Playing The Long Game: Outdoor Photography With Telezooms

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After the standard zoom, the next most popular lens is the telezoom and this lens type is available in many guises to suit almost all tastes and budgets.

One of the most versatile is the 70-200mm with its focal length range well suited to people and scenic shooting, but adept in more specialist applications too, and it usually comes in a reasonably portable package. If your taste is for a longer focal length range be prepared for more bigger lenses, smaller maximum apertures and, often, more expense.

The fact is the choice of lenses has never been greater with offerings from camera and independent brands, so.

Canon was a late arrival in the mirrorless camera market, so it has been playing catch-up to grow its lens system but the range on offer now is impressive, although there is a high-end bias and there are gaps in its range that it needs to fill.

The thing is though that Canon, in its wisdom, has decided not to co-operate with independent lens brands hence while you will see a few manual focus RF fit lenses on offer, there are no AF options. Hopefully, this will change, but meanwhile, if you want an AF telephoto zoom that stretches beyond the 70-200mm range, Canon offers the option of the extremely well-regarded and very capable RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM, which sells for £2940 new or around £2700 through MPB. Or the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM which retails at £650 new and is available from MPB for around £614-644, depending on condition, For most of us, the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM makes good sense budget-wise. Also, while it may not have the same telephoto pulling power, 400mm is good enough for most purposes and its slower maximum aperture is less of an issue with the very good high ISO performance of Canon EOS R cameras.

Go for the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM, and you also lessen your load. It weighs 635g compared with 1530g of the RF 100-500mm, so it is less than half the weight, and it’s around 14cm shorter so it’s space-saving too.

For me, weight is a serious consideration and I prefer to travel as light as I can at events and about town which is the key reason I got the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM. It means I have less backache and more energy for photography.

Despite the price disparity, the RF 100-400mm performs very well, especially at the shorter focal lengths where you get crisp, contrasty images even at the wider apertures. Overall image quality falls away a little towards the 400mm end but not too much and stopping down to f/11 helps keep images sharp right into the corners of the frame.

Lancaster Bomber performing at the Shuttleworth Collection. Canon EOS R5 with the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM at 400mm with an exposure of 1/250sec at f/14 and ISO 800. © Will Cheung. 

Autofocus speed and responsiveness are pretty good – I used it on an EOS R5 – even with airplanes and birds in the air, although this performance did drop off when light levels dropped.

The minimum focusing distance of the lens is very useful, and you can get as close as 88cm from the sensor plane throughout its range. That makes the lens handy with larger insects such as butterflies and dragonflies, and you get a decent image size in the frame while allowing a comfortable working distance so you’re less likely to scare off your subject.

An extra benefit of the RF 100-400mm is that is fully compatible with Canon’s RF’s 1.4x and 2x extenders so you can get an even larger subject image. By fully compatible, I mean you have access to the RF 100-400mm’s full focal length range unlike the RF 100-500mm which has to be set at 300mm or more. The downside, though, is cost – a new RF 2x extender is £669 so around the same price as the lens itself.

While Canon has not designed the RF 100-400mm to accommodate a tripod collar, its low weight does not rule out successful tripod photography unless there is a strong breeze, in which case, vibration is a potential hazard. However, third-party collars are available, and I bought one that makes stable tripod use easy and it’s Arca-Swiss compatible. Its only downside is that it can’t be rotated for upright-format shooting.

Marbled white butterfly. Canon EOS R5 with the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM at 400mm with an exposure of 1/250sec at f/8 and ISO 800. © Will Cheung. 

Anyway, enough of the tech talk. I have had the company of the RF 100-400mm for the summer and I have to say that the lens’s physical attributes were a massive benefit, especially on the warmer, more humid days when a heavier optic would have made life more difficult.

My photo trips included IWM Duxford, the Shuttleworth Collection, Slimbridge Wetland Centre as well as several city and wildlife walks. Subject matter ranged from insects and small birds to flamingos and up to the Lancaster bomber of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

For a modestly-priced telezoom, I thought the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM acquitted itself really well, turning in crisp, contrasty images rich in detail. High-frequency detail such as bird feathers looked lovely, and I was generally very pleased with the results this budget lens produced. It also balanced and handled very well on the EOS R5 and its low weight meant I was happy to tote it around all day just in case I needed its pulling power.

Preening flamingo at Slimbridge Wetland Centre. Canon EOS R5 with the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM 400mm with an exposure of 1/1600sec at f/8 and ISO 800. © Will Cheung. 

News from MPB

Street photography is fun, readily accessible to most of us and the challenge/pull of catching the decisive moment has attracted photographers since the medium’s earliest days.

Of course, your existing camera can be used to shoot street photography, but you do need to think about the set-up and how you approach the subject. Autofocus with face/eye detect active, autoexposure and a high ISO to allow fast movement-stopping shutter speeds are key settings and have the camera around your neck or on a good quality wrist strap so you are ready to turn the camera on as you bring it up to the eye to shoot.

However, some cameras are better suited to the task than others and MPB has selected five from its vast stock for consideration for street shooting and included the pros and cons of each. It’s a great read with technique tips included. Click here to see MPB’s top five street photography cameras.