Telephoto lens advice for beginner bird shooter

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awhyu

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Andrew
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Hi!
Although I generally shoot landscapes, I borrowed my friend's canon 100-400mm lens to shoot birds at a nearby waterpark.

Although I have yet to master the technique, I would like to see some advice and opinions besides the Canon, what else would be an alternative, I was thinking the Sigma 120-400/150-500mm, OS and HSM as they appear to be half the price of the canon. I appreciate there might be optical quality differences but is the canon 50% better?

Any opinions from end users of the sigma lenses would be most welcomed!

Cheers,

Andrew
 
I haven't used the Sigma alternatives...but the 100-400 is a perfect lens, for starters and advanced users! The f5.6 at the long end is better than the f6.3 (I think it's that) on the Sigma 500mm's! As well all know, birds like to appear in dark dingy places :LOL:

Alternatively, perhaps a 300mm f4?
 
awhyu said:
Hi!
. I appreciate there might be optical quality differences but is the canon 50% better?
Click to expand...

Or....would you consider using a lens that's 50% worse than Canon's offering ;)

Bob
 
Hi

This song thrush is the first shot with my unexpected Christmas present from Julie, a Sigma 150-500mm DG OS, hand held :woot: I love it the lens not the pic :LOL:

3145259722_82bdaa89f1_o.jpg


Dave
 
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the shot! is it my LCD screen, but the feathers or lines on the bird dont look sharp?

Do you have any more shots?! How do you find the 150-500mm in use?

Canon B: Do I detect a hint of sarcasm there?!

Cheers,

Andrew
 
awhyu said:
I was thinking the Sigma 120-400/150-500mm, OS and HSM as they appear to be half the price of the canon. I appreciate there might be optical quality differences but is the canon 50% better?
Click to expand...
Shouldn't you be asking whether the Canon is 100% better?

Anyway, in my view, yes. Setting aside the optical quality, the build quality of the Canon is superb, and the ergonomics are in a completely different league to twist-zoom lenses.
 
awhyu said:
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the shot! is it my LCD screen, but the feathers or lines on the bird dont look sharp?
Click to expand...
It's not very sharp. A quick run through Photoshop will sharpen it up quite well.

Though you can't learn anyting at all about the optical quality of a lens by looking at an 800-pixel image.
 
Thanks Stewart, yes I have used a 100-400 mm canon push-pull type zoom and it was nice to use and I liked the type of images it took! However, it was also rationalising the price as well as "wife acceptance factor"..... i.e £1000 vs 600 or so

Cheers,

Andrew
 
The way I see it is you will probably, at some point in the future, get a 100-400 anyway. If you had never used on then it would have been far less likely but you have used one - and now you are looking for a lens with that functionality.

Now I'm a fan of Sigma EX glass, it is very good and for what I need Canon simply cannot beat it. But in your situation I would be saving for a bit longer/being extra nice to my wife and buying the 100-400mm.
 
Hi Richard, Thanks alot for the advice, yes I guess I might have to save and be extra nice to the wife!

Cheers,

Andrew
 
For birds I reckon you can never have enough reach, I have a 500mm f/4 and a 300mm f/2.8 plus others and I find that even with convertors on if necessary I sometimes do not have enough, for those that frequent Slimbridge WWT you'll know how far off the Kingfisher burrows are from the hide, it's doable but only just IMHO

And for me if you have a Canon camera it's Canon glass you use to get the best results(y)
 
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