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Another what lens question


RobStubbs

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I'm thinking of getting a telephoto lens for my EOS for wildlife stuff mainly, and I just want a 200 or 300mm fixed lens. I suspect a 300mm would be what I want for bird pics and the like. What I'm after is some advise on what to buy at a modest price (i.e. max about 300 quid) and where to look. I tried looking for reviews but most were camera only sites or top end lenses.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Rob.

 

P.S. I'm not interested in a zoom.

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Hi Rob ...

 

Easiest way .. Go into Google and just type in "Lens 300" ....

 

Masses of hits on there ... :D:D

 

If you're looking for 2nd hand there's always FleaBay of course ... but remember, Let The Buyer Beware !!

 

Wiggly. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

The Older I get .. The better I was.

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Hi Rob ...

 

Easiest way .. Go into Google and just type in "Lens 300" ....

 

Masses of hits on there ... :D:D

 

If you're looking for 2nd hand there's always FleaBay of course ... but remember, Let The Buyer Beware !!

 

Wiggly. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

That didn't really help. I ended up having to look at 200mm lenses to get within my price range and only Canon ones seemed reasonable (and acceptable quality). I've owned sigma and tamron before but neither were any use since they were way too pricey.

 

I also failed to find any kind of lens review sites or even specific reviews. Maybe I'll just pick up one of the digital camera mags and flick through their reviews section.

 

Rob.

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Hi Rob ..

 

It's going to be difficult to find any 200 or 300 prime lens within your price range, unless you are willing to consider second hand.

 

Canon EF L primes are way over that price band, and even the Sigma ones are close to the edge. Sigmas are very good for what they cost, with lots of satisfied users. Many prefer them to the Canons. Tamrons are a bit lower down the scale. They were originally designed for use on film cameras, and often cannot be dedicated to modern digital cameras.

 

You may be able to get a "short zoom" i.e. X-200 or X-300 for that ammount of cash, but "fixed primes" are expensive items.

 

I have a Canon 35-350 EF "L" ... which is a top grade lens, and I paid way over your budget. And that was second hand !! I would love to have a 300+ high grade prime, but even if I traded in my existing lens I would still have to pass on loads of pennies !!

 

In reguard to quality, I would say Canon first, followed by Sigma, with Tamron as a last resort ....

 

Wiggly. :rolleyes:

The Older I get .. The better I was.

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A decent 200 or 300mm prime for around £300 ............ your kind of wanting the moon on a stick !!!!!!!!! Its a very big ask.

 

Price Vs Performance always comes in when you buy lenses as you will know... you could look at the very cheap Opteka (or what ever they are called) ones... plenty of them on eBay. They are not very fast, and don't Autofocus very well (if they do at all) ... so you will need a nice bright day to get the very best out of the lens, which if your shooting wildlife in say a wooded area or bushes you may struggle... but then again if your a whizz with manual focusing you never know. Reviews of them on the web are not very kind at all.

 

For decent quality on a Canon EF mount, I think you would be wanting to look at the superb 200mm L F2.8 ... which comes in around £450+ (which is out of your stated budget) .... that with a cheap Tamron 1.4x Teleconverter (around £60) you could maintain Autofocus but the F2.8 will be reduced a few stops to around F4(ish) and would give you 280mm (which in reality if you dont have a 1d or 5d you have 448mm (FOV of 1.6 x 200mm x 1.4 tc). I've got a Canon 70-200mm F4 L that I use with a 1.5 Teleconverter and it autofocuses great even in the worst light and fast(ish) moving objects.

 

Next you have the Canon 300mm F4L IS or the Canon 400mm F5.6 L ........... but your looking at least £750 plus

 

Sigma and Tamron primes of that focal lengths are pretty/very expensive.

 

Have a look at www.dpreview.com in the Canon SLR talk to get some better ideas.

 

I really wish you good luck in finding a lens of the length in your stated budget, you never know what bargain you will pick up on eBay if you search around.

 

Gillies

tha fis agam a bhe iasg nuth dunidh sasain!

 

www.gilliesmackenzie.com

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Thanks again for all the comments. I guess I was sort of expecting to be able to get a prime 300mm for the DSLR for a similar price to the one I have for my old film SLR. I'm not after a big aperture lens - F4 or F5.6 would be sufficient for what I'm after. Anyway I'll keep looking around and see what comes up, or perhaps I'll just have to move my budget up a bit more.

 

Rob.

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