Inexpensive lens for Wildlife ?

[Andrew Davies Photography]

Hey , this morning and not for the first time a Sparrow Hawk landed on our garden fence about 40 feet from the window - grabbing the camera quick out the back only had my 855mm 1.4 Sigma Art to hand which did an ok job with some heavy cropping but could do with something longer - I also have a Canon 135mm f2 L which is better but i would like a bit more reach just for the odd interesting bird and maybe dragonfiles etc.

I have considered getting a teleconverter for my 135 or an older / cheaper 300 or 400 mm lens along the lines of an old Canon Sigma etc something for under a £100 as its not for anything other than fun - and I will just leave it ready to shoot by the window - anyone got any good recommendations / advice ?

thank you Andrew

Wedding Photographer North East & Yorkshire Northumberland & Wedding Photographer Cumbria

 

[ethanz]

I think the only thing you could get would be a cheap 70-300 lens, Canon or 3rd party.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

A Canon 70-210 f/4 is a nice lens. Old as the hills with push / pull zoom and focus ring but sharp for the price. These are a bargain at the current prices of well under $100. Watch out for ones from Japan with fungus.

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Below is a cat photo I took with mine years ago. My daughter still has it.

 

[kaihp]

Andrew, there are the very capable EF 300mm f/4L IS and the Ef 400mm f/5.6L lenses that you might want to check out. Especially second hand, they are great performers to the price. Admittedly, I have no idea if they are going to meet your £100 limit.

 

[AlanF]

Andrew, there are the very capable EF 300mm f/4L IS and the Ef 400mm f/5.6L lenses that you might want to check out. Especially second hand, they are great performers to the price. Admittedly, I have no idea if they are going to meet your £100 limit.

They both start at several £100s. The Sigma 400/5.6 is a very good lens that can be picked up for £100-200. 99% of them won't work stopped down (error message) but they will work at f/5.6, which is the most useful aperture. I once had one that was sharper than the Canon. There is one on eBay at £125.

 

[ajfotofilmagem]

Canon "70-300mm F4-5.6 USM II" is the only 300mm low price at the moment.
Avoid de old "70-300mm USM", as the slow focus in not apreciate for birds.
The stone age "75-300mm" has poor image quality when used at F5.6 and reasonable at F8.

 

[stevelee]

The stone age "75-300mm" has poor image quality when used at F5.6 and reasonable at F8.

I have that lens. I made excellent solar eclipse shots with it at f/11. Chromatic aberration is the main problem I have observed.

I haven’t used the lens since I got the 100-400L II.

 

[unfocused]

Tamron 70-300. Performs well above its price point. Probably a little more than you want to spend -- sells for $450 from authorized dealers in the U.S. Considerably less on grey market. I owned this lens several years ago. It was very good for the price, better than any of the Canon bargain 70-300 lenses. Does have a tendency to hunt a bit when focusing, but once it achieves focus, I found it to be very sharp.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

They both start at several £100s. The Sigma 400/5.6 is a very good lens that can be picked up for £100-200. 99% of them won't work stopped down (error message) but they will work at f/5.6, which is the most useful aperture. I once had one that was sharper than the Canon. There is one on eBay at £125.

You have to watch out for the Sigma 400's. There are many iterations of it, and some will not work at all on a Canon DSLR. Sigma had a fix which did not work on the next new DSLR's to come along, so they fixed it again. You need to know just which one you are getting, but I don't know how to tell exactly. Sigma would not fix mine with a new chip because it was out of production, so I sold it for peanuts.

 

[AlanF]

You have to watch out for the Sigma 400's. There are many iterations of it, and some will not work at all on a Canon DSLR. Sigma had a fix which did not work on the next new DSLR's to come along, so they fixed it again. You need to know just which one you are getting, but I don't know how to tell exactly. Sigma would not fix mine with a new chip because it was out of production, so I sold it for peanuts.

The sellers will tell you if they work at full aperture. The later and best ones have a 77mm front filter rather than 72mm.

 

[Joules]

I guess we're talking only about FF lenses here? Else the EF-s 55-250mm IS STM deserves being mentioned.

 

[ajfotofilmagem]

I guess we're talking only about FF lenses here? Else the EF-s 55-250mm IS STM deserves being mentioned.

Yes, the question is about full frame lenses, and there is nothing out there in the same price range as the great 55-250 STM.

 

[ajfotofilmagem]

To play wildlife there is this cheap toy ...

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[Pape]

55-250mm should do good ,you anyway want crop wildlife.
It isnt wild if you can fill full frame with it

 

[SteveC]

55-250mm should do good ,you anyway want crop wildlife.
It isnt wild if you can fill full frame with it

You can get quite close to live, non-zoo Komodo dragons. I'm sure I could have filled a full frame if I had one.