Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS Super Telephoto

2010-07-09 • SEND FEEDBACK •
Related: Canon, Canon EF, Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L, Canon lenses, tripods and support

The EF 800mm f/5.6L IS (about $10,900) is Canon’s longest currently available telephoto, and requires special handling to make sharp images, a topic discussed explored in the full review in DAP.

Optical construction

With two fluorite lens elements, one UD element and one Super-UD element, control of color fringing is outstanding— I observed no evidence of any.

The 800/5.6L is also weather resistant and light weight (relatively speaking). With the lens hood, I weighed it 10.5 pounds, a bit higher than the nominal 9.9 weight of the lens alone.

Specifications

Per Canon.

Support

Consider the Wimberly WH-200 a mandatory accessory for this lens, along with a sturdy tripod.

The full review goes into alternatives, but this is the tripod head you’ll want.

Wimberly WH-200 gimbal-type tripod head

MTF

MTF for Canon EF 28mm f/2.8

This MTF chart shows outstanding contrast. While there is some astigmatism present, the overall MTF is so high that very crisp detail should result at every setting.

There is no sharpness advantage to stopping down— at all. Stop down only to improve depth of field. Stopping down past f/8 will only drop the contrast resulting in less crisp images (except for depth of field), due to diffraction.

Full review

An in-depth review of this lens is available in DAP.

Field comparison scene

Conclusions

At about $10,900, the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS delivers the results serious pros need, with some attention given to focus, shutter speed, tripod stability, technique, etc.