topic Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue in EF & RF Lenses

RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue - Filter can't be used with hood

MadJack70 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 18:08:21 GMT

A friend of mine was lucky enough to have received her Canon RF 200-800mm lens that she had ordered in Nov. 2023. She has encountered an issue with the lens design. The new lens does not appear to allow use of a filter while the lens hood is in place. She and her camera shop have tried a number of different brands of filters, but none appear to allow the lens hood to be mounted while a filter is attached. This seems to be a rather inexcusable design flaw on Canon's part. When Canon technical support was contacted, no one appeared to know anything about the issue. With the exception of this problem, she loves her new lens. Has anyone else encountered this issue with this lens?

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

ebiggs1 — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 14:34:49 GMT

I don't have the lens but unless she wants to use a polarizer, filters are almost obsolete. I understand wanting to use a polarizer with the hood on would be an problem, though.

However, even a polarizer is becoming less and less relevant.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

shadowsports — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 14:49:29 GMT

Greetings,

Your/Hers is the only mention I've heard of. The lens accepts a 95mm filter. I don't own one yet, but based appearance and documentation there isn't a reason why the 2 couldn't be used together. You can put a lens cap on as well it you want to reach in there with your fingers or just turn the hood around and mount backwards. I could see it being a problem if you were using a filter with a large or oversized frame/ring that changed the O.D. of the lens at its face.

If you mean that the hood doesn't have a retractable hood slot for filter adjustment, then yes, this lens was not intended for use with that type of filter. Thats not a design flaw. If you happen to find a post or reference about this on the web, I'd be interested in seeing it.

Worth noting, if you rent one from LensRentals, it comes fitted with a 95mm Hoya EVO filter and its hood.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

MadJack70 — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 16:59:15 GMT

Rick, my friend is just trying to put a normal clear or UV filter on the lens. None of brands of 95mm filters tried would allow the lens hood to be mounted after the filter was screwed into place. My wife and I own many Canon lenses and have never before encountered this issue with any of them. I am still awaiting an order for the RF 200-800 lens for my wife and was curious if anyone else had experienced this issue.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

shadowsports — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 02:26:51 GMT

Greetings,

I'm planning to put one on mine eventually as well. 😀 I haven't ordered yet, so you'll probably get her's before I see mine. I have never encountered an issue like this either. I know a few people I can ask. Let me check.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

Waddizzle — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 07:49:25 GMT

Welcome to the Canon Forums!

Sorry to hear you are having issues with such a coveted lens. I do have a couple of questions that no one seems to have asked, yet.

Could you describe EXACTLY why or how the hood or lens do not fit/work together? For example, does the hood not fit over the filter?

Where did you order the lens? Was it a Canon Factory Authorized dealer?

What brand and model of lens filter are you using?

What brand and model of lens hood are you using? The Canon ET-101 should have come with it.

This is from the B&H web site. This is a small sampling of recommended accessories.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

MadJack70 — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 11:48:43 GMT

My friend's issue is that once a filter has been screwed into the front of the lens, the Canon-supplied hood does not have enough clearance and cannot be attached to the lens. I do not know which brands or models of filters were tried. When she discovered the issue with a filter that she had purchased, she returned to the authorized Canon dealer. The dealer tried a number of different brands/models of filters, but none would allow the supplied Canon lens hood to fit over them. She also later met with a Canon Representative who was visiting the store for some type of sales promotion. The Canon Rep had no answers for her regarding the hood/filter issue. I have had the same lens on order since last November from B&H Photo but have no idea when or if it will ever be shipped to me! Last month, when I had to send in my Canon EF 100-400 L Lens to Canon for service, I also asked the technical support rep if he knew anything about the hood/filter issue on the RF 200-800 lens. He was unaware of the problem. So, I decided to post the issue on this forum to see if any other owner of the lens had experienced the same issue.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

dvdreds — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 08:45:56 GMT

Any update on the topic? Can it be the reason why shipment are so slow?

Here in Europe it appears to be in pre-order forever..... with a long list....

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

MadJack70 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 09:57:32 GMT

I have found no other information regarding the hood/filter issue. I was hoping a current owner would respond here or on B&H Photo's page for the new lens. I did find one other reported issue. One RF 200-800 lens owner reported that the lens would not securely mount onto his Canon EOS R3 body. Here is a link to his video. Bing Videos. Perhaps Canon is trying to quietly fix these issues, but no one at Canon support seems to acknowledge them.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

Waddizzle — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 16:15:02 GMT

You still have not told us what brand and model filter is causing you issues. In fact, you have yet to confirm what hood you have.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

