Canon 600mm F/4 IS. An informal test.

OK, last week a friend of mine, Joe, brought in his Canon 600mm lens for some informal tests. Joe is a wildlife photographer and testing the lens in the field is difficult because of changing light conditions, moving subject matter, and other factors that effect consistency. I jumped at the change to spend a couple of hours playing with the lens in the studio.

First of all the lens is heavy. I mean REALLY heavy. Shooting it handheld isn’t really a good option. It is really well made and very robust. If you were in the woods and a bear attacked you, you could use it successfully to defend yourself. The price tag on a new 600mm is nearly $13,000, so it’s pretty pricey.

Here is what it looks like attached to my Canon 5D Mk III and battery grip. (More accurately it feels more like the camera attaches to the lens. ) 😉

Canon 600mm f/4 IS lens

One of the goals of our informal test was to see how sharp the lens was wide open in opposed to shooting it at a smaller aperture. The tests were far from scientific, but I think they indicate how ridiculously sharp this lens is under all conditions. This first shot is taken with the lens at f/4 at 160th of second at ISO 160.

600mm f/4

This next shot is at f/14. There is no noticeable difference in sharpness at the focus point (the dinosaur’s eye). The depth of field is really different, as you would expect, but the sharpness is the same as f/4.

600mm f/14

Here is close up of the photo shot at f/4.

600mm f/4

Here is a close of the photo shot at f/14. DOF is the only real difference.

600mm f/14

It’s amazing that a lens that big can be so sharp. When you pay that much for a lens, there’s a reason for it.

We did one more test to see how well the lens performed with a 1.4x teleconverter. The teleconverter caused the lens to lose a stop on the wide end and became a 840mm f/5.6 lens. Shooting it wide open caused a very slight degradation in image quality and sharpness, but still very respectable and very useable. However, the degradation disappeared as we stopped the lens down.

My overall impression of lens is overwhelmingly positive. It’s big, heavy, and expensive, but I don’t see how another lens could perform any better. This lens is scalpel sharp and it focuses so fast it’s scary. If I was a sports shooter or wildlife photographer, this lens would definitely be on the top of my wish list. Two thumbs up.

Thanks for reading!

-Ken