which lens?

[pbst39]

Hi all,

I have recently purchased a Canon 400D and am looking into buying a lens for an upcoming trip to Florida during which I plan to do a lot of birding. Considering I am a student on a fairly restricted budget (around £300), I was wondering which lens people would recommend for bird photography. I have been looking at something like a 70/5-300 and see that both canon and sigma do a similar thing. Will this sort of lens provide a decent quality image? Furthermore, how important is IS in a lens? It appears that a lens with IS will cost a fair bit more but I am very new to this so am in the dark.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Peter

[GYRob]

Hi Peter
this range of lens may well do in Florida as the light is very good and birds tend to be a bit more tolerant of people ,longer would be better but that will cost more and a tc on the zoom's your talking about will lose AF and the IQ will drop a lot so no quick fix there.
IS can be very handy to have as you can shoot in lower light at a slower shutter speed but it only alows for your movment not a bird in a hurry but it is worth having.
Sigma has to new lenses out the 120 to 400 and 150 to 500 a bit deara than what your buget is but i would recomend you check them out the first of these may be the best choice as 400mm is very usable also for when your back in the UK its a little faster for our lower light level's.
Rob.