500mm to 1000mm lenses - Recommendations

[Maikha Ly]

Hi all

After almost a year of using my 75-300mm Canon Kit lens, it has done me well, but I'm yearning for some more range and other features of more upmarket lenses. I'm looking at going to the extremity of getting something further than 300mm, something more 500mm to 1000mm lens, and thought I'd ask for some opinions from those who may currently use such equipment.

I've spent sometime reading forums and websites and the like, for a newbie like me it's still a little overwhelming with the options out there! A general search of eBay comes up with the following, and as an example, something like this looks reasonably priced, but I'm not sure how a minimum aperture of f8 is going to impact on aviation photography.

If that isn't suitable, would anyone be able to recommend a lens in that range preferably around the $1000 mark?


Any advice on the previous would be greatly appreciated!

[Nigel C]

I'd be extremely cautious about the quality (and after sales support) of those lenses. I'd also want to consider the sheer weight of such a big lens, especially if you have dreams of handheld interstate aviation photography.

In all seriousness, long lenses are more useful for wildlife or sports photography. This was by me taken using a 100-400L, a lens which will most likely satisfy your aviation requirements just fine. There are some members here who have or still do use the Sigma 50-500 for aviation photography...perhaps they'll offer their advice on the pros/cons of that set up.

This taken at 400mm


This taken at 100mm, same lens

No crop on either photo, just odd resizing...photos taken on separate occasions. Both Campbell Albatross.

[Raymond Rowe]

I agree with you Nigel.The 100-400 you cannot beat.I have had mine now for ten years and best lens i could have bought.

[Ryan Hothersall]

Yes I agree with the above.

The Canon 100-400 is popular with aviation photographers.
I know several here in ADL who have one.

[Geoff W]

Gee Nigel,

Great photos.

I am sure Maikha is going to like all the advice so far.

Kind regards.

Geoff

[Nigel C]

Thanks Geoff. Photographing deep sea birds in a 30kt southerly on a rolling 3m swell using a long lens can be one hell of a challenge, but one I highly recommend!

[Maikha Ly]

Hi all

Righto, thanks for the advice folks, and yes Geoff, the advice has been good.

[Mick F]

As Nigel said Maikha, the sheer size of a 1,000mm lense would be enormous, especially if you were to buy a quality one.

Some of the best shots you see by members of this board are shot with nothing more than a Canon 100-400mm lense, or the Sigma 50-500mm.

For sheer quality, you can't go past Canon lenses for use with Canon camera's. Sigma also produce very high quality lenses, so I would seriously consider anything they have on the market as well.

If you really still want that 500-1,000mm range, buy either of the Canon or the Sigma lenses, and then put a 2X teleconvertor between the camera and the lense. This will then give you up to the 800-1,000mm range. But beware, fitting the convertor will drop your F stops by 1-2 stops.

Finally, buy lenses sold by reputable distributors in Australia. If you purchase a "grey" import and it breaks, then good luck trying to get Canon to fix it under warranty.

Cheers

Mick

[Maikha Ly]

Thank you sincerely Mick for that last piece of advice about the converters. Pretty much that looks like my best option thus far in getting either the Canon or Sigma lenses!


Also in my haste, those are some brilliant photographs Nigel. Thanks for sharing

[Greg McDonald]

Dunno if you find this tempting...

http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=6033