Osteoarthritis & Long Lenses

Osteoarthritis = Gotta Have Less Weight!

I've been struggling with neck, left shoulder, arm and hand pain since March. It's been a long 7 months.

I had photographed dog mushers in mid-February with a mirrorless camera and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens around my neck. And I've routinely carried cameras around my neck for client shoots and on daily walks with our dogs since COVID began.

I woke up one morning three weeks after the musher sessions with my neck so stiff I could barely turn it. An injected muscle relaxant and oral anti-inflammatory took care of it after 5 days or so. I started using a Spider holster system to carry cameras on my waist instead of my neck.

A few months later, suddenly-acute neck, shoulder and arm problems prompted my doc to order an MRI. That showed severe osteoarthritis in my cervical (upper) spine.

And that's how it became very necessary for me to find cameras and lenses that weighed less.

I'd booked a landscape photo workshop in Death Valley for November-December 2021, and I'd need to walk 2-3 daily miles while potentially carrying all my equipment. I had the required focal lengths covered from 14mm/16mm to 400mm/500mm, but not with the lightest gear. I'd need to make some changes.

Weighing the Options

The heaviest camera / lens combination I want to handhold for any length of time weighs 3 pounds. That became my first goal. I also wanted to keep total equipment weight to 10 pounds or less, including camera, all lenses, tripod and single shoe-mount flash plus wireless remote trigger. And I wanted the photo backpack to be as light as possible while still providing protection from the elements and hard knocks.

I'm an engineer by training and experience, very analytical. (Sorry, can't help it.) Given the need to lighten up, I created a spreadsheet of camera, lens and gear weights for the three different systems I use - Leica L, Leica M and EOS R.

Not surprisingly, I discovered the Leica L system was the heaviest at just under 11 pounds for the focal lengths I needed. The Leica SL2 mirrorless camera is metal, and so are L-mount lenses from Leica and Sigma. Some of Panasonic's Lumix S primes are light (and very sharp) at less than a pound, but their zooms are heavy. Leica's own zooms, even if I could afford them, weigh 4-6 pounds, so they were doubly out.

The EOS R5 and its lenses together are lighter. Couple the camera's light weight with f/4 or slower zooms, and the camera with any lens I was considering weighs no more than 3.1 pounds (and most combinations less than 3 pounds). The overall weight of everything including tripod, flash and wireless remote trigger was just under 10 pounds. And I’d also cover the entire range from 14mm to 400mm with just three lenses, avoiding frequent lens changes.

Leica's M-series cameras and manual focus lenses have been around since 1954. I thought they'd be the lowest-weight option. But when I looked at the details, an M10-R camera and 16mm-21mm zoom with 25mm, 35mm and 50mm lenses plus an adapted FD 100-300mm f/5.6L, flash with remote trigger and tripod weighed slightly more at 10.4 pounds than the EOS R5 gear. I’d need to use an adapted manual focus FD 100-300mm f/5.6L, barely adequate for any wildlife. And I’d be swapping unsealed lenses more often in Death Valley’s sometimes windy, dusty environment, not a good idea.

So it looked like Canon mirrorless gear was it.

Lightweight Telephoto Zoom

I already own Canon's EF 400/4 DO IS (version 1) and EF 500/4L IS (version 1) from many years as a wildlife photographer. But each lens alone weighs 5 pounds or more, so that wasn't going to work. Yes, I could use my FD 100-300mm f/5.6L adapted on an EOS R5, but that was manual focus, not great for tracking wildlife. And it was barely long enough at 300mm, and then only if I cropped a lot afterwards.

Fortunately, Canon's RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS had just been announced. Canon's MTF curves showed good center performance and acceptable sharpness near the edges. The lens was 1.4 pounds, and inexpensive enough that I ordered one, not expecting anything approaching quick delivery given most manufacturers’ recent supply chain issues. To my surprise, it shipped just a week after my order.

After the fiasco with the RF 14-35/4L IS lens' severe 14mm distortion and initial lack of correction profiles (fortunately remedied as of October 26, 2021), I was a bit concerned about the RF 100-400/5.6-8 IS. I'd seen only a brief, incomplete review, but telephoto lenses with aspherical elements don't usually have distortion problems. Still, I didn't know what to expect, especially when an L-series zoom like the RF 14-35/4L IS shows huge problems. And I wasn't sure what sharpness and fringing / chromatic aberration would look like in a consumer-grade lens, especially one with a molded plastic aspherical element.

It's A Hit!

The short answer - I needn't have worried. To test the lens, I took it on a walk with my wife and dogs in the Sandia Mountain foothills.

Jessie retrieves her ball

Our Sheltie Jessie is ball-crazy. She'll chase one anytime, anywhere. She retrieved it in her usual quick fashion for this first shot. But the important thing I noticed was that not only was she sharp near center frame (pick out the hairs in her coat and dirt on her nose), the rubber rabbitbrush and weeds at the frame's right edge are sharp too. That's at f/6.3 and 123mm, the maximum aperture at that focal length.

