Worth stepping up to a 70-300mm IS?

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James
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I have the usual 55-250mm IS and really fancy a bit more reach on my shots. Is it worth stepping up to the 70-300 or should I be looking at something else?! Budget isn't massive, but around the £300 mark (ie, what a 70-300 costs used).

Thanks for the input as always!
 
Have never used the 55-250 so unable to compare, but extremely pleased with my 70-300mm (purchased via Kerso) - very lightweight and very sharp - if pulled back very slightly from 300mm.
It's a great travel lens for walking round with, and especially useful if restricted re cabin luggage weight for instance.
I also use it (a lot) when impractical to use the 100-400mm..

The Tamron sounds as though it's worth investigating though!

John
 
iancandler said:
It might be worth hanging fire for now and waiting for the new Tamron 70-300 to come out here, their IS is claiming 4 stops against the canon's 3 stops, its 55-200mm predecessor was pretty sharp and its got full time manual focus as well as a new USM type motor.

http://www.tamron.com/lenses/prod/70300_vcusd_a005.asp
Click to expand...

Looks good (briefly skimmed the info). Do we know when it'll be released? It looks like it should be priced around £255-290 (based on amazon.com $) so its the right price, even new. I dont mind waiting for now, see what people make of it and see what it actually comes out priced as.

Cheers!
 
If its just the extra reach you need you might be dissapointed, in reality you wont really notice the extra 50mm... IQ wise there's nothing in it between the two, if anything the 55-250 retains it sharpness throughout, where the 70-300 gets soft at the far reach. Personally if its reach you want I'd look at something more than the 300mm lenses if you can afford them - Sigma seem to have a few 500mm options.
 
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I was hoping it would be sharper at the higher end and that I could dial it back a bit for better results than the 250. I guess that's not the case then?

Well, the only lens i could stretch to in the short term, would be the sigma 150-500. I've seen it around for £700 (but I know I've seen it used for less). Would this be a better option?

I'll hate myself for saying it, but would just saving for the 100-400 L be worth it? It's way out of my budget currently seeing as its around £1200, but I can probably defer buying it a while (hopefully pre 2011 with the tax hike!). I have a feeling its slightly out of my league as a photographer though!
 
55-250 IS seems much higher IQ, i wouldn't say its a worth upgrade for not much more reach.
 
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