Re: How do I cope with and successfully manage a variable lens @ 500 mm @ f7.1?
GreenHaven wrote: ...not knowing any better (as I didn’t even think to ask the question because it wasn’t a consideration previously and nobody volunteered this information), I discovered that a significant amount of light is lost with the Canon RF-100 lens @ 500 mm when fully extended..
If you really wanted a fixed aperture f/4.5 zoom, you can get some idea of how big and heavy that would be (if it existed) by looking at the recently released Sony 100–400mm f/4.5, which is around 2.4kg, nearly twice the weight of your new lens, and which only goes to 400mm.
I personally couldn’t live with only a fixed 500mm or 600mm prime lens for birding. I’ve taken a lot of bird photos at shorter focal lengths, mainly around 250mm to 350mm for water birds.
f/4.5 to f/7.1 is only 1 stop, and I often lose 1½ stops by using a polariser with water birds and think nothing of it. And, oh yes, I can use the 77mm circular polariser I already owned for use with my landscape lenses.
You can remove the tripod ring to reduce the weight a bit, although doing so may make the lens less convenient to carry.
You can mitigate the behaviour with exposure changing in manual mode when zooming from 100mm f/4.5 to 500mm by turning on auto ISO.
Raw converters these days can remove a lot more noise than you might expect. DxO and Adobe have special enhanced noise reduction you can apply, and Capture One has it in beta. I’ve been happy so far with Capture One’s traditional noise reduction, perhaps because I grew up with grainy photos in Life magazine.
To what reasonable height could I set my R5 Mk II’s ISO to without noticeable grain and noise showing?
On the flip side, to what extent can the shutter speed be lowered without my hand held shakiness becoming obvious? How good is Canons IBIS feature?
You should be able to answer both these questions for yourself by experimenting with your new camera and lens. The answers will probably be higher ISO and slower shutter speeds than you thought possible. I find the limit on the shutter speed is how still the bird is.
May 19, 2026 at 03:39 AM
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