Canon EF 800mm f/5.6 L IS USM Lens Review

There is nothing like the arrival of a new Canon Super Telephoto Lens to bring the excitement of Christmas to any time of the year. And the hit on the credit card from this lens is considerably larger than the hit from most households' Christmas expenditures. The Canon EF 800mm f/5.6 L IS USM Lens enters the world as, by far, Canon's most expensive lens. This is of course not counting the EF 1200mm f/5.6 that is not in regular production - and costs as much as a small house.

The definite upside to the Canon EF 800mm f/5.6 L IS USM Lens' high price is that you get Canon's ultimate lens physical qualities and superb Image quality.

The 800 L is sharp wide open from corner to corner and slightly sharper stopped down to f/8. The biggest improvement from stopping down is the reduced vignetting, which is somewhat strong at f/5.6. Exposures at f/5.6 are generally at least 1/3 stop darker even in the center of the frame from what f/8 exposures are - this is the biggest negative attribute of this lens in my opinion (aside from the price of course). Images at f/8 are simply excellent.

The uncropped 1Ds Mark III Rufous-sided Towhee photo above was shot at 1/80 second at f/6.3 and ISO 400. The 800mm focal length nicely magnifies the OOF (Out of Focus) background and, along with an 8-blade rounded aperture, creates a strongly and attractively blurred background. Slight corner darkening caused by a 25mm extension tube (not needed in this case) can be seen in this shot.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is very low, flare is very well-controlled. Color and contrast are what you would expect from a lens of this caliber. Distortion is absent. There is not much more to say about image quality from the Canon EF 800mm f/5.6 L IS USM Lens - it is excellent.

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