Canon Telephotos

[ESPImperium]

Ive just received a Canon 70D as a early present for my birthday from my Dad and my recently passed mum. The deal always was id get the accessories and the telephoto i need.

I got the kit with the 18-55mm STM lens. Im good with a 18-55mm as thats pretty much my go-to from my Sony NEX5n that I'm graduating from.

I need a good quality, but inexpensive, but not cheap, lens for Motor racing long shots as I'm away to the Italian GP in September and want to take it with me. I also like to use a telephoto for extreme long range shots for aircraft that go overhead as I like to watch planes on occasion. I cant afford the lenses in the £500+ mark.

I need to get the telephoto, the list of two I'm looking at are as follows:

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II Lens
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens

If i need longer for some shots i can get the extender tube later on.

Its my first foray into a fully fledged DSLR, not using a 'bridge' or 'point and shoot' camera.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Neither of those lenses are ideal as f/5.6 is quite slow. Those lenses plus a teleconverter will put you at f/8 and unless you spend a good chunk of change on the converter you're going to risk having some fuzzy photos from the crap optics.

I'd say your best bet is to try to find a used Sigma 100-300 f/4 or Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8.

 

[Philligan]

Neither of those lenses are ideal as f/5.6 is quite slow. Those lenses plus a teleconverter will put you at f/8 and unless you spend a good chunk of change on the converter you're going to risk having some fuzzy photos from the crap optics.

I'd say your best bet is to try to find a used Sigma 100-300 f/4 or Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8.

Agreed.

Or, if you want lightweight and affordable, get the new 55-250 STM. It's the telephoto mate to your 18-55 STM, and the image quality is improved over the 55-250 IS II, along with better image stabilization and significantly better AF. I'd take it over the 70-300 any day.

 

[capoeiraesp]

Cropped sensor Canon, go with the 135mm L F2 = ~200mm. Sharp as a tack. Focuses fast. F2! Beautiful compression and bokeh. Love mine to death.

 

[A-Branger]

Id say that the 70-300mm would give you better range for what you want.

yes its f5.6, but as you mention you would be shooting in bright day light, so not really need to go 2.8.... plus shooting fast action at 2.8 is really hard and useless. At 200mm f2.8 if you do a portrait of someone, only their eye would be on focus,

Think would be ebtter for you to start with this lens and if you see a career or want to take your hobby more serious, then get a good quality 70-200mm or any other zoom or prime lens you need for what you shoot, as it would not only improve on speed of focusing but in sharpness too.


also mind you that the 70D is a crop-sensor camera, so as your sensor is smaller you would have an 1.6x crop factor. so the effective range on your 300mm lens, its actually a 480mm on a full frame. You wont realise or aprecciate it until you move to a fullframe camera as you are growing with this crop sensor one. Its another way to say, you are lucky you have more zoom

I have a Sigma 50-500mm I bough from a mate who used it to start shooting surf and I used it for shooting ski and snowboard races and worked perfect. I even used it couple of times for weddings. Now I got a proper 70-200mm for my wedding work


also I must say the Tamrom 70-200 f2.8 Is not only way cheapper than the canon, but quality of images are pretty much the same