Next lens purchase

[compositor]

Hello to all,

I am so pleased I found this forum! I really need to ask people who know what they are talking about.

I want to buy a lens as a present for someone who owns a Canon 350D. He is by no means a professional photographer, just someone who enjoys photographing wildlife and would like to get better at it (especially wild birds). He currently has the basic lens that came with the camera and a Canon 75 - 300mm.

Please can someone give me advice on what lens I could buy to progress up a step from the ones he has at the moment? The big factor here is budget. I have about £750 to spend and even though I would love to run out and buy the Canon 600mm f/4, i can't quite run to that at the moment.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Sam

[John N]

Hi compositor I see this is your first post so on behalf of all the moderators and staff, welcome to Birdforum.Enjoy yourself here. Sorry I can't answer your question butI am sure someone will be along soon who will be able to give you some advice.

[bob hastie]

Hi Sam, welcome to Birdforum
The sigma 50-500 (aka bigma) fits nicely into your budget, warehouse express are listing it at £717.
I don't use this lens myself but many people on here get great results from it. To see what I mean go to the gallery and do a search for Sigma 50-500 or bigma.
I'm sure some users will be along soon with their comments

[mike from ebbw]

WELCOME COMPOSITOR!a lot of people on here usually go for the SIGMA equivilant lens where a budget is concerned as they are around about half the price of the CANON.the SIGMA 170-500MM DG f/5-6.3 APO is a pretty good buy at £549.i have seen it advertised at "fotoSENSE.co.uk".put a search on the gallery pages on this forum for "sigma 170-500mm,350d" and you will see what sort of results it will give.good luck,mike.

[biswasg]

Hello to all,
Please can someone give me advice on what lens I could buy to progress up a step from the ones he has at the moment? The big factor here is budget. I have about £750 to spend
Sam

You pose a very difficult question as what you really need to find out is what the person you are going to gift the lens actually wants in his kit bag. The best is to ask the person whether he wants a higher quality lens of similar range or does he prefer to have a higher focal length. I can possibly answer it if I were the receiver of the gift (wish I had someone thinking about a gift like that), my choice would be the Canon L series lens, the EF 400mm f5.6 or the EF 100-400 f4.5-5.6 IS zoom, which would possible come in the price range you mentioned. The others of course could be the Sigma 170-500 or as suggested earlier the Sigma 50-500. As I have both the Canon lenses, I can say both are great. Hope this is helpful.

[compositor]

Thanks to everyone that replied. This is the most friendly forum I have been on for a VERY long time! I shall definately be a more frequest poster. Anyway, back to my question...

I must say that I have been looking at the Sigma lenses as they sit within my price range. I have been looking at the "Bigma" but have also read a lot of good reviews about the 80 - 400mm OS lens. I have priced up the Canon 100 - 400mm but haven't been able to find it anywhere near my price range. Are these Sigmas good choices and if so, is there one that you guys would go for over the other? (I have a general idea of the plus and minus points for each but which one would you choose for a budding wildlife photographer?)

Thanks again everyone for the advice.

Sam

[Keith Reeder]

Sam,

an important question is: how is your friend going to use his lens?

If it will be mainly used on a tripod, then you might want to forget about the Sigma 80-400mm and Canon 100-400mm: you're paying for the privilege of the built-in image stabilisation, and it's effectively redundant on a tripod.

You'd be better off spending the money on more reach.

If however, he will be using the camera hand-held in the main, then the Sigma 80-400mm is a fine lens - optically the equal of the Canon 100-400mm, and great to use.

I've reviewed it here (http://www.birdforum.net/reviews/showproduct.php?product=142&sort=7&cat=14&page=1) and although I now use the 100-400mm since I moved from Nikon to Canon, I'd have no qualms about using the Sigma instead.

[postcardcv]

Are these Sigmas good choices and if so, is there one that you guys would go for over the other? (I have a general idea of the plus and minus points for each but which one would you choose for a budding wildlife photographer?)

I'd agree with Keith on this one, it really does depend on what use it's going to get. Both the 50-500 and the 80-400 OS are great lenses, and both can deliver very good images. Personally I use a tripod all the time so would want the extra reach that the 50-500 gives, but off a tripod the 80-400OS would have the edge.

I also agree with biswasg that, if possible, you should talk to the person you're buying it for and see what they think (as you'll notice on here it's not as simple as which is best, it's all a matter of opinion).

[Steve Babbs]

Thanks to everyone that replied. This is the most friendly forum I have been on for a VERY long time! I shall definately be a more frequest poster. Anyway, back to my question...

I must say that I have been looking at the Sigma lenses as they sit within my price range. I have been looking at the "Bigma" but have also read a lot of good reviews about the 80 - 400mm OS lens. I have priced up the Canon 100 - 400mm but haven't been able to find it anywhere near my price range. Are these Sigmas good choices and if so, is there one that you guys would go for over the other? (I have a general idea of the plus and minus points for each but which one would you choose for a budding wildlife photographer?)

Thanks again everyone for the advice.

Sam

You can get the canon 100 - 400 from ebay for £900 which makes it not that more expensive then the sigma - although the canon seller may do sigmas I'm not sure. I found a review comparing the canon with the sigma, the reviewer thought that the sigma was possibly even better than the canon optically but he thought that the canon AF was a lot quicker. Sorry haven't kept the address of the site where I read this.

Steve

[rezMole]

And don't discount the Tamron 200-500, which doesn't seem that popular with BF members, but is a cracking lense for the price

[Keith Reeder]

but he thought that the canon AF was a lot quicker. I've got 'em both - there's really not enough in it to make a difference.

[Keith Reeder]

To echo what rezMole says, one of the Gallery contributors on here - ADJH - has been shooting various top-end Nikon cameras and lenses for a while, but the results he's currently getting with the Tamron 200-500mm are better to my eyes than what he was getting with much more expensive Nikon lenses (and the Nikons are great lenses in their own right).

[compositor]

Hi all,

Thanks again everyone for the advice. I have just got back from my local camera shop where I have tested out all the lenses. After carefully coaxing information out of the person I am buying this lens for, I am sure he wants something that he can use handheld so I am moving away from the idea of the "Bigma". I have to say that I tried it this morning and was very impressed but I can't imagine it being easy to wield handheld.

I was then shown the Tamron 200 - 500, the Sigma 80 - 400 and the Canon 100 - 400. I have to admit that having never used a big(ish) telephoto lens before, they were all impressive but out of all of them, I preferred the Canon. It was the last one I tried (just to see what everyone was talking about) and the first thing that hit me was the difference in focus speed. I am sure that many will disagree (and remember I am just a beginner at these things) but I found the difference to be dramatic. I also fell in love with the IS function but the Sigma's OS seemed just as good.

Last question (hopefully) of this thread :

In your opinion, is it worth splashing out and getting the Canon instead of the Sigma?

Sam

[Keith Reeder]

I've already suggested - as an owner of both the Sigma and the Canon - that they're equally good lenses in real world use.

Nearly all the images on my own website were taken with the 80-400mm (on a Nikon camera admittedly) and while they might not be the best pictures you'll ever see, there are a lot of very well received pictures on there.

[compositor]

Sigma it is then. I shall end it there.

[Keith Reeder]

He's a lucky friend!

;)

You might want to suggest to him that stabilised lenses can take a lot of getting used to, so he needs to persevere.

[compositor]

Ok. Thanks for all your help Keith. I guess I have just got to find a way of paying for it now ;)

Sam