Shooting with the Rf 200-800 and R6

[Tronhard]

I have posted numerous sample images taken with the same lens and the newer R6II, but I want to consider the older body, which is cheaper, but still has a great performance.  
I deliberately shot early in the morning, when the light was challenging and it was quite cold (4degC), and chose to shoot through vegetation to challenge the precision of focus.

Sample shots with the R6II and the RF 200-800 can be located here:
First Shots with the RF 200-800 and the R6II - Page 2 - Canon Community

I took myself to the same locations (for comparison) and shot the same subject types.  All images were hand-held, available light, with default lens corrections and some noise reduction in Post - using Photoshop at a pretty basic level, but mainly to reduce the images to the correct size.

All using BBF centre spot focus with eye tracking, also BB metering lock, centre spot metering.

Salad for two -R6, RF 200-800@400mm, f/7.1, 1/400sec, ISO-1000  Tiny Tiger - R6, RF 200-800@288mm, f/7.1, 1/320sec, ISO-320
Koru - R6, RF 200-800@432mm, f/10, 1/8sec, ISO-1600 
 Kea - R6, RF 200-800@200mm, f/9, 1/30sec, ISO-1600  Tui - R6, RF 200-800@324mm, f/7.1, 1/320sec, ISO-1600
Whio - R6, RF 200-800@539mm, f/9, 1/125sec, ISO-1600  The Thinker - R6, RF 200-800@800mm, f/9, 1/1000sec, ISO-500

At distance - R6, RF 200-800@311mm, f/9, 1/50sec, ISO-1600  Zoomed in -R6, RF 200-800@742mm, f/9, 1/100sec, ISO-1600 Pretty in Pink - R6, RF 200-800@539mm,f/8, 1/640sec, ISO-1600  Watchful Mum: R6, RF 200-800@285mm, f/6.3, 1/400sec, ISO-250

Statistically, in terms of 'keeper shots (and eliminating duplicates), the performance of the R6 vs the R6II was not that much different.  Now, I was shooting animals not on the wing and those ones may have a different result, but I was getting close to 90% acceptable image - which for the lighting conditions (it's mid winter and much of the environments were in shade and had lots of vegetation clutter) was good IMHO. 

[Tronhard]

Note: In terms of products used, there is no option for the R6 body alone, which is what was used with this lens, so I had to go for the lens plus kit lens option.

[TomRamsey]

Excellent images, the more I see about this lens the more excited I get awaiting it's arrival (on order).  I just received my R6II and have to learn to use both of them.  Unfortunately I haven't had a lot of time to spend shooting yet, but for good (family visiting) reasons. 

It's very impressive to shoot at some of the slow shutter speeds you used on these and get great results.  Very well done, Trevor!

[Tronhard]

Thanks Tom.  You will get there.  Family always comes first!  I spent quite some time on the first series of R bodies nutting out how I wanted to shoot and I have basically ported that from the R5 to both versions of the R6 and with minor tweaks that has worked well.  I have assigned several scenarios to the C1-C3 mode dials to make reconfiguration easier.

What may also help, but is purely personal, is that I shoot BBF using single point centre to start but with face/eye tracking working and that speeds up the focusing system a bit.  Similarly, I do single point metering assigned to the * button.  There are specific benefits for this, particularly in NZ where birds (the dominant wildlife by far) often hang around in bush, which is full of distractions such as branches and leaves, so precision is critical for focus.  Similarly, the same applies to exposure as one can often end up in extremely contrasty conditions.  I never link exposure to the focus as there is absolutely no guarantee that the point of focus has the18% reflectance that is required.

So, my technique is:
Find the correct exposure point and lock that with *
Find the eye (or whatever) of the subject in the centre of the viewfinder and lock that with AF-ON
Recompose and shoot.
Now, that may sound complicated but with practice it can happen in a second.

As regards hand-holding.  When I started my career I would be out in the wild for weeks shooting, and living rough, so I had no capacity for a tripod.  So, I have developed a pretty steady hand.  I just hope as I age I don't start getting the shakes!! 

[TomRamsey]

Thanks for all the tips Trevor, I appreciate it.  The first thing I did with the camera was set up BBF, I’ve been using BBF for years on my other cameras and it makes a big difference.  I’m glad you mentioned your focus methods, my main method has been center point and recompose, but I’ve been some different methods for BIF over the last year.  Sounds as if the tracking good enough to use the center point method for co and recompose.  As much research as I’ve done on the camera I did not know that there were customizable modes, I’m glad to hear that as it saves a lot of time in the field.  I have always shot handheld with longer lenses (although I’ve only had 300 plus 1.4 tc), I find shooting wildlife on a tripod difficult.  Although I may buy a gimbal to try my hand at getting some good shots of static birds.  
I’ve been here a short time but I’ve enjoyed your excellent photos and appreciate your sharing advice and experience in various posts.  The learning process speeds up if you can learn from other people’s experience,

[Tronhard]

Tom thank you for your gracious and kind comments.   Photography is a journey and helping each other along the way is a good thing.  I learn a lot from my colleagues and admire their work.  Now you are one of us, that's to be celebrated.

There is a really good site that I also belong to - very constructive and well-managed (no trolling), called:
https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/   It's truly international and there are some amazing photographers to share images and info.

[stevet1]

Trevor,

The sharpness is pretty amazing.

Steve Thomas

[Tronhard]

Hi Steve:
PS did some lens corrections (and I suspect it has some AI in there)  as I imported from RAW and I did some basic sharpening as well as balancing light, but nothing exotic - I am not a PP aficionado, having shot most of my life for transparencies where one has not direct PP input!  So, I don't do layers, masks etc.  That said, the lens is an amazing piece of kit. 

[Penny4]

What beautiful photos! Thank you for sharing 🙂 

[Tronhard]

Thank you Penny! 😊