400mm or 500mm lens for Canon on a budget

skyblueads

skyblueads

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I'd like to get a longer lens for motorsport in the 400 or 500mm range, but it needs to be cheap, around £200-£250 mark. Am I :wacky: or could I find something in this price range?
 
I don't think you will find a 400/500mm lens for £250.
I've got a budget of £300 and the best I think I can acheive is a Canon 70-300mm IS.
 
I managed to get a Tokina 80-400 for £199 2nd hand at LCE however i doubt it would be any good for motor sport.
 
You might be able to get a 70-300 IS, and a teleconverter. I bought a S/H teleconverter on here, from tokina. It works with this lens, whereas the canon one doesn't
 
At the moment, lenses prices (new) are through the roof, and stocks are low. You will not be able to get anything close to a 400/500mm lens for less than £700 - 1000 (sigma). The best advice is try 2nd hand, but these prices are also higher than normal because of the demand and unwillingness to pay the higher new prices. Tokina 80-400 (slow autofocus) not a good lens for motorsport unless you have really good conditions, you might be able to pick up a sigma 120-400mm or 150-500mm lens 2nd hand, but your budget need a little boosting

Sigma 135-400 F4.5/5.6 APO (77mm Filter Thread) £279
Sigma 170-500 F5/6.3 (86mm Filter Thread) £399

http://www.mifsuds.com/usedpriceindex.htm
 
skyblueads said:
Even secondhand?
Click to expand...

Yes, it will either be rubbish or scrap.

300mm prime f4 L (non-IS) can be bought for around £ 300 secondhand. This will accept a 1.4tc without loosing autofocus on most bodies

400mm prime is around £ 600+ for used

Canon 100-400L - typically £ 800 used

Sigma 80-400 OS isn't highly regarded for motorsport. People say the focus speed is quite slow.

Sigma 120-400OS is still quite new.

What sort of motorsport do you shoot?
 
Hmm. It's a tough one, I've got to weigh up whether the outlay on kit will be covered by additional freelance earnings. Need to have a good look at the kit I suppose and work out how much I can really afford.
 
If you need to earn money from your kit, I would get good kit as its more likely to get the shot you want.

After a lot of debating I decided the Sigma 100-300 f4 ex was the best lens for my budget. Good image quality, constant f4 and a more useful range than the Canon 70-200L f4 and cheaper than the 100-400L.

Pete.Rush has one in the classifieds.

The only time I've really wanted 500mm is for the startline shot from Silverstone where 300mm doesn't cut it without cropping! I've got a 1.4TC but have hardly used it this season.
 
If you are (hoping) earning money from your shoots, perhaps you could hire lenses for the days that you require them?
A 3-day hire (would cover the weekend?) from StewartR (lensesforhire.co.uk) of the Canon 100-400 IS would appear to be £43 + deliveries (or they do pickup in Maidenhead).

Don't know how much you can make in a weekend?

[hopefully putting specifics into a message doesn't contravene advertising rules on the forum? I don't get anything for this]
 
coldpenguin said:
If you are (hoping) earning money from your shoots, perhaps you could hire lenses for the days that you require them?
A 3-day hire (would cover the weekend?) from StewartR (lensesforhire.co.uk) of the Canon 100-400 IS would appear to be £43 + deliveries (or they do pickup in Maidenhead).

Don't know how much you can make in a weekend?

[hopefully putting specifics into a message doesn't contravene advertising rules on the forum? I don't get anything for this]
Click to expand...

Hiring a lens is probably the best idea, if your using the lens for paid work, the image quality from these 2nd hand £200 lenses aren't great, especially if you can't guarantee the weather and light conditions. Hiring cost aren't that expensive, plus you can pickup a better lens for the days you need it.
 
It is a good lens. (not great as in 100-400L, but good). I bought this ~3 years ago, and have had some success. Somedays though, a lot more than others. I think you can find it cheaper elsewhere.
This is a 50% crop at 300mm, at silverstone, taken by the wife, on a 400d
 
Show her how much the Canon 100-400L IS currently costs, the 70-300 IS is so much cheaper in comparison :)
(you never know, you might get lucky and she'll say get the 100-400L IS instead)
 
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