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Canon has been one of the best-known brands in the sphere of wildlife photography. The company has repeatedly earned a spot on our best wildlife photography cameras and the best budget cameras under $2,000. But while the cameras are a critical part of the gear setup, there is another thing just as important: a good lens. Canon has been creating exceptional lenses, and today, we look at the best offerings from them for wildlife photography. Without further delay, let’s have a look at the exciting options.
Canon RF 100-400mm f5.6-8 IS USM
The Canon 100-400mm will give you the best results for wildlife photography. The lens features 12 elements, 9 groups, including one Ultra-Low Dispersion element and one aspherical element. It features 9 rounded aperture blades, 5.5 stops of optical image stabilization, a customizable control ring, and a 0.41x magnification ratio. In addition, it just weighs 1.4 lbs. Some other pros include exceptional image quality, great build, affordable, and a fast autofocus. The drawback, however, is the lack of weather sealing as it is a very affordable option. As we said in our review, “The Canon RF 100-400mm f5.6-8 IS USM is a good lens. But it will be a much more solid performer on any camera body that has built-in bird and animal detection.”
Canon RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1 L IS USM
The Canon 100-500mm is an L-series lens, which means that while the performance is excellent, so is the price. The wildlife photography device comes with 20 elements in 14 groups, including six Ultra-Low Dispersion elements and one Super UD element. It also features Dual Nano autofocus, 5 stops of image stabilization within the lens, and weather sealing. There are 9 aperture blades (rounded), a close magnification of 0.12 to 0.33x, and it weighs 3.0 lb. In our test, we found the lens to offer superb sharpness and bokeh, great color rendition, image stabilization, and a fast autofocus performance.
Canon RF 400mm f2.8 L IS USM
What makes the 400mm f2.8 L IS USM an ideal wildlife photography option is that it is weather-sealed and features 17 elements in 13 groups. The lens features a 0.17x maximum magnification, a minimum focusing distance of 8.2 feet, 9 aperture blades, image stabilization, and more. Some of its plus points include great bokeh, beautiful colors, excellent autofocus, multiple controls on the lens, and that it is quite manageable. As we said in our review, “The Canon RF 400mm f2.8 L IS USM is an excellent piece of glass. The bokeh is dreamy while subjects remain sharp. The autofocus has a great hit rate even with action. And the durability and control scheme is made for pros.”
Canon RF 600mm f4
Canon 600mm is another wildlife photography option that features a 5-stop, three-mode image stabilization and Super Ultra-Low Dispersion elements. It has a 6.6-inch diameter, a maximum magnification of 0.15x, and a minimum focusing distance of 13.8 feet. The lens is huge, measuring 18.6 inches in length and 6.8 lbs in weight. Minus the heaviness, the 600mm offers soft bokeh, bang-on autofocus, bright aperture, vivid colors, and weather sealing. “The images are worth hauling such a large optic around, with rich color, soft backgrounds, and close detail,” we said in our review. “The autofocus keeps up 95 percent of the time and the image stabilization makes it possible to shoot handheld (though still uncomfortable).”
