Lens: Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/4 L IS USM (Photography Museum)

< Back to the Photography Museum Lenses: Canon RF Mount

Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/4 L IS USM

Released in 2021, I bought the Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/4 L IS USM in March 2023. My first white Canon lens, though it hardly counts as a “Big White.”

My first L-series telephoto-zoom was the original Canon EF 80-200mm ƒ/2.8 L “Magic Drainpipe.” I love the image quality of that lens and never had an impetus to replace it with more modern EF 70-200mm variants.

I love the compactness of the RF 70-200mm ƒ/4. It is barely larger than the RF 24-105mm ƒ/4 IS USM, and together they make a nice combination.

I just recently added the Canon RF 100-500 ƒ/4.5-7.1 L IS USM, and, as other photographers have noted, I am a little worried that the RF 70-200mm ƒ/4 will see little use from now on. Time will tell. The RF 100-500mm is eminently hand-holdable, but in my mind the RF 70-200mm ƒ/4 remains a better walk-around landscape lens.

For one thing, the RF 70-200mm ƒ/4 has a ⅓ to ⅔ stop aperture advantage compared to the same focal lengths of the RF 100-500mm. This makes for slightly better low light performance and or more dramatic shallow focus. I think this advantage is apparent in the samples below.

I also feel that the RF 70-200mm ƒ/4 maintains some of the visual appeal (colour rendition, brokeh) of the old “Magic Drainpipe.” The RF 100-500m is a great lens and sharp across its focal range, but its bokeh is a bit messier and it’s rendition a bit flatter (both subjective traits, I know).