A new optical formula patent application from Canon has been approved in the form of a Canon RF 100-600mm f/8-11 IS STM. As we have seen with the Canon RF 600mm f/11 IS STM and Canon RF 800mm f/11 IS STM, Canon isn't afraid of developing and releasing slower lenses. Canon has admitted to working on more of these types of lenses for the RF mount.
Canon RF 100-600mm f/8-11 IS STM Optical Formula
- Focal length: 153.00mm – 581.90mm
- F value: 8.00 – 11.31
- Half angle of view: 8.05° – 2.13°
- Image height: 21.64mm
- Overall length: 274.81mm – 354.89mm
- Back focus: 68.40mm – 126.51mm
-Brian
Great to see this addition (I think it would come to production) to the small aperture zoom family after the 15-30mm, 24-105mm and 100-400mm.
Not knocking it as more affordable options are always good but it seems like a lot of duplication of lens purpose between this and the RF 100-400.
That said, if Canon can maintain the prime image quality and turn the 600mm into a zoom with original optic design (no TC grouping) and close focus while keeping weight down to around 1kg, they may have another winner.
Sony 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 2115g;
Tamron 150-500mm F5-6.7 1725g
RF100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L 1365g
Even adding a TC1.4x @ 224g is still lighter than the others, Slower of course.
I have hundreds of puffin shots in critical or acceptably sharp shots after one session in Iceland given the R5's serious ability to crop and eye-AF. The worst part... choosing the best to share!
I'm more disappointed this lens is STM, because I find the AF acqusition of the 800mm f11 rather sluggish in low light (it does do better with zone AF or object tracking turned off to some extent) and it would benefit greatly from USM.