topic Re: Why do canon tele lenses have no focus range limiters? in EF & RF Lenses

Why do canon tele lenses have no focus range limiters?

qunasfoma — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:15:37 GMT

Coming from the Sigma 150-600 EF used with an adapter on my R7 and then switching to the RF 200-800... I really understimated the importance of that feature. I can not count how many shots i missed because the AF rather focused on twigs and grass right in front of me instead of the 30 meter away animal. Is it so hard / expensive to add a "dont focus on anything closer than 10 meters" to a 2500€ lense?

Re: Why do canon tele lenses have no focus range limiters?

kvbarkley — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:41:57 GMT

Does it matter whether it focuses 10 m away rather than inches away?

Focus limiters were more to help speed the autofocus rather than preventing focusing on closer objects, that is what focus points are for.

Re: Why do canon tele lenses have no focus range limiters?

ebiggs1 — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:19:29 GMT

"Is it so hard / expensive to add a "dont focus on anything closer than 10 meters" ..."

Despite the rather condescending answer above, however, you will have to ask Canon. This forum is not Canon. It is a Canon user based forum that is supported by Canon.

You might try a little prefocusing if you are having difficulties obtaining AF in tight places. I do that a lot of the time.

Re: Why do canon tele lenses have no focus range limiters?

Waddizzle — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:27:38 GMT

qunasfoma wrote,

” Coming from the Sigma 150-600 EF used with an adapter on my R7 and then switching to the RF 200-800... I really understimated the importance of that feature. I can not count how many shots i missed because the AF rather focused on twigs and grass right in front of me instead of the 30 meter away animal. Is it so hard / expensive to add a "dont focus on anything closer than 10 meters" to a 2500€ lense? “

Welcome to the community!

As noted above, this is a social media platform. There is a link on the Canon USA homepage that you can use to make product suggestions.

If you are experiencing difficulty getting the gear to focus where you want, then you may need to adjust your AF point selection setting.

What AF point mode are you using?

Re: Why do canon tele lenses have no focus range limiters?

wq9nsc — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 21:52:49 GMT

I have a lot of Canon EF series lenses and all of the telephoto lens I own in that series have a focus limiting switch and I suspect MOST of the RF series lenses do as well. But the RF 200-800 was intended to provide a lot of focal length in a light, easy to use, relatively inexpensive lens. I

I shoot mostly sports and use the focus distance limiter on occasion to marginally speed up operation but with the better L series glass on 1DX bodies it doesn't make a huge difference. My EF 800 f5.6 prime allows focus limiting to within the 6 to 20 meter range, from 20m to infinity, or the full 6m to infinity range. My most often used sports lens is a Canon EF 400 f2.8 which allows limiting within the range of 3 to 10 meters, beyond 10 meters, or full range. So the limit parameters will vary by lens.

If Canon added more features and better build quality to the RF 200-800, the price point would fall beyond Canon's desired market point. EVERY product is a set of compromises designed to target a specific market or group of markets and it is up to customers to decide if those compromises are acceptable.

Rodger

Re: Why do canon tele lenses have no focus range limiters?

ebiggs1 — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:08:21 GMT

" EVERY product is a set of compromises designed to target a specific market or group of markets and it is up to customers to decide if those compromises are acceptable."

Great point most ignore.