Wildlife photography Lenses

[LMC]

Hi,

I like taking photos of wildlife. I was wondering what lenses do you use to get up close when subject is far away. I have a Canon 450d camera with a basic 18 - 55mm lense & also got a Canon 55-250mm lense. I am thinking of getting a sigma 150-500mm? any good or should i go for a Canon.

I also like taking photos of people, & landscapes. Im going to do a course at the local college which i'm really looking forward to.

LMC

[Cutter]

I have a canon 100 -400 L lense and realy happy with it after alot of searching opinions. The best guy to ask would be flake he knows alot regarding lenses. but I would recomend perhaps mine, with a converter.

[anglefire]

For starters, Flake is not a Guy, but a Gal!

With Wildlife longer is generally better!

A 100-400 with a 1.4 converter will make it f8 at the long end - and won't AF on anything less than a 1Series.

A 120-300 sigma with a 2x may be a better option as long as you get a good one - The f4 will also end up at f8, but if you can spring for the f2.8, it will be f5.6 thoughout and will still AF on all cameras. But you don't get IS, which you wlll with the 100-400.

Going back to the150-500 Sigma, Fred Miranda users reviews give it a 8.5 overall. http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/s...&cat=37&page=1

Would be a good option, but is slo at f/6.3 at the long end.

[flake]

Thanks for setting the record straight Anglefire! lol.

The Sigma 150 - 500mm f/5 - 6.3 is optically a good lens, but (and it's a big but) the aperture is very very slow, just to go through the stops (and each one means half the light) from f/2.8 - f4 - f5.6 - f8 So it's getiing only 1/4 of the light that an f/2.8 lens does. f/6.3 is lower than the cameras autofocus system can work with, it stops at f/5.6, so to maintain autofocus the lens has to fool the camera by 'telling' it that it's actually f/5.6.

The cheapest way to get to 600mm and maintain autofocus is to buy the Sigma 120 - 300mm f/2.8 (which has had a huge price cut recently) and a 2x teleconverter as Anglefire has suggested. The lens plus a 1.4 & 2x TC will cost about £2K quite a saving when you look at the price of Canons big long prime lenses.

At this point I can just hear the cries of anguish at the cost, but this is probably the most expensive area of photography that there is (wildlife and especially bird watching types). This kind of photography is exactly what the huge grey lenses are used for and a 500mm & 600mm will set you back around £10K, the Sigma at £2K is something of a bargain.

You will be able to get some great images from the 150 - 500mm but only when light levels are good or you have some additional lighting available, if this is something you can live with then go for it, just remember that it does have it's limitations.

The other cheap option is to buy a mirror lens on Ebay for around £100 they are usually fixed aperture at f/8 and manual focus, but they can deliver good enough results with some practice.

[Cutter]

OOOOOH DEARRRRR sorry flake now your scary

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by LMC

Hi,

I like taking photos of wildlife. I was wondering what lenses do you use to get up close when subject is far away. I have a Canon 450d camera with a basic 18 - 55mm lense & also got a Canon 55-250mm lense. I am thinking of getting a sigma 150-500mm? any good or should i go for a Canon.

I also like taking photos of people, & landscapes. Im going to do a course at the local college which i'm really looking forward to.

LMC

Don't forget the secondhand market. Mifsuds have a Canon fit Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 lens at £479 and can be used with a 1.4 or 2x Sigma converter giving you 280mm or 400mm range. They also have a Sigma 'Bigma' 50-500mm F4-6.3 for £549 which is a cracking lens and worth every penny. I have the Nikon version and used with a Sigma 1.4 converter but manual focus only.

http://www.mifsuds.com/usedpriceindex.htm

Just scroll down the page to reach the Canon lenses.

[LMC]

Thanks, so many things to take into account, trust me to choose the most expensive type of photography to go into Would the sigma lense be ok on a canon 450d, would i need a tripod to put it on to, to take good photos?

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by LMC

Thanks, so many things to take into account, trust me to choose the most expensive type of photography to go into Would the sigma lense be ok on a canon 450d, would i need a tripod to put it on to, to take good photos?

Both can be handheld but the bigma is a bit heavy, so best results would be using a tripod at 500mm. If it's a bright sunny day and you aren't a ten stone weakling then the results from handheld can be top class, as proved by Lurkalot who uses it for small bird shots with great success.