MadJack70 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 17:14:36 GMT

As I stated previously on 4/12/24, the hood was the Canon-supplied hood that was included with the RF 200-800mm lens. I do not know which brands and models of filters were tried. My friend returned to her Canon-authorized dealer where she had purchased the RF 200-800mm lens. The dealer tried every brand and model of 95mm filter that they had in stock. None of the brands/models tried would allow the Canon lens hood to be mounted with the filter installed. I have no further information than that. As a result, my friend either uses her new lens with the hood and no filter or with a filter and no hood. She cannot use both together.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

Tronhard — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 17:38:15 GMT

I have had the 200-800 for about 3 months now and have had absolutely no issue in putting a filter on the unit along with the lens hood. I use a Sirui protect lens filter but have also mounted B+W ones for protection and for Polarizing. When you say that the filter cannot be mounted, is this before or after the hood is attached? I put the filter on before I ever mount the hood and leave it there.
Like my colleague Rick, I have never heard of this phenomenon occurring: I checked with several other users and talked to a couple of my local stores, and they have never had an issue with this either.
Given that, it sounds more like an individual component issue rather than a systemic or design one.
The easiest option would be to try a different lens hood unit and see if there is a fault in the one they have - perhaps the camera store can arrange a temporary swap for the experiment,

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

MadJack70 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 17:56:57 GMT

Tronhard, thank you so much for your input. I will pass it along to my friend. Her issue is that once she screws a filter into place on the lens, the Canon lens hood provided will not fit over that filter to attach to the lens. I am beginning to wonder if Canon supplied her with the correct hood. I do also have a number of B+W filters to try on her lens. I also have a recently purchased Canon Protect Filter to try. She had tried a third-party hood that was supposed to fit the lens, but still was unable to use a filter with that hood. Perhaps it is her individual unit that is the issue. I do know that she was the first buyer in the state of Michigan to purchase the lens when it first came out in December. Again, thanks so much for the feedback.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

Waddizzle — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 18:03:21 GMT

“ As I stated previously on 4/12/24, the hood was the Canon-supplied hood that was included with the RF 200-800mm lens. I do not know which brands and models of filters were tried. “

Without a specific model number, then I would conclude that you have a camera shop provided hood. It also appears that you do not know what model filter you were sold.

I wish you luck resolving your issues. As you said, no one else seems to have reported similar issues.

Re: RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue - Filter can't be used with hood

shadowsports — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 20:53:44 GMT

Cheers Trevor. I suspected there wasn't a systemic issue out there 😄

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

Tronhard — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 21:20:18 GMT

I would suspect that it is less that Canon supplied a different hood during manufacture, but that it is possible it has been lost and replaced with the wrong hood for some reason along the way. The hood should have the following identifier on the outside near where it connects to the camera body: ET-101, it's a light grey, so not glaringly obvious.

If the hood does not have that, then the wrong hood is on the lens.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

Waddizzle — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 16:15:45 GMT

@Tronhard wrote:
I would suspect that it is less that Canon supplied a different hood during manufacture, but that it is possible it has been lost and replaced with the wrong hood for some reason along the way. The hood should have the following identifier on the outside near where it connects to the camera body: ET-101, it's a light grey, so not glaringly obvious.

If the hood does not have that, then the wrong hood is on the lens.

I totally agree. It has been my suspicion from the start the the hood might be the correct hood for the lens. It looks an “Open Box” item may have been sold as new, too.

Without specific part numbers, then no one is able to try to reproduce the issue.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

MadJack70 — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 19:13:15 GMT

Thanks for the help. I will forward the hood part number to my friend and have her check it out. She is also going to return to the Canon dealer this weekend with her lens for some type of resolution.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

Tronhard — Sun, 05 May 2024 18:33:10 GMT

I would not seek to respond for my respected colleague Ernie, but for me, the traditional uses of a polarizing filter were to darken the sky colours during the middle of the day in particular, intensify colours and reduce environmental reflections. With the features now available in post-production software, the first two of those can be dealt to varying degrees with via software.
Where the polarizing filter has still some relevance is where there are significant inherent reflections: such as looking down into an underwater scene, or where glass is reflecting back the light or other scene elements.

In the latter case, I was recently shooting researchers doing work at a university and needed to get a shot of a particular process that was taking place inside a protective plexiglass cubicle. Without a CPL filter, this is what I got:
Amy's lab work - no CPL
Attaching a filter made all the difference:
Amy's work with CPL
So, I think Ernie's position has some merit, if one is using the appropriate post production software and techniques, but as he said 'less relevant' I would hazard that he is allowing for such applications as this example.

Re: Canon RF 200-800 Lens Design Issue

MadJack70 — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 22:35:28 GMT

My friend checked and she definitely has the Canon ET-101 hood. The hood however is black not light gray. I then checked Canon's site and they also show a black hood for that lens. I did get the model of the filter she had been sold, a Promaster HGX Prime 95MM Protection UV Filter. I still do not know what other filters the Canon dealer tried. She is going back to the dealer this weekend and I will let you know what they try to resolve the issue. Thanks for your input.