Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6 L USM Lens Review

[George Slusher]

Dallas, actually you don't need the 1200 f/5.6 to impress folks at the kids soccer game, anything bigger than the 70-200 f/2.8 will be enough to draw attention. Imagine upacking this baby at the local wildlife reserve when you're alwayssurrounded byfolks with 400 f/2.8,500, 600 and 800. My self esteem isforever hurt by my little 400 f/5.6L [img]/emoticons/emotion-6.gif[/img] [:'(] [img]/emoticons/emotion-6.gif[/img]....just kidding

I know how you feel. I was at a horse show a few weekends ago, using my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, when I noticed a guy with a honking-big white lens on a tripod. It was a 400mm f/2.8L IS (cost: $6,800). He said that it was really too long for that venue--the 300mm f/2.8L IS (only $4,100) would have been better, but he doesn't have the 300mm. Anyone who does have both of those lenses is a pro, stinking rich, or a true fanatic. (Bryan, are you listening? [] That guy was not a pro, but he said that he does shoot a lot of sports. There were a lot of 70-200mm f/2.8L lenses around. Some, I could tell, were IS verisons. One woman had a 1D--can tell by the sound!--with the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS--on a monopod. I'm not sure why the monopod. (I didn't ask her.) The IS will take care of most camera shake and, anyway, the shutter speeds one needs to use to stop the horses' motion would be high enough to get good shots. I did see some of her shots, over her shoulder, sort of, on her laptop. They were all underexposed by 2 stops or more--thus, her shutter speed was even higher. She said that she could "fix that" in Photoshop.


One problem I've noted with monopod users is that a lot of them end up tilting the camera without realizing it as they follow the horse. There is a way to prevent that, but that's for another topic.

[George Slusher]

In case you haven't seen it, B&H has a video of Bryan reviewing this lens.

[Daniel Browning]

In case you haven't seen it, B&H has a [url="http://link.bhphotovideo.com/r/CP8Q4Z/U2LW/JFEOE/V8UL4/CWBK5/9A/h]video[/url] of Bryan reviewing this lens.
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Cool, thanks! It was fun as well as informative (look how easy it is to rotate the camera, wow).

[40Doodle]

Incredible...I'm stunned and did not know Canon made this lens. Really liked the video and the history behind the lens as well!


Rick

[Sean Setters]

Thanks George for the link to the video...very entertaining. Great to see Bryan doing what he loves to do!

[Iguide]

Hi Brian:





Any chance you could review the Sigma<span class="text18"]APO 300-800 F5.6 EX DG HSM, or the <span class="text18"]APO 800mm f5.6 EX DG HSM? I would suspect that they are not as sharp as their Canon counterparts, but would like your view before I spend $10,000 + or so.





Thank you.

[George Slusher]

While you're waiting for Bryan's review, check others. I did a Google searchon "Sigma 300-800mm review" and found at least 5 good reviews and discussions. It seems to deserve the nickname, "Sigmonster," because of its weight (almost 13 lbs).

[Iguide]

Thank you George!!

[Iguide]

After reading the different reviews of the "Sigmonster" I found for myself that this review was the most helpful, by Bill Majoros.


http://www.billmajoros.com/photoalbum/categories/new/Canon600/windows/index.html





A second review I found also very helpful was from Romy Ocon from my wife's native land of the Philippines, where we travel &amp; I photograph every couple of winters.


http://www.pbase.com/liquidstone/image/58879465/original





You can see that both test have similarity but there does seem to be some differnce's in equipment used so that has to be taken into account. Ofcorse I could be wrong on that assement and I just got things confused after going through all of the reviews. After reading these two my inpression is that the Canon Prime lens's are a bit sharper with IS and focusing limitor while the Sigmonster does not have either. If you want the flexibility of a zoom of this size the Sigmonster seems to be favored, but I would personaly tend to lean towards the Canon lens.


I would still like to see a review by Brian, as I like his assement methods compared to many others that are not so deliberate in metodology, which he ofcourse is!!

[Maleko]

imagine that on a 1.6 crop body.... [:|]