Canon RF 200-800mm Giving it Another Chance R6 Mark II

Good to see that you’re giving it another chance. Many other photographers make great pictures and video with this lens and some are even giving up the RF100-500 and are keeping this lens. I will keep my RF200-800 for birding/wildlife and I will also keep my R100-500 for big wildlife and landscape. I¨m convinced they are great lenses both, so I will see what the new cameras can do with these lenses. Thanks for sharing your video. / Greetings from Per Christensen, Denmark

Thanks so much for sharing another wonderful video like always Phil 👍

This tells me what I need to know Appreciate it.

Really nice shot of the redwing bird. I love the redbud in the background. Bluebird v. Nice too. I love birds

Thank you for your honest reviews, and going thru all the effort to put your videos together. I have been on the fence between the rf 100-500 for the r7 and the 200-800 for the r8. The rf 100-500 paired with the r7 looks like the way to go. I might just pair the 800mm f11 with the r8 later since I own both camera bodies. Thanks again and have a great day.

redbuds and redwing blackbirds. Spring is here! Well, you guys are a couple weeks ahead of us up in SW Ohio but still seeing redbuds, dogwoods and redwings warms the heart.

Hey Phil. Nice video as usual, and thanks for taking us along. In my opinion, having never held the 200 to 800, I don’t think regular canon shooters for wildlife like us should have to try that hard to make that type of lens work. If someone is going to have to throttle back and shoot 700 mm at F10 to try to get shots, one might as well shoot the 100 to 500 with 1.4 extender and get a high degree of sharp shots. You also don’t have the ridiculous or the extra weight of the foot. This lens is in need of a redo. Make the foot removable. Add coatings to the lens. Do something about that throw. In the meantime, shoot the 100-500 for the extender. Those are my two cents.

Thanks again for review ,this lens 200-800 is unbelievable popular in Finland ,queuing list are very long indeed. I guess I am gonna stay with my Rf 800mm stm f11 and shorter rf 600mm f11. The other day I was photographing european great crested grebes in good light with 800mm and sharpness was fantastic again and with my R8 the focus area is big enough even for BIF photos .. Cheers

Have you tried it with the lens IS shutoff and a little higher shutter speed? I have a couple of long lenses that the IS seems to soften my images. A little higher ISO crisp shot is better than low ISO soft one.

Good testing Phil. You got some nice shots. Do you think you’ll keep it?

I have been shooting with the EF100-400Lii and a x2, there is little difference between that and the Sigma 150-600 and the 1.4 [840mm], but I bought the 200-800 as it is RF mount. Sharpness wise it seems on par with the other options, it just works a little better as a native mount. As I use both mirrorless and DSLR I can juggle a lot. I like to smooth run to 800 and it probably focuses better on the R5, not quite sure whether I needed the retail therapy more than the lens though.

It seems it struggles to cope with a harsh sunlight? Have you tried to turn off stabilisation and try on tripod?

i did some tests and found f10 to be the sharpest setting, too. it is of course quite some struggle when light is a scarce ressource...

I think the bluebird was my favorite. Nice shirt as well.

I'm so happy you gave it ANOTHER chance. It's been 6 months since I ordered mine from B&H and it's still out of stock.

Phil - I love my 200-800 on the R3 and it was great on the R5 as well. I HATED it at first though LOL. I have been looking to rent the R6II to give that a go as a comparison to the R3 - that will be up sometime soon too. 🤗💖

The very fact you’re questioning if you should keep it or not is probably your answer. Get rid of it while it’s hot and you can get all of your money back.

We have been waiting to get out hands on the 200-800 since November and disappointed to see that you believe it is not capable of sharpness at 800 mm. You are the only you tube photographer we have watched that is not happy with it's sharpness at every level of it's zoom. We usually enjoy your videos, but this one left us thinking you were looking for fault because every photo didn't meet your "chart" sharpness. We are still anxious to get the 200-800 and hope it comes soon.

I returned my 200-800mm after some serious sweating in the field, in great light and high shutter speeds and a mix of apertures. Running it on a R5, alongside a Nikon Z8 with a 500mm PF lens, I found the Nikon set-up to be far superior in keeper rate. I tried holding back from the 800mm extent of the 200-800 a fair bit (typically up to 707mm) and still it let me down. I least I was lucky enough to try and find out for myself

Thanks for another great video Phil. I love that 200-800 lens and I find it to be fairly sharp on my R5 and R7. I wonder if maybe you got a bad copy? Is it as sharp as my a7CR and the Sony 200-600? No but it's pretty darn good. Also I don't have the amazing 100-500 Canon lens to compare it against so I can see how you might be less than happy with the 200-800. They do say comparison is the robber of joy :-). Cheers.