Is the RF 70-200 F4 a direct upgrade to the EF-S55-250 on crop sensor?

[balexhammer]

Heyo. Finally found the dimes to get back into picture-taking, so I picked up a R10 kit and EF-EOS RF adapter a few months back to run my older EF-S 55-250, which has worked.... not badly? Now, with the holiday season blah blah blah upcoming, I was thinking maybe I could treat myself with the RF 70-200 F4. But... do I really?

I don't do weddings or anything, but I do hiking, nature photography, landscapes, indoor conventions, walk-around photography, all of that, and I can confidently say that I like the higher focal for this stuff considering that my 18-45 from the R10 kit sleeps peacefully in my camera bag. Well, pardon me--by "confidently" I mean higher focal lengths are the only focal lengths I have ever used.

I've heard that the 70-200 range if too tight on crop sensor, but I've spend the past week hair-pulling at the sight of a million different reviews having contradictory conclusions on the matter, so I'm throwing down the proverbial towel and asking this: is anyone else using the RF 70-200 on their R10/R7? Would I be "wasting" the glass on the crop sensor vs full frame? Am I overthinking? Lemme know. Thanks.

(P.S. I'm also considering the RF 24-105 F4 L, but I have a feeling I might just use 20% of the range, as compared to the funny business I get up to with my 55-250. Any experience with that lens on crop sensors would also be appreciated.)

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

Any L series lens would be an upgrade to a kit lens, in both build and image quality.  The 70-200 f4 is a wonderful lens.  It has a constant f4 aperture throughout its entire focal range.  Using a lens intended for full frame on a APS-C body does not make the lens longer, it changes the perspective and field of view.  In this case the FOV would be equivalent to 112mm-320mm.   The image below demonstrates what the sensor in your camera sees.  Although a full frame lens can project a larger image, the smaller APS-C sensor is only capable of capturing at its reduced width and height. 

APS-C lenses have a smaller image circle and are designed specifically for APS-C sensors. 

Full frame lenses have a larger image circle designed for full frame sensors. 

The EF-S 55-250 is a very capable kit lens and provides an above average image quality and sharpness.  It was very popular in its day and remains so.  In addition, I think you would be extremely happy with the image results made possible with the RF 70-200 f4 shooting on the R10.  While there is some focal length overlap, the improved image quality and performance from its constant aperture is something any photographer would appreciate.  Neither lens is wide.  At some point, you might want to explore lenses with wider field of view.    

[MikeSowsun]

Keep in mind that using an RF 70-200 on your R10 will result in a 112-320mm equivalent, while your EF-S 55-250 is currently giving you a 88-400mm equivalent. 

You might regret losing 80mm in the long end for nature shots. 

[balexhammer]

Yeah, I've been thinking about that one... do you think the upgrade in image quality can help with that loss of 80mm when it comes to cropping/further editing?

[deebatman316]

The RF 70-200 F/4L IS USM lens would be a direct replacement to the EF 70-200mm F/4L IS II USM lens. The direct upgrade of the EF-S 55-250mm F/4-5.6 IS lens lineup would be the RF-S 55-210mm F/5-7.1 IS STM lens. Now not the exact same focal length. The older EF-S lens provides 40mm in additional reach and it has a faster aperture. Then the RF-S replacement equivalent lens though. The L series lenses are very good optically compared to non-L of the same focal length. Since all L lenses are Full Frame the AOV of the lens will be narrower on an APS-C camera compared to a Full Frame camera. Since you're doing landscapes the F/4 version would be better than the F/2.8 version.  It would also be lighter too and landscape photographers aren't usually shooting at F/2.8 they stop down to F/11 or smaller. Therefor the F/2.8 version wouldn't be necessary for your needs. The focal length of the lens never changes when used on different sensor sizes. The lens will always be a 70-200mm regardless of what camera its used on. The Angle of View (AOV) is what is changing not the lens focal length. When I was still shooting APS-C I used the EF-S 55-250mm F/4-5.6 IS (original version) lens. Later on I upgraded to the EF 70-200mm F/2.8L IS III USM lens. Which worked well for me on both Full Frame and APS-C. Do you have any intentions on going Full Frame in the future? When EF-S or RF-S lenses are used on a Full Frame R series camera. The image sensor capacity is reduced by a factor of 2.5x. So for instance the R5 has 45 megapixels in Full Frame mode but in 1.6x crop (APS-C) mode its only 17.5 megapixels.

[balexhammer]

I've been thinking about going Full Frame if for the fact I need not have to pull out my calculator for the AOV  on APS-C lol. Seriously though, I will eventually transfer over to Full Frame since I think APS-C's crop might be limiting for my type of photography. I'd guess that'd make the RF 70-200 more compelling then, right?

[deebatman316]

The image sensor causes the crop not the lenses on APS-C.

[balexhammer]

Yes, as in whenever I switch to Full Frame (and of course buy Full Frame lenses) I wouldn't need to factor in the crop of my sensor as their wouldn't be a crop, unless I use the crop mode on the camera as you mentioned. A 70-200 lens on a full frame cameras has a AOV of 70-200, rather than having a AOV of 112-320 as would be the case on a APS-C camera (or so I conclude.)

This is more of an aside, but the widest lens I know of is like what, 16mm? Does that mean the widest angle on a APS-C camera would be 25.6, or similar?

[deebatman316]

Actually Full Frame has a crop factor of 1x. The widest available lens in the RF Mount for Full Frame cameras is the RF 10-20mm F/4L IS STM lens. For RF Mount crop sensor cameras that would be the RF-S 10-18mm F/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens. Yes the RF 16mm F/2.8 STM lens would provide an angle of view of 25.6mm on APS-C.