lens advise needed

Exentia · 30 Jun 2008 at 13:36

Hi guys,

Need a decent zoom lens for wildlife (cant be too expensive ~£300 is ok) I seem to end up in places where im just not close enough to get that killer shot (and having only a kit lens at the moment) I think this is where my favourite shots are going to come from, just need that extra reach, would:

EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM

be a good lens or is there better for around the same price?

Cheers.

33L · 30 Jun 2008 at 15:15

the lens you have quted is probably your best bet. Stabalised, light, fast focusing

Exentia · 30 Jun 2008 at 15:16

thought so, just wanted to be sure. Thanks

ic0n · 30 Jun 2008 at 16:06

not to grate for what you want but to give you extra range of zoom get a tamron 18-250 very nice lens and nice amount of zoom

Exentia · 30 Jun 2008 at 16:12

*lens fever kicking in*

if i were to buy the 70-300

and then wanted something midrange, as stated above something to fit in between my kit lens and the 70-300, what would you get?

(notice how money has gone out the window

)

inverseSquare · 1 Jul 2008 at 05:07

Exentia said:
*lens fever kicking in*

if i were to buy the 70-300

and then wanted something midrange, as stated above something to fit in between my kit lens and the 70-300, what would you get?

(notice how money has gone out the window )

Personally i'd steer clear of the 'super zooms' (like 18-200mm), imo they are too much of a compromise for general use. Can see the attraction if you could only use one lens though

The 70-300 is a good lens, light, IS, decent range on a crop-body camera.
Probably the best tele-zoom for the money imo - really nice image quality if you stop is back a bit, almost L quality

Downsides ?
Build quality not up to L levels (but not L prices either

).
Its Micro USM not Ring USM - focusing may not be fast enough for some sports work (like motorsports).
Front end rotates when focusing (annoying if you have a CPL filter, etc..).
No full-time manual focus.

You mention you have a kit lens ? guessing its 18-55mm ?
If so, I'd not bother with a 'middle lens'. The difference between 55mm and 70mm isn't that much really

Exentia · 1 Jul 2008 at 09:06

Cool, yeah its on a 350d, just a decent macro lens needed now then and i can cover most of the shots I ilke taking, cheers for your help guys.

oh is it ok to just go ahead and email Kerso never actually having used him.

ic0n · 1 Jul 2008 at 17:39

inverseSquare said:
Personally i'd steer clear of the 'super zooms' (like 18-200mm), imo they are too much of a compromise for general use. Can see the attraction if you could only use one lens though

i find the 18-250 a very very good lenses and not much if any of a compromise i have that as my only zoom and one or 2 primes to go with it so leave it on my cam all the time and love it.

have a look on my flickr or website latest pics all taken with that lens (links in sig)