Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens Review
The Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens has been announced in Europe and Japan, with the Canon USA announcement TBD. This page will be updated when I have the lens in hand. In the meantime, here is information about and my expectations for this lens.
Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens is an inexpensive, lightweight, entry-level telephoto zoom lens based on the (26-year older) Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III DSLR Lens.
Focal Length Range
Back to TopFocal length range (or individual focal length for a prime lens) is a primary consideration for lens selection. A specific angle of view is required to get a desired subject framing with the optimal perspective (or from within a working distance limitation).
With a range that starts at 70mm and goes to a strong 300mm telephoto, this lens covers a wide range of uses, including many general-purpose telephoto needs. When out shooting, I usually have a lens covering this range in the bag.
A 70-300mm lens is often a great choice for photographing people. The wider focal lengths are especially ideal for portrait photography, including indoors if adequate ambient light or flash is available. The mid and long focal lengths, typically most easily used outdoors, will provide a more compressed appearance (due to the longer subject distance), and the magnification of these focal lengths brings the potential for a strong background blur.
Parents chasing kids will find plenty of use for this entire focal length range, including for their at-the-park and at-the-beach needs. This focal length range is ideal for headshot portraits.
People participating in sports make great subjects for the 70-300mm focal length range. While a long telephoto lens is a good choice for sports from a safety perspective (safety both from and for the subject), it is also a good choice when there is a physical or designated barrier to getting closer, such as a fence or the perimeter lines on a sports field. Sometimes, the action can be close, and sports photography needs can range all the focal lengths this lens avails. A full-frame camera-mounted 300mm lens will reach into mid-sized field events, and close action can be contained in the frame at 70mm. That a zoom range (vs. using a prime or single focal length lens) facilitates ideal in-camera framing of a subject over a wide range of distances results in full use of your camera's imaging sensor, creating optimal image quality.
All of the focal lengths in this lens are useful for landscape photography. It is often easy to create attractive, compressed-perspective landscape images when using a telephoto lens.
The 70-300mm focal length range is useful for some wildlife photography pursuits. Large or close wildlife can be contained in the frame at the wide end of the range, and this range is ideal for environmental wildlife portraits.
From the other perspective, when the wildlife is scared of you (or vice versa) or you cannot or do not want to approach more closely, full-frame 300mm will often be found short of ideal. Smaller birds and animals often require longer focal lengths to have a substantial size in the frame. The RF 70-300 is a good zoo and safari lens option.
Note that long focal lengths can make even a mediocre sunrise or sunset look amazing. This range is a great choice for smaller flora, such as the flowers in your garden.
There are many other uses for this wide 4x focal length range. If I am not using it as my primary lens, a telephoto zoom range such as a 70-300mm will be handling much of the balance of my needs.
With the close minimum focus distance, this lens will work excellently for product photography. A 70-300mm lens is useful at air shows.
When mounted on an APS-C camera model, the 1.6x FOVCF sensor format will see an angle of view like a full-frame-mounted 1202-480mm lens. This shifted-narrower angle of view range takes this lens's use deeper into sports and wildlife pursuits, especially bird photography. While this range is still useful for portrait photography on an APS-C camera, tightly framed portraits become most comfortable, with considerable space needed for full body portraiture.
Max Aperture
Back to TopA lens's maximum aperture, the ratio of the focal length to the entrance pupil diameter, is usually included in the product name immediately after the focal length range, reflecting this specification's next-most importance. This lens ranges from f/4-5.6, relatively narrow openings.
The lower the aperture number, the wider the opening, and the more light the lens can deliver to the imaging sensor. Each "stop" in aperture change (full stop examples: f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6) increases or decreases the amount of light by a substantial factor of 2x.
Want a long focal length range that includes telephoto focal lengths in a zoom lens without a large size, heavy weight, and high price? Expect that lens to have a narrow and variable max aperture.
