Canon RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM

Every so often, a new superzoom telephoto lens grabs our attention.

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£2,300/$1,899

Super-telephoto lens, almost super performance

Mostly, it’s third-party lens-makers like Sigma and Tamron battling over stratospheric focal lengths or huge apertures. Canon, it seemed, was content to focus on sensible quality and let other companies make the headlines. But the Canon RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM is a serious challenger to the superzoom throne.

The RF 200-800mm offers a record 600mm difference in focal length from wide to tele, for full-frame cameras anyway, and achieves this in a body weighing just over 2kg and 31cm long. However, there are compromises to be made, with the maximum aperture being limited to f/6.3-9, making it considerably narrower than other rival lenses with less ambitious focal lengths.

The RF 200-800mm is designed for full-frame cameras, but its reach can be extended to a whopping 320-1280mm if paired with a Canon APS-C camera, such as the Canon EOS R7 with its 1.6x crop factor. The lens is also compatible with Canon’s 1.4x and 2x teleconverters, although you lose one or two stops in maximum aperture respectively. So Canon has finally turned up to the party but has it found the secret formula for near-to-far perfection?

Build and handling