Getting a drink

After running and chasing balls for awhile, a girl gets thirsty. Jessie stopped to get a drink, and I got to shoot her with blurred backgrounds at maximum aperture. So-called bokeh is in the eye of the beholder, but the blurred plants and leaves behind Jessie looked pretty good to me.

Seed heads - fall ‘wildflowers’

Seed heads closeup, 335mm

Desert summers can bring a riot of wildflowers with enough rain. In fall, though, everything's going to seed - literally. I took a broad view of a field of puffy seed heads at 100mm and f/11 for some depth of field, then zoomed in to 335mm to isolate a few plants at maximum f/8 aperture. Again, the blurred background looked good to me - a smooth wash of whites and light browns. My floral subjects were very sharp.

C-130 Hercules circling over Albuquerque

There are always military aircraft in the sky near Albuquerque's Kirtland Air Force Base. I spotted a circling C-130 Hercules, zoomed to 325mm to include some foreground for a sense of place, and took the shot. I've seen these guys on the ground, and they're huge. They've been used for troop transport and airdropping tanks and relief supplies, among other things. Haze blurs everything a little, but I was pleased with the results.

Roadrunner on a rock

I also spotted a roadrunner checking out scenery on a large rock. Even 400mm was a little short, so I slowly walked towards him, stopping a couple times to shoot. After my second stop, he decided I was close enough and hopped away. Pixel-peeping at the bird showed good sharpness.

I had no problems with tracking autofocus for any subject I tried in daylight. This is not a lens I'd use for wildlife at twilight or night baseball games, though, especially near 400mm where your maximum aperture is f/8.

Editing - Lens Profile?

I take a critical look and edit raw image files in Adobe's Lightroom Classic. Mostly I enhance contrast and shadows - multi-segment (evaluative) metering and associated exposure algorithms in EOS cameras are good enough that I rarely have to do anything else. I cropped the Hercules transport and roadrunner shots slightly, but that was it. Most of the raw files required very little tweaking straight out of the camera.

To date, there is no lens profile in Lightroom Classic for the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS. Instead, when you select Canon as the lens make, you get the profile for the RF 100-500 f/4.5-7.1L IS with 1.4X extender. This is enough to clear up slight vignetting in the corners at maximum aperture, and very slight distortion.

An Inexpensive Lens That's Actually Sharp

I was very happy with the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS lens' performance. For well under $1000 US, you get a sharp telephoto zoom that's great for outdoor shooting. No, there aren't any weatherseals, so you won't be using it for pro mountain bike races or Bernese Mountain Dog carting in the rain or snow. And there's no dedicated tripod foot, but the lens is light enough to not put a strain on your camera's lens mount with the camera body mounted on a tripod. And if it rains, an inexpensive emergency rain cover like Think Tank Photo's will keep moisture out.

I'll do a followup post after my Death Valley trip where I'll be using this lens in the field under more realistic conditions. For now though, it looks like great value for money in a very usable telephoto zoom.

Shot Notes

I always shoot raw files, since I want all the picture information I can get. JPEG compression can keep you from recovering deep shadow or near-blown highlight detail, among other things.

I also usually shoot aperture priority, Av with EOS cameras, A with most others. That means I don't need to worry about exposure as long as my ISO is high enough for fast shutter speeds if I'm stopping action, or at least to get rid of camera shake. Yes, I know the EOS R5 has in-body image stabilization (IBIS), but I still can't handhold at shutter speeds much below 1/30 second.

For these pictures I used eye-tracking AF, which also does well with aircraft and other moving, non-living subjects. For landscapes I sometimes use manual focus, something I'm used to from rangefinder Leica M cameras.

Since Canon's own ET-74B lenshood was back-ordered, I picked up a Promaster ET-74B hood from ebay instead. The fit and finish aren't quite as good as Canon's - the front edge is a little sharp - but it does the job of keeping stray light off the lens front element and protecting it.

More Information

Cameralabs (14th September 2021), Canon RF 100-400mm f5.6-8 review so far. Retrieved from https://www.cameralabs.com/canon-rf-100-400mm-f5-6-8-usm-review/

Canon Rumors (September 16, 2021), Canon's MTF Plots for RF 100-400mm f/5.6 - 8. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/2ww9mat2

ebay (nd), Promaster ET-74B Hood for Canon. Retrieved from https://www.ebay.com/itm/274586077461

Lockheed Martin (nd), C-130 Hercules - One Aircraft, Many Capabilities. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/knykjv3r

Mark Bohrer Photo (March 6, 2021), Mush! Retrieved from https://www.markbohrerphoto.com/blog/mush

Nunley, Loraine D. (September 21, 2015), 10 Things the C-130 Hercules can transport. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/44k4rfp3

Spider Camera Holster (nd), Amazing Camera Holders and Accessories. Retrieved from https://spiderholster.com/

Think Tank Photo (nd), Emergency Rain Cover - Medium. Retrieved from https://www.thinktankphoto.com/products/emergency-rain-cover-medium