After re-reading what I wrote yesterday about sticking with my choices, I decided to head into the field with the RF 100-500mm this morning. The intention was to get a card full of misfocuses, overexposures, and whatever other tricks the lens might have up its tube so that I could show the Canon technician later in the day.
During an outing the other day I had set a user profile on the R5 with my settings specific to bird photography. After switching to the profile this morning, the first thing I noticed was that the camera had no wake-up lag. As I progressed through the next couple of hours, it was like shooting with a totally different lens than the one I’d fought with the other day.
What happened? Is there a glitch in the firmware that makes the lens less responsive, less accurate when some settings are used? Looks like it’ll remain a mystery—unless the lens starts misbehaving again!