Canon 70-300 IS USM (non-L) Birding and Wildlife

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Zach
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Hello all,

Just wanted to know if any of you all use or have used the Canon 70-300 IS USM lens for nature photography and more specifically for birds.
If so, what are your general thoughts, advantages/disadvantages of this lens?
Also if you have upgraded from this lens, what did you upgrade to and why?
Or if you have a Canon alternative to the 70-300, why did you pick that over the Canon?

Thanks,

Zach
 
not got long enough reach imho ,it will work if you apply good fieldcraft ,but i find even a 400mm is to short
 
Mmm. Might be a bit short for birds, but then again I don't shoot birds. Other than that, It's a cracking lens. I've used it for a few deer and motorbikes.
 
It's a wee bit short for Birds Zach unless you are some sort of Ninja.
The Sigma 150-500 is a good compromise between length and price after all the Canon big white beasts are rather pricey.
 
I have just purchased a 70-300 Canon with IS my problem is with not being able to keep it all steady.

It has been put on my camera and I used our caravan as a hide for the birds in the garden coming to the feeders. Not been able to download yet should be alright as I used a tripod.

This lens was to replace a sigma with no IS. Although it was a good lens I thought that haveing IS would help me.

I do have a 50-500 sigma when it is returned from Sigma. I sent it away because the focusing was soft either with manual or auto focusing. The technition who checked out the lens didn't like the results he got so they shipped it back to Japan for them to sort out. Hope it will be back shortly.

Trevor
 
trevormc said:
I have just purchased a 70-300 Canon with IS my problem is with not being able to keep it all steady.
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Are you sure the problem isn't down to the birds moving and shooting at too slow a shutter speed. IS can help with camera shake, but can do nothing for subject movement.
 
I own the Canon 70-300. It is ok of you can get real close for smaller wildlife and can be ok for larger wildlife. It is not to big or heavy for use as a general purpose tele.
Also have a Canon 100-400 for when I want more reach. The only problem is that it is a bit big & heavy as a general purpose walk around tele.
 
ChrisA said:
I have 300 F4 L - that is close enough for some birds with a 1.4 converter. Depends how far away they are from where you take them. This is light enough for me to walk around a nature reserve in comfort.
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....Good idea for reach to have the option of a Canon Extender - 1.4x III has the best reputation. I find I can happily walk around with my Canon 400mm f5.6L - In countryside rather than in town! According to which body you mount on, an Extender can shut off all Autofocus and some other body options.

I also have a Canon 70-200mm f4L IS which I can pop a 1.4x on for subjects like birds and that gives me 98-280mm (nearly 300mm) and the 400mm reach is better for birds. The more human-shy the wildlife is, the longer reach you need - Be warned, it's a slippery slope!

They say that there's no such thing as one perfect lens. Canon make about 56!
 
trevormc said:
I have just purchased a 70-300 Canon with IS my problem is with not being able to keep it all steady.
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Did you remember to turn the IS on? I have my DOF button set to turn the IS on, pre-focos. The IS on my 70-300 is very good, and can hold the image very steady.

The lens is good, unless you know better. With the IS on (as per using the DOF button) then the focus is good.
I found images to be slightly soft, but my camera at the time was the 400d, which didn't handle 400ISO that well, and this was required as the lens went to f/5.6 quite early in the zoom range.

That said, I was happy until I rented the 100-400L IS, and then went on to purchase the 100-400 L IS.

If you are not sure whether you will use the length too much, then this is a good 'test' lens. It is much smaller and lighter than the 100-400 L IS, and is very good for a walkaround which doesn't get too much attention (where the 100-400 L IS gets a lot of 'look at that lens, are they compensating for something' remarks).

I have gotten the lens to focus with a taped 1.4 extender, but it was a bit of a struggle. (I got the 100-400 to focus too at 400).
I have the 70-200 L IS 2.8. I wouldn't really want to put this on an extender, and an extender would reduce the quality. I wouldn't really want the weight of that lens whilst I was attempting to focus on a bird. The f/4 might be lighter though.
 
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coldpenguin said:
Yeah, and after getting the 400, I think that I really really need that 600 :)
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....LOL :D Stop it! I have just bought a 400 last week. I popped my Canon 1.4x Extender on it just to see what would happen - Extends the lens to 560mm but shuts off the Autofocus plus a few other features - Tripod would definitely be needed, a bit tricky even on my monopod.

Longer reach Canon lenses start getting very expensive indeed and difficult to justify unless a pro. Jeeze! That snap you took on your iPhone is better than.... Well only occasionally and usually only in the hands of a togger with an eye for a good image.

I don't want much, I just want a lot of it!

:)
 
ChrisA said:
I believe with the 100-400 there is a tape trick to get the AF to work, albeit slower on some Canon bodies.
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....Yes, I have heard reports of people using tape to fool the electronics too.

However, I don't know what sort of tape and if it was in any degree adhesive then surely the adhesive substance would be high risk. By definition, tape has adhesive on at least one side.

By the time you have faffed about with tape (if you are changing lenses) would there be a worthwhile advantage to using tape?

Depending on the focal length I would prefer to mount the camera/lens on a tripod and to focus manually. If your camera has Live View you can enlarge a section of the image to check focus irrespective of whether the lens is set to AF or MF.

How practical or not this all is will depend on what subjects you are photographing.
 
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