Long Focus Zooms.

[baillieswells]

As a complete newcomer I posted this question in the wrong forum. I hope I have it in the correct place I am completely new to this forum, and do not yet know how to navigate it. The question I am asking has probably been 'done to death' before. I have recently had a holiday in South Africa, where my animal photos are pretty good, but my bird photos abysmal except for ostriches and a couple of Southern Ground Hornbills. I would appear not to have a long enough focal length lens. I have a Canon EOS 350D/Rebel XT digital camera with a Canon f4 70 - 200mmL lens and Canon 1.4 extender. On the digital camera this represents a maximum equivalent of 448mm. I am thinking of getting a lens up to 500m which would give a maximum equivalent of 800. I cannot afford the Canon L lenses, and have narrowed the search to the new Sigma 170 - 500mm DG lens and the Tamron 200 - 500mm lens. Have any members of the forum experiences or views on either or both of these lenses for bird photography? Comments would be appreciated.

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[postcardcv]

I used to use the Sigma 170-500 on an EOS 300D and got some fairly decent results - most of my earlier gallery pics were taken with this lens. There are pleanty of others using this lens and the Tamron, if you have look round teh gallery you'll find pleanty of photos taken with both.

Having only used the Sigma I can't offer any comparison, best bet would be to visit a camera shop and try both out for yourself.

[Keith Reeder]

Psilo uses the Sigma, and rezMole has the Tamron, so their galleries will give you some idea of what the lenses can do - though rezMole is a Nikon rather than a Canon user.