-800mm ƒ/6.3-9 IS USM lens was announced, but generally unavailable, when I was ready to purchase the RF 100-500mm. The 200-800mm is a lot less expensive, but is also not in the same image-quality class as the 100-500mm. I stayed the course with the 100-500mm and do not regret that decision.)

Reviews and my initial testing showed that the RF 100-500mm is much sharper at wide open aperatures than the almost 50% cheaper Tamron 150-600mm, even with the RF1.4x in place.

In low light conditions I do have to use quite high ISO settings, but this is still manageable and I am able to shoot handheld 99% of the time. The low-light alternative would be the RF 600mm ƒ/4 L IS USM at 5x the price. I’ll keep the portability and versatility of the RF 100-500mm, thank you very much.

At the extended 700mm, this lens is usually fine for small bird photography, even at 24 megapixels. I do find myself cropping down about 30% much of the time, but still end up with detailed 16 megapixel images.

I would like to try this lens on a higher megapixel APS-C body (the EOS R7 at 32 megapixels is interesting, but not without a vertical grip). On 32 megapixel APS-C, without the RF1.4x, and with post-processing cropping to 24 megapixels, the lens would yield an effective focal length of 1100mm, if my math is correct.

I am able to carry this lens for much longer periods of time compared to the Tamron 150-600mm. It is also more compact in my bag.

With the RF1.4x still attached I can store the partially extended lens, with R6 Mark II mounted, in my ThinkTank MindShift BackLight 26L backpack (I do have to remove the BG-R10 vertical grip, but that is the case with any mounted lens in this backpack).

Without the extender, I can fit the RF 100-500mm (hood reversed) mounted on my R6 Mark II (with vertical grip) in my Timbuk2 large messenger bag with another compact zoom (RF 24-105mm or RF 70-200mm) and room to spare.

My main complaint about this lens is the same complaint I have with all Canon telephotos: the lack of built-in Arca-Swiss compatibility of the tripod foot. Why!? The Arca-Swiss foot on the Tamron 150-600mm is a thing of beauty. I pay twice as much for the Canon RF 100-500mm and have to attach a clunky third-party Arca-Swiss plate!

My other complaint is about the extenders (1.4x or 2x) only working from 300 to 500mm, though I understand and forgive the restriction if it was the only way to make such a compact lens with consistent image quality across the zoom range. In practice, with an extender installed, the storage issue is more of an annoyance than the lack of zoom range.

After the first few months of using the RF 100-500mm, 70% of the photos have been taken with the Extender RF1.4x attached. This may reflect the fact that I tend to do a lot of bird photography in the spring. At other times of the year, when taking more landscape or general photographs, I imagine the proportion of shots taken with the extender will be reduced.

Quite surprisingly, the RF 100-500mm makes a good close-up/macro lens!