What RF lens would be good for animals, landscapes, and nature?

[Danll]

Hi,

I am going to be getting a new r8, I currently have a 70d with a Tamron 18-400. The photos I take are animals, landscapes  and nature.

I am thinking that I want an rf lens, but I do not know what would work the best.  I probable want weather sealed as I have been out in the snow and rain especially early in the morning.

Any thoughts on a lens or pair of lenses would be apricated.

[kvbarkley]

You can certainly get the Canon EF adapter and try it with the 18-400.

[p4pictures]

The Tamron 18-400mm lens on your EOS 70D has an effective focal length of a 28.8 to 640mm lens on a full-frame camera. There is no such similar lens for full-frame cameras from Canon or other brands at this time. 

The EOS R8 is a full-frame camera, and your Tamron 18-400mm lens is designed for a camera with an APS-C size sensor. When you mount the lens on the lens adapter one of two things will happen. 

1. You may find that images have very dark corners, possibly all you will see is a circular image at some focal lengths. This is because your Tamron lens is designed to only cover the area of the smaller APS-C size sensor which is 15 x 22mm instead of the full-frame 24 x 36mm sensor in the EOS R8.
2. The camera automatically switches to 1.6x crop mode if the lens is recognised as a lens for crop cameras. This results in images with only 9.3MP resolution, not 24MP.

If you definitely need weather sealing then lens choice for the RF lenses would be the RF 100-500mm lens, this is a full-fame lens and would give you similar field of view as your current EOS 70D with Tamron 18-400mm. However you will not have the same wide-angle capability. For that you would need a second lens. There are two options; RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM though this is not weather sealed, or the RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM which is weather sealed.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

Another option for you to consider.  Take a look at the RF 24-240.  Although it is not weather sealed, it offers some similarities to the lens you have now with less reach.  Its very affordable, and you may find that it offers an acceptable level of performance on the R8 without the sealing.  Brian makes a very valid point.  Its unlikely you'll want to use a lens intended for an APS-C sensor on your full frame body.  9.3MP's might be fine for social media and web output, but may not yield enough resolution for cropping if desired.  Given your varied photography interests, there really isn't a single lens solution providing wide angle focal length for landscapes with the reach normally recommended for animals and wildlife.  While more costly, a multi lens solution which includes weather sealing does exist.   

[kvbarkley]

Does a third party lens report itself as EF-S?

[shadowsports]

Hi KV,

I corrected for grammar... "want to use a lens intended for an APS-C sensor on your full frame body".

I don't have any EF-S lenses any longer to test, but see no reason why 3rd party lens data wouldn't be captured in EXIF data.  A fully manual lens might not show info, but any adapted AF lens should communicate name and model.   

[p4pictures]

With the few models of Sigma and Tamron lenses designed for crop sensors that I have tried, none reported that they were EF-S type to the camera. This could be down to the third parties implementation of the Canon lens communication protocol.

All the Canon EF-S lenses do report as EF-S and force full-frame EOS R-series cameras to use the 1.6x crop mode and it cannot be switched back to full-frame while the lens is fitted.

[kvbarkley]

Thanks, I suspected as much.

[shadowsports]

Thanks Guys,

Does this mean you have to manually enable crop mode with 3rd party lenses or does the camera "know" that the image being projected to the sensor has a smaller image circle? Or is it all FW based? Curious what others have experienced.

[kvbarkley]

I would just take the full image and crop if necessary.