Budget of $300, looking for a good telephoto up to 300 or 200mm

[sboerup]

I am a new member to the forum, but, not a newby to photography. As I am a student, I have a small budget, but will mainly be using the lens for wedding photography, and maybe sports photography as well. I have read many of the forums already, and havent really decided which ones would be better, the high end Tamron 70-300mm or the Sigma. I would love to get the 80-200, but, cant really afford it at the moment.

Would really love some great tips, reviews and other sorts of stuff from people that have had experience with these lenses. Thanks!:lol:

[Keiffer]

Welcome to the forum! And if your going to be doing weddings, I suggest you save up and put more cash into it and get alot better lense being that you'll be charging for it, I assume. But also because you want to use it indoors and for sports also makes you move up to a faster lense ie:2.8 You can look at the Sigma 70-200 ex for about $700. If it was just knock around for flowers and soforth the Tamron 70-300 goes for about $150. or so. But I wouldn't recommend this for weddings.

[scott stokes]

I agree with Keiffer,sigma is a good lens for the money,i don't know about the tamron.

[sboerup]

I have seen a lot of people that say that Sigmas are just awesome, and others that dont like them. I have seen many good reviews about the Tamron lenses, any suggestions. As for my wedding plans, I am not aiming at professional quality stuff, just for my friends at school that know my work and dont want to pay a lot. I am not really willing to pay for anything more that $400.
I thought about the Canon 75-300 USM IS lens, but most people dont like it, so, I have been debating between some of the Sigma or Tamron lenses. Anoyone know if the SIGMA 70-300 APO DG MACRO is is any good? Its a priced model, rather cheap, but is all the APO and DG worth the extras or just fancy talk?

[Andrew Pratt]

The APO's a good lens and would do nicely as a walk around lens for outdoors. The problem it would have is that its not going to be fast enough for indoor Weddings. For that you really need an f2.8 lens. You might do well looking for an older lens to keep the budget in line but still get the speed you need...either that or keep saving up a bit. A used Tamron 28-70 f2.8 would be about $350 US and would be a good choice but they're not easy to find used as they're very popular at the moment. Check Fred Miranda's site for one.

[rklepper]

Check out the 28-135 IS USM.

[MrChad]

If that is your budget the Canon 100-300mm EF USM would be an acceptable lens, good quality build and fast silent ring type USM.

http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/frary/toolbox3.htm

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-100-300mm-f-4.5-5.6-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

I'm going to buck the trend, anytime someone ask about a lens in this forum you get one of 2 answers, Save up more and get the Canon xx-xxL, or get the Sigma, Tamron, etc....

99.9% of the time if you ask about a Canon EF non-L lens you will never get any help about that specific lens other then a reply like.... it sucks.

The 100-300mm is a fine lens for the price you pay. It's $270 at places like www.bhphoto.com. It will serv you plenty fine if this is your first tele lens, it's not junk and if you further your hobby you can always sell if for near purchase price on ebay.

My advise, if this is what you can afford, it's a good choice for the budget.

A buddy of mine has this lens, build wise it's as nice as any non-L Canon, you won't hate using the lens in terms of feel.

[tim]

For weddings you need good equipment. I'd suggest you save up for the Sigma 70-200 F2.8 or the Canon IS lens, as to be honest you can get away without a big zoom at most weddings.

[condyk]

I agree with both the last two posters ... 100-300mm Canon is good for the money, but I think the Sigma 70-300mm APO is maybe a better all rounder as it has a usable so called 'Macro' facility. You can find some great images from Nitsch and Mattym on this forum. But Tim is right ... at a wedding you just want great gear for reliability and image quality. No one wants 'not quite right' wedding photo's. You only have one chance. The SIgma EX 70-200 is a great lens for the money.

[nitsch]

Cheers Condyk. Yep the Sigma 70-300 APO is a great lens for the price. I love using mine and have got some good results from it. It is definately worth spending the extra for the APO over the DG it has better glass in it and you'll notice the difference in your images. None of these "consumer" zooms are really fast enough for indoor shooting for your wedding plans you'll need to spend out more than you're budget to get a fast lens as Tim has already stated.

If you want some examples of the Sigma's performance, have a look at some of my bird shots and some of my recent shots from Goodwood. If you can't find them I'll post some links.

[prime80]

If you're quick, you can get a good, used 100-300 USM from B&H for $169 or $179.

[sboerup]

Thanks for all the information. I have seen great reviews for the Canon 100-300mm USM. What is the difference between the 100-300 USM and the 70-300 USM (that I think is new). Is there a difference in quality?

Where did you find the price for $169 @ B&H Photo, only saw the Canon 100-300 for $279.

Thanks again!

[prime80]

Sorry, they're already gone. There was a new batch of used lenses offered this morning, and the two 100-300 USMs that were there have been snatched up. The picture quality and build quality of the 100-300 USM is better than the 75-300 USM. Plus, the USM on the 100-300 is the ring-type USM (good - allows full-time manual focusing, quieter, faster), the USM on the 75-300 USM is micro USM (bad - no FTM focusing, louder, slower).

[ron chappel]

There is also a 70-300 IS DO USM which may be the one you are thinking of.It's a very expensive semi pro lens

Of the consumer zooms i'd suggest the two you were looking at -sigma 70-300 apo,etc and tamron 70-300 or the canon 100-300usm mentioned above by others.

Here's a quick rundown on them-

The canon is the best allrounder with good build quality,VERY fast focus and good optics.The bad bits are that it's more expensive and has no macro ability.

The sigma would be the a great lens if they could build the damn thing consistantly! The quality control on this model is pretty bad-make sure you buy it somewhere that allows hassle free returns !
Besides the QC issue about the only drawback it has is average focus speed.

The tamron is very sharp at all focal lengths! An amazing lens for the price.
It's bad points are rather slow focus ,some purple fringing and ugly background blur (most owners wouldn't notice but maybe a real issue for wedding pics)

Look to the bottom of this folder for example shots from these lenses.-
I had a sigma example shot -from a brand new lens(!) - but it was so bad that i felt sorry for sigma and deleted it
http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=504236

[sboerup]

Thanks for the info Ron, do you know whats the big difference between the Canon lenses. Comparing the 100-300 USM, the 70-300 USM IS, and the 75-300 USM. Is the 75-300 much slower USM just because its not the ring style focuser or what? Im heavily thinking about buying the 100-300, but that extra focal length would be great. what do you guys think?

[MrChad]

Thanks for the info Ron, do you know whats the big difference between the Canon lenses. Comparing the 100-300 USM, the 70-300 USM IS, and the 75-300 USM. Is the 75-300 much slower USM just because its not the ring style focuser or what? Im heavily thinking about buying the 100-300, but that extra focal length would be great. what do you guys think?

I have the 75-300 IS USM, if given the choice and this lens didn't have IS I would have purchased the 100-300 EF, so in short I would totally get the 100-300mm EF over any of the other Canon 75-300mm lenses save for the IS model.