Advice buying lens

[Geoff F]

If you are going to be shooting at the wide end of a zoom; then a fixed length 'prime' lens might be a suitable alternative. Say 400 mm which will, when required, take a 1.4x converter reasonably well.

Something without image stabilisation will be cheaper but you will be limited to tripod only use for a lot of the time.

I wouldn't get a converter for your current lens, especially not a x2 which requires an excellent quality lens to work well.

Whatever you do, a really satisfactory answer won't be cheap. I use the Sigma 150-500.

Alternatively, careful cropping and resizing of your prints will help.

[jcurtis]

Looking at the spec of your camera it looks like it has a cropped sensor ,cant make out the size of the crop from the specs I looked at. I so I will take the average which should be 1.4. This will affect the focal length of your camera. Basically by cropping the image you gain magnification, so your lens should be hitting around 400mm ish which is good length.
Yes you could use a tele converter, however you will start to lose f stops.
for example my f2.8 lens becomes a f4 when I use a 1.4 converter. The larger the converter the more f stops you lose and the options available to you reduce. Basically you will start to struggle to get faster shutter speeds without altering your ISO settings and therefore losing image quality. Also it may be that auto focus will not work with a teleconverter and you have to focus manually.
All this is very technical and if you want can be discussed off list. My advice is:
- be patient and improve your field craft. Draw the subject towards you using food etc, can conceal yourself this way you get a better understanding of the subject, get great close ups and you save money!
- if you still want a larger lens save, save and save. Then look on the second hand sites there some real bargains if you look .
- you could consider a mirror lens, however the background distortion and limited functionality might put you off.

I hope my ramblings have helped?

Jase

[david156]

Hi. I did the same thing! Bought my canon as a twin lens kit with the 70 - 300mm. Got some reasonable pictures but want better, so now saving up for the 100 - 400mm lens. Got a while to wait but gotta have patience!!!

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by PentaxPete

I've seen some great results with the Kenko DG 300 Pro 1.4x,

I use this converter sometimes on my Canon 400mm f5.6L USM lens and it is a good converter that doesn't degrade image quality much, but as said you will lose auto focus on a 400mm lens with it unless you tape the converter pins then it's a bit hit and miss on auto so manual is best anyway and the 1stop loss of light doesn't help either.

On good bright days though it can be a usefull addition to your kit.

[PentaxPete]

Aye - i dont bother taking my 150-500 sig out unless the light is decent.

Adding 1 stop to an already 6.3 max isnt the best, but when you see what the the 150-500 can do with a TC in fair conditions and the right technique, its worth its weight in gold

[Otter Spotter]

Hi,

I have just recently bought a Canon 20D and I too am looking to take Wildlife shots and am looking for a decent lens in this price range (as we all seem to be)

I have been doing quite extensive research and I agree very much with all of the posts on here ,in that you get what you pay for!!

A 300mm lens which is what most of us will start with will only get you a good shot if your field craft and camera skills are up to the job,so surely this is not a negative but a good thing, in that when you are able to afford a decent lens to get you closer and closer still, your shots will be much sharper and clearer than somebody who has gone into a camera shop and bought the best but hasn't got a clue how to use it?

One thing I am seriously looking at until I can afford at least a 400mm lens is using an older lens with an adaptor to make it fit a modern digital SLR.

This has got to make sense as the lenses are excellent quality and wwill not drain all of your money you need to buy a better modern lens that is made specifically for your camera.

I came accross the idea in one of the photo mags and I think its a really good place to start your lens collection on a tight budget but still get quality results.

I am also very conscious that i am very new to photography and I welcome other people's thoughts on this view, but at this moment ebay has hundreds of decent secondhand lenses going for nothing.

I am keen to know more about extenders both 1.4 and 2.0 x expecially on the canon 400mm lens as this will be my first serious lens for wildlife photography but still need a few more pennies yet!!, but like somebody said, this is part of the fun of photography.

Great website and great forum I have learnt so much already form reading all of the brilliant posts.

Look forward to reading more.
Cheers
Andy