Canon's Epic $22,000 RF 1200mm f/8 L IS USM Gets Put to the Ultimate (and Hilarious) Test

House Spotting from a Mountain

YouTuber Will Freeark, from the channel SetWillFree, came up with the genius idea of, “If I can spot mountains from my backyard with the Canon lens, can I spot my house from the top of the mountain using the Canon 1200mm f/8 L IS USM?” The result was one of the most entertaining experiments with the Canon gear that we have seen in recent times, as the team managed to transport the beast of a lens up the mountain after finding a location with the lens available for rent, with a $20,000 credit-card hold, just in case.

The Canon RF 1200mm F/8 L IS USM, with its weight of 3.4 kg, with the massive front element shared with the Canon RF 600mm F/4, was surprisingly useful in the right hands, as the team went about the exercise of spotting the house, while extracting maximum entertainment value from the lens with:

Creating a complete music video
Creating a commercial
Experimenting with the lens in Astrophotography, with a slightly reckless point towards the Sun

The challenge for spotting houses was as much a comedy as it was an optics primer. The hazy conditions due to weather, heat haze, and pollution made it difficult to resolve objects at a distance, even at 1200mm. Long-range photography beyond about 400-500mm is an ongoing battle against the laws of physics and nature itself. The lens performed admirably in favorable conditions to help the group locate features in the backyard that wouldn’t be visible to the naked eye.

The video by Will also points to the reasons why the RF 1200mm f/8 is still a pipe dream for most photographers who have the means to use it. The rental costs for this lens sit at about $1,000/week. The optical design is essentially a tightly combined version of the 600mm f/4 and a built-in 2x teleconverter. This gives it slightly better image quality compared to using a separate teleconverter with the 600mm f/4. However, this is still a matter for debate in the photography community about whether it’s worth forgoing the combo for this lens.

For the average Canon user, this is an inspiring reminder that even the most exotic lenses in the world can be used for some wild and creative projects in the hands of someone enthusiastic about photography.