Canon RF 400mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens Sample Pictures

The big super-telephoto lenses deliver the ultimate wildlife image quality. The Canon RF 600mm F4 L IS USM Lens and Sony FE 600mm F4 GM OSS Lens are my favorite wildlife lenses, and they are my easy first choices for photographing elk.

However, there are times when wider would be helpful — a wider focal length and a wider aperture. In those cases, the Canon RF 400mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens and Sony FE 400mm F2.8 GM OSS Lens become my first choices. Unfortunately, flying with and managing two big lenses in the field is challenging.

This year, I opted to take on that challenge, taking a lens from each class to Rocky Mountain National Park.

The Pelican 1615 Air Wheeled Hard Case was the primary solution to the mentioned challenge. When flying, the camera bodies were unmounted, the big lens hoods were reversed, pads were added, and additional lenses were included in the case — up to the airline-checked bag weight limit. The case was locked and checked.

In the field, the configuration shown below worked great. With the Robus monopods removed, the Pelican case closed, enabling easy and safe transport to and from my room.

As pictured, both lenses in their LensCoat covers were immediately available for roadside opportunities or for the long stalk.

This bull elk, fresh out of the wallow, was proud of his muddy (and smelly) coat and looking for cows. When photographing wildlife, predicting behavior correctly delivers the ultimate shots, and I guessed this one right.

Seeing the relatively short working distance available for the potential water crossing, the Canon RF 400mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens got the call. This lens's angle of view was just wide enough to fit the elk in the frame, and the f/2.8 aperture strongly blurred the background, which is not easy to do while fitting a large elk in the frame.

The Canon RF 600mm F4 L IS USM Lens would have been the ideal lens for photographing surfing this afternoon. However, the Canon RF 400mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens was ideal for photographing a previous track and field event, and I couldn't manage both lenses.

Usually, a too-wide focal length is better than a too-long focal length. Cropping is easy. Creating a missing scene is not.

Fortunately, gaining a longer focal length for the surfing action was as easy as mounting a Canon RF 1.4x Extender behind the 400mm lens, creating a 560mm F4 lens.

Everybody loves to see a crash (with no injuries), and the Canon EOS R6 Mark II's 40 fps continuous shooting rate captured the perfect moment of this fast wipe out. The high-speed frame rate adds to the selection challenge, but the key frame is rarely missing from the results.