A very mixed experience with the RF 70-200 f2.8

This thread's main premise is that the AF is not great with the RF70-200.

My experience is opposite of this.  I've had and used 70-200/2.8L lenses since I started with DSLRs in 2003.  I've used them for high school and college football, soccer, basketball, volleyball, gymnastics (even wildlife with a 2x before I had longer lenses).

The first thing I tried when I received the new RF version of this lens was AF performance.  Compared to my EF70-200/2.8LII attached to my R the new RF focuses about twice as fast. The EF is actually quick, but the RF version completely leaves it in the dust.  The EF attached to my 1DX2 is about the same AF acquisition speed as when attached to my R, which means roughly half as fast as the RF.  I'm measuring this from the time the focus square is on the subject until that subject is in perfect focus.  Of course, the R (with either lens) wins vs the 1DX2 in terms of absolute focus accuracy since there is no mirror box/AF sensor error.

One thing to note is that with ultra-fast DPAF, if you miss your subject with the focus box, and there is nothing else nearby, you are going to rack all the way to something far away more quickly which means you have that much further to come back.  You need to wait to press the AF button (I don't use BBF, but it doesn't matter which button) until after the AF box is over the subject.  I think R + RF is less forgiving than slower DSLRs + EF because of how fast it can focus on a distant unintended object if you miss.

And, certainly in an environment like you describe, there should be a lot of value in touch and drag for AF point selection.  I assume you are in Servo autofocus and not continuous (which would be a nightmare for this type of situation) and I would not use Face/eye AF either for something as busy as you describe.  Most of those things, though, have little to do with the lens and everything to do with using the R in its best modes for your situation.

I can see the "muscle-memory" issue with the longer zoom throw.  Personally, I prefer the longer throw because I get better precision with full wrist movement but that's a personal preference and also something to get used to.

In terms of IQ, I think it beats the EF (note that I own the Mark II of this lens, not the Mark III) in every metric including sharpness, color saturation, resistance to flair and bokeh.

BobNL wrote:

Hi everybody,

I'm a dancesport (and event and concert) photographer based in Germany. Since November last year, most of my work has been done with the EOS R. About 90% of the time I use the 70-200 2.8 is used for dancesport. So I was pretty excited when Canon announced the 70-200 RF. But it was a long wait and expensive! Because of the high price I thought I'd better try it out first on a real-life situation so I rented it for a weekend to shoot the Goldstadtpokal in Germany.

In the 2 days before I tried the lens out around the house and was very impressed with the optical quality and the image stabilization. It is actually phenomenal in that regard. I also liked the size very much and already saw myself going out and about with a considerably smaller bag for my kit.

Unfortunately, under stress, the lens turned out not to be what I hoped for. The first big problem is the throw of the zoom ring. It's too long and stiff. With my EF version, I use my thumb to quickly go from 70 to 200 and back. This is not possible with RF, it slowed me down a lot. Causing me to miss moments and cutting off limbs way too often. I needed at least two throws and the stiffness didn't make it a pleasant experience.

Secondly, the lens was slow to operate. Switching from one couple to another was taking up so much time. It took way too long until it focused on the next subject. As if it made a very smooth focus pull for video. And that is IF it immediately focused on the new subject. I often had to actuate the AF 2 of 3 times for it to properly focus. Causing me to miss unfortunately a lot of moments. I didn't have this problem with the EF version on the R.

So will I buy the RF 70-200? No probably not. But maybe it was some user error, some set-up mistake. Was maybe this single lens not good? Anyone here with different experiences?

And as the last (personal) note; as good as the lens is technically, it is very neutral and therefore lacks some character. The files felt a bit emotionless.