Confused over choice of lenses

[DR1]

I'd like to buy my OH a new lens but know little about cameras and the choice is bewildering. She has a 7d and her longest lens is a 70-200 f2.8. I know she's been wanting something with a little more 'reach' so wondered if you could advise between the following?

The sigma 50-500 f4.5-6.3 os is around £1100. She has no other sigma kit.

The canon 300mm f4.0L is about the same price. She has both a canon 1.4 and a x2 extender.

Okay, so what does the "L" mean in that canon lens?! I told you I know nothing...
Would the canon be better given it can be paired up with the extenders - it can, can't it?!
Are either of those lenses any good in your opinion?! Is there a better option?
I know she'd be delighted with either but I want to get her what she needs so thought I'd ask advice - though ultimately I'll probably tell her before I buy it just in case!! She loves wildlife photography, and shoots the ocassional plane for me so that's what it would be for.

All advice much appreciated!!

[OldBoy]

The Sigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 OS is a cracking lens and is referred to as the Bigma. I have one without the OS and it has produced cracking shot. Most people who have one love it and swear by it. I have used mine with the Sigma 1.4 converter but manual focus only. It can even be used with the Sigma 2x converter. It's a heavy lens but not a problem for most handholding.

The L on Canon lenses denotes better optics. I'm a Nikon user and have the Nikon 300mm F4, which I have used with both the Nikon 1.4 and 2x converters to great effect. You also consider the Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens, which is well regarded.

If I had to make a choice, then I'd go for the Sigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 OS.

[matt wilson]

For more reach just pair the 70 to 200canon with a Canon extender ..............otherwise get the 100 400 canon which can go with the existing canon extenders.

Having used both the Bigma briefly and my own 100 400 canon I preferred the Canon.It is an ammazingly sharp lens and built like a tank (L is the proffesional quality Canon lens)

[DR1]

Thanks so much for the responses!! Though now you have added another lens to my confusion!! Okay, so the sigma appears to be a good option. Now, that canon one - the 300mm - I thought a prime lens was better than a zoom so thought this would be better for her than getting her to use the extenders on her existing zoom lens. Though buying a lens that needs the extenders wasn't my intention when I started looking...hence I ended up at the sigma. If zooms are as good as primes then I could drop the thought of the 300mm altogether and leave the choice between the sigma zoom and the canon zoom. Anything at the 500mm end sounds impressive to me, but I know she's a canon girl at heart.

Jeez, how do you folks ever actually decide when there is so much on offer?!

[Cathus]

I don't own the Canon 300mm F4 but I do have a Sigma 50-500mm. I would bet that the image quality of the prime over the zoom is significant.

Whilst the 50-500 is a great all round lens, it has some big drawbacks, it's heavy, it's soft at the 500mm end (I always tried not to zoom it to maximum to avoid this), it's quite a dark lens as well especially at the longer end, you'll need lots of light or a tripod & in lower quality light focusing can be a problem. I have the non OS version, so there are probably improvements over my version, but it still has a poor f6.3 at the longer end. It's a 10x zoom, that's a lot of glass through which your premium quality light has to pass through getting degraded as it does so.

If it was a straight choice based on image quality alone I'd go for the prime.

[DR1]

Thanks Cathus, appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Given the 300 is unlikely to be enough and she's going to use at least the 1.4 with it, does this negate the quality of the prime lens? I wish I'd won the lottery tonight...

[Cathus]

it will to a degree, but bear in mind the Canon converters were designed to go as converters for their high end telephoto lenses.

Sports & nature photographers put converters on their high end telephotos all the time (I had one on mine today doing sports), you'd be really hard pressed to get great results putting one on the 50-500 (unless you had loads of light)

You'd really need to speak to someone who owns a 300 F4 but I'd be surprised if the 300 F4 with a 1.4x produced worse results than a 50-500 at 450mm,

It depends whether she wants the versatility of the zoom with the poorer results or the better results with the fixed but with less versatility.

[OldBoy]

Just to show what the Sigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 can do.

A picture of the Great Crested Grebe after mating with the female taken with the Sigma 50-500mm F4-6,3 at 500mm, handheld in dullish conditions.


Parrot taken with the Sigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 at 500mm mounted on a tripod.


Picture of the Parrot taken with the Sigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 plus Sigma 1.4 converter at 700mm mounted on a tripod, F9 manual focus.

[DR1]

Thanks everyone!

I'm guessing she worries less about versatility and more about quality. She has a 400d as well and could marry it up with the zoom if she wanted the additional versatility. She's a everything but the kitchen sink photographer when she's out shooting! I've seen her carry 2 cameras many times.

It looks like the sigma can do the wildlife stuff - but I'm going to get a little selfish here.... if I'm buying her this then I'm dragging her to an airshow to get me some shots of jets!! Could it function as well when the subject is screaming around at ridiculous speeds against a grey sky?

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by DR1

Thanks everyone!

It looks like the sigma can do the wildlife stuff - but I'm going to get a little selfish here.... if I'm buying her this then I'm dragging her to an airshow to get me some shots of jets!! Could it function as well when the subject is screaming around at ridiculous speeds against a grey sky?

No, but then again most lenses at F6.3 would struggle doing this. Remember, using a converter on a F2.8 lens, can slow it down as it hunts for focus, unless you prefocus or your panning is first class. This is why 300mm plus fast primes cost an arm and a leg. I have a Nikon 300mm F4, which I've used with both converters to great effect, but it can struggle if I lose the focus. You can google Bigma to see what others think and I've put a link below for one site.

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=22601