Good Zoom Telephoto lens for Wildlife photography

[birch]

I have a Canon 300D and want to buy a Telephoto zoom lens. I borrowed my friends 75 -300 Tamron the last time I went to the game reserve and found the lens was to short. I would like to photograph both mammals and birds. I don’t have a big budget. What would you suggest? I was thinking maybe the Sigma 50 -500.



Thank you

[roanjohn]

If you're on a budget, go with the BIGMA!!! the 50-500 beast itself!!! It's the best money can buy for that reach/versatility.

[ScottE]

I have the Sigma 50-500 and recommend it if you are willing to use a tripod for most of your shots. If you want to hand hold telephoto shots you need an image stabilized lens such as the Canon 100-400 IS, Sigma 80-400 OS or a Canon 400/4 IS with a 1.4x teleconverter.

Scott

[CyberDyneSystems]

Please see the -=TOP 10=- Recommended lens Sticky thread at the top of the forum.

There you will find the -=TOP 1-=- Recommended Wildlife Zoom lenses the members of this forum chose.

[condyk]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]I have a Canon 300D and want to buy a Telephoto zoom lens. I borrowed my friends 75 -300 Tamron the last time I went to the game reserve and found the lens was to short. I would like to photograph both mammals and birds. I don’t have a big budget. What would you suggest? I was thinking maybe the Sigma 50 -500.

I spent 16 month is ZA and so know the conditions that you'll be shooting in. 400mm is minimum and even then you won't get much in the way of decent bird pictures. The 50-500mm Sigma is a good choice if you're travelling through game parks in a vehicle as you can steady it (turn off the engine!)

[RbnDave]

I love my canon 100-400. It works well hand held, and it produces really sharp images when I use it correctly. Also, I like its push pull design. It is really quick at composing shots and experimenting with different focal lengths. A lot of times I find speed is most important with wildlife shooting. I wouldn't have time to set up a tripod for most of my animal pics. Also, with the speedy push/pull it's easy to find and frame your subject. Of course, the 100-400 is more expensive. I've seen some great images come from the bigma. Whichever one you decide on, I'm sure you'll be happy.

[Turbowolf]

I love my canon 100-400...

What he said. I exclusively use a 100-400 on a 20D. No time for a tripod unless I have set-up prior to sunrise, knowing the animal will appear.

The image stabilizing makes it well worth the money, and even better, much more usable in the lower light situations found in forests.

Besides, using that nice white lense while wearing my National Geographic baseball cap has allowed for all kinds of opportunities...

[raylks]

And place a sticker of National Geographic on the camera body and the white lens. Everyone will think you are shooting for the famous magazine.

[ScottE]

I just noticed you are from Pretoria, ZA.

When I visited South Africa I made a window mount that allowed me to mount my Sigma 50-500 on the car door with a ball head tripod mount. It worked like a charm, keeping the camera steady so I could get some great bird and animal shots. For some of the bird shots I had to use a 1.4x teleconverter, even with the 1.6x magnification factor on the D60. You have to really concentrate on technique to get sharp pictures with that combination.

I used that set up in West Coast NP, Kgalagadi NP, Kruger NP and Mountain Zebra NP and got some good pictures in all those locations. In Namaqualand and Agrabies falls we could hike so I took a tripod and got some good bird and lizard shots. At Boulders and around Cape Town I used the lens hand held because taking a tripod was not convenient and got some good shots there too.

I found the zoom range of the 50-500 to be very useful in the game parks because you really don't have any control over how close the animals will be so it is very convenient to have that range without having to change lenses.

Scott