Good budget zoom for 350D recommendations pls

monkeyspank

monkeyspank

monkeyspank

Soldato
Joined
26 Dec 2003
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Cambs UK
Can anyone recommend a cheap zoom lens for my 350D? 300mm ideally. IQ is much more important than build quality for me. 58mm filter size would be handy but not essential. Would I be better off with a slower lens with IS or a faster one without? Mostly for birding, handheld, some tripod mounted.

Looking at around £200 if poss. Any chance of that happening or would I need to spend a bit more to get good value?
 
A faster one without IS is better.

What you are looking for though doesn't exist.

A 300mm prime wont be cheap.
For your budget a 70-300mm Sigma APO is about your only oiption, don't expect great IQ quality though.
 
I'm after a zoom so that's OK :) I know it won't be great or they wouldn't be able to sell more expensive ones. I'll look at that Sigma, thanks. How much more are we talking about to get a slightly faster one, but still good value? Are there any that stand out as the obvious choices? thanks for the help.
 
a 300mm prime is a zoom lens, a 70-300 is a tele lens.

A 300mm Canon F4 L IS is like 800 or so and will give much better IQ.
 
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Helium_Junkie said:
Other way around :p Zoom means it can change focal length. Telephoto means it has a long focal length.

For £200 you won't get many choices. Perhaps look at canons own telephoto lenses and pick the one you can afford.

How about:
http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Pro...nses/Zoom_Lenses/EF_75300mm_f456III/index.asp
Click to expand...

Cool, I thought I was going mad then :)

That looks alright. I was given an old canon lens like that with a dead AF motor which I'm using now. I think that was a USM one though, are the DC motors stronger?
 
Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS possibly? I've seen them for £200, you still get quite a bit of range with the added bonus of IS at the same f/stop as the Sigma or Canon 70-300.
 
I could probably stretch to it if it's worth it. Might have to consider it if it's that much better! Thanks, I'll have a read up on that one too.

You do get what you pay for but sometimes there's a few sweet spots in the cost/value chart :)
 
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