What telephoto lense?

[OldBoy]

Without getting into arguments, I think a bit of motion blur in the wings adds extra to the photo as it shows movement. The latter half of this year hasn't been good for light but taking the shot against the sky might have inproved it. The last one looks spot on, as the eyes are sharp.

[karenoliver]

I love my canon 100-400mm and okay it is heavy at first but you get used to it. It's a great quality lens and one of my favourites. It is expensive though and sometimes I do wish I had bought the canon 28-300mm lens for flexiblity it offers.

[flake]

I have the 28 - 300mm IS L and can recommend it (other than the weight and the high profile it has) The picture quality is very good, slightly worse than the 24-70mm and the 24 - 105mm but not by much. At the long end the 100mm it loses out to the 100 - 400mm isn't really much, and the four stop IS system is really good. Only other problem is the price as it's twice as much as the 100 - 400mm

[ianpinion]

I would think you'd need to attain a minimum shutter speed of at least 1/1000th of a second and preferably 1/2000th of second to freeze a birds wing motion. I've seen a few shots, taken by a professional, of a chaffinch flying on to a seed feeder and they were taken with a 300m f/1.4 prime lens with a shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second to freeze the birds wings in flight as it was about to land.

So unless you're dealing with something like a hummingbird, in which case it might need to be 1/16000th of a second, you'll need plenty of light and a very fast lens! You'll also need a very large budget as this kind of glass is very expensive.

[flake]

300mm f/1.4 ?? That's quite a lens! something that's not available from any mainstream manufacturers normal lists

[swan lover]

Whats not been mentioned here, what is the gentleman going to photograph with his £1,000 lens wildlife, portraites, landscapes? we could recomend hundreds of lenses and still be wrong, unless I've missed a page, for wildlife try Sigma's 150-500 plenty of reach and well under budget and a IS lens to boot, you may also be able to get theyre 18-125 IS as well to cover other aspects of your Photography.

[Cutter]

Originally Posted by swan lover

Whats not been mentioned here, what is the gentleman going to photograph with his £1,000 lens wildlife, portraites, landscapes? we could recomend hundreds of lenses and still be wrong, unless I've missed a page, for wildlife try Sigma's 150-500 plenty of reach and well under budget and a IS lens to boot, you may also be able to get theyre 18-125 IS as well to cover other aspects of your Photography.

Ok guys n girls , sorry for being away and not seeing these replies Anyway I want to be able to capture the golf swing in motion at distance, and the odd robin (bird) .
I have seen some pictures of robins posted and you actually see the fine feathers.

The conversation between you all is great you all have your valid reasons for choice of lenses and hope this additional information might help which will be best for me.


Thanks everyone for your comments

Cutter