What lense is next......

[furney7]

Hi, my new year’s resolution is to use my camera much more and want to purchase a zoom lense to give me more options. I currently have a Sigma 17-70mm on my 450d all the time and having booked a Safari in South Africa for next Christmas i want zoom lense. I don’t have the biggest budget in the world and am looking to spend under £200. I have looked at the Sigma and Tamron 70 - 300's and cannot decide which is best. I have also read through this forum and read good things about the Canon 55 - 250.

With the Tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 Di LD Macro Lens going for £99 at the moment i think this could be a good option but have read a couple of bad reviews.

My real question is what do people think is the best budget zoom lense? I have noticed there seems to be a big jump from the sub £200 lenses to the next bracket of £500+ so don’t think it is an option to save up longer and go to the next step.

Any advice would be great!

[chris-p]

Hi Furney, welcome to the forum

You will always find negative reviews of any zoom lens that costs less than £200 because most are generally poor when compared other lenses which are always (of course) more expensive. You should be able to pick up lenses in the next price bracket for less than £500 though.

For example, the Canon 75-300 is £225, the Canon 100-300mm is under £300 and the Sigma 70-300mm OS is £300 on the nose.
If it was me, though, I'd have the Tamron 70-300 VC which is around £350 and an excellent lens.
You should even be able to find the Canon 70-300mm IS for under £400.



Generally speaking, the Tamron you mentioned is the best new option for under £200. You could consider a used lens. You might even find a stabilised one.

[furney7]

Thanks for that advice Chris. The Tamron 70 - 300 VC looks very good but dont know if the size will be an issue.

I had thought about buying second hand but always been a bit dubious of doing this with warrantys and stuff. Can anyone recommend a good place to buy second hand lenses from in the north west?

Thanks

David

[chris-p]

There isn't much difference in size between the VC Tamron and the others, all 70-300mm lenses are fairly large.

WRT second hand kit, see if there is a London Camera Excchange in the local area. They have a decent network of shops and could get stuff from another shop in to your local store. There are loads of good used retailers out there with decent websites. Check out the following:

Mifsuds
Ffordes
Ace Cameras
Camarthen Cameras
Park Cameras

[furney7@hotmail.com]

Thanks Chris!

Think i have narrowed it down to the Canon 55 - 250mm which is on amazon for £150 or go all out on the Tamron 70 - 300 VC, its wether i can justify the extra £200!

I am planning on going down to my local camera shop to compare the lenses side by side and make my decision.

Thanks

[AndrewKulin]

My input would be go for the longest reached lens you can afford - a safari sounds to me like a once in a lifetime opportunity - you may find yourself wanting to kick yourself because you wanted more reach on your lens to get that keeper of a shot. Consider how close you think you will get to the wildlife on your safari.

The other thing to look for when you do your comparison is how quickly does the lens auto-focus. I used to own a Canon 75-300 mm IS and it was a terrible lens for focusing - it would hunt back and forth forever. Meaning very often if I was trying to get a quick shot of some animal, I would lose the opportunity because the lens was still trying to focus.

I suggest when you test the lens out find a cluttered environment (tree branches are ideal as this is a really worst case situation) and pick something you would like to be in focus (a bird for example or in lieu of that pick a branch or flower or something as a substitute) and then see how long the camera takes to focus on the subject. You may find a marked difference between the lenses.

Image Stabilization or Vibration Control I consider very worthwhile, let's you hand-hold under lower light conditions, and even in brighter light will just help give you a sharper image.

[furney7]

Cheers Andrew, i dont know how much of a test i will be able to test the lenses but will do by best to test on camera. I am leaning towards the Tamron, not just because of the extra 50mm but also i have read the Canon's build is not great.

Thanks

PS. Andrew you have some great shots on your website!

[chris-p]

Originally Posted by furney7@hotmail.com

its wether i can justify the extra £200!

That's always the question with lenses. It's just that it slowly becomes more than £200.

Honestly though, and as Andrew said, the VC system is worth every penny of that £200.

[rbarry]

Bear in mind a cheap long lens at full zoom may not give you as good an image as a better quality shorter lens cropped to the equivalent or greater focal length of the cheap lens. You can take a steadier shot with a shorter reach lens too.

[Sue Allen]

If considering the Tamron Vc version you might as well spend an extra few pounds and get the Canon 70-300 IS - this is much much better than the old 75-300 IS [even talked of as approaching L class in some reviews]. I've used an older Tamron 70-300mm which was'nt bad but subject to pretty bad purple fringing - I assume some of that has been corrected in the more expensive version. I used the Canon 70-300 IS when I had my 40D and it was almost as good [!] as the Nikon 70-300 VR.