Hi! Looking for a little bit of wisdom and experience regarding image quality for a specific scenario where I'm trying to decide between 2 classes of lenses for an upcoming event.
In 2026 I'll be at an event where I'll have the opportunity to capture some human-avoidant wildlife outdoors at all times of day and variable morning through early evening lighting. I expect them to be at a distance for most of our observation time, so I do want some range.
I was initially considering renting an RF600 f4 L or RF800 f5.6 L and combining them with my RF 1.4x extender, but the fixed focal length has me considering the RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L or the RF200-800mm F6.3-9 (which isn't a prime apparently?).
So of the two classes of lenses - the fixed 600 f4 / 800 f5.6 lenses in group 1, and the adjustable 100-500 f4.5-7.1/200-800 f6.3-9 in group 2, would you expect *significant* image quality differences - enough to give up the flexibility of the zooms in group 2?
I'll be using whichever lens I choose with a Canon R3.
My suspicion is that the group 1 lenses will be better but just marginally. The image quality comparison sites I've used in the past are no longer around (e.g., slrgear) so I'm not sure if there's some sample sets I can look at.
Thanks!
Nov 26, 2025 at 06:52 PM
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