A smaller aperture opening facilitates using smaller, lighter, and less expensive lens elements. Because this lens's maximum opening does not increase sufficiently with focal length increase to maintain the same aperture measurement ratio, the max aperture is efficiently variable, ranging from f/4 to f/5.6 as the focal length range is increasingly traversed. The Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens has all those attributes.
These narrow max apertures make this lens an unfavorable choice for photographing challenging low-light motion, such as indoor sports or outdoor sports on cloudy days. Setting the ISO to a high number is the narrow aperture option for obtaining sharp low-light in-motion images, but the increased noise is an image quality factor. A narrow aperture is also detrimental to low-light autofocus performance, slowing or inhibiting focus lock.
While the lens's widest max aperture cannot be used over the entire focal length range, the camera automatically accounts for the changes in auto exposure modes (including M mode with Auto ISO), but using the widest-available aperture in manual exposure mode is somewhat complicated by the changing setting (though an in-camera function may also accommodate the changes).
Only a 1/60-second shutter speed (twice the framerate) is needed for 30 fps video capture, and wide apertures are not often required to achieve 1/60 in normally encountered ambient lighting.
Image Stabilization
Back to TopWith increasing ISO being the alternative, the noise difference IS enables for still subjects is huge, and stabilization dramatically improves video quality. Unlike most other telephoto zoom lenses, but like Canon's entry-level 75-300mm DSLR lens, the Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens does not feature optical image stabilization.
Image Quality
Back to TopExpect this lens to provide reasonable image quality, especially for the price.
Focusing
Back to TopThe Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens uses a DC motor to drive AF. This lens has a minimum focus distance of 59.1" (1500mm), and it generates a modest 0.06x maximum magnification at 75mm and a good 0.25x spec at 300mm.
| Model | Min Focus Distance | Max Magnification | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canon RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS USM Lens | 19.7" | (500mm) | 0.26x |
| Canon RF-S 55-210mm F5-7.1 IS STM Lens | 39.4" | (1000mm) | 0.28x |
| Canon RF 70-200mm F4 L IS USM Lens | 23.6" | (600mm) | 0.28x |
| Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens | 59.1" | (1500mm) | 0.25x |
| Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM Lens | 34.6" | (880mm) | 0.41x |
| Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Lens | 35.4" | (900mm) | 0.33x |
| Canon RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM Lens | 31.5" | (800mm) | 0.25x |
Design & Features
Back to Top
| Model | Weight oz(g) | Dimensions w/o Hood "(mm) | Filter | Year | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS USM Lens | 26.5 | (750) | 3.2 x 4.8 | (80.4 x 122.5) | 72 | 2019 |
| Canon RF-S 55-210mm F5-7.1 IS STM Lens | 9.5 | (270) | 2.7 x 3.7 | (68.6 x 94.0) | 55 | 2023 |
| Canon RF 70-200mm F4 L IS USM Lens | 24.5 | (695) | 3.3 x 4.7 | (83.5 x 119.0) | 77 | 2020 |
| Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens | 17.9 | (507) | 2.8 x 5.8 | (71.2 x 146.1) | 58 | 2025 |
| Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM Lens | 22.4 | (635) | 3.1 x 6.5 | (79.5 x 164.7) | 67 | 2021 |
| Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Lens | 48.2 | (1365) | 3.7 x 8.2 | (93.8 x 207.6) | 77 | 2020 |
View and compare the complete Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens Specifications in the site's lens specifications tool.
58mm filters are small, light, and affordable.
The round Canon EF-60 Lens Hood and the bottom-padded LP1019 Lens Case (pouch), both existing models for the EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Lens, are optional.
Price, Value, Compatibility
Back to TopThe Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens is an inexpensive, entry-level model designed to be a good value.
This lens will be available in an entry-level kit that includes the Canon EOS R100, RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens, and Shoulder Bag 200ES.
As an "RF" lens, the Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens is compatible with all Canon EOS R-series cameras, including full-frame and APS-C models. Canon USA provides a 1-year limited warranty.
Summary
Back to TopThe Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 Lens is the tight budget choice for those looking for moderately long telephoto focal lengths.
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