Can someone give me some details about this zoom kit lense?

[jg123]

I am thinking of buying the rebel with 2 kit lenses and this is one of them, Canon EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 II USM Lens - Can you tell me how much magnification I am getting with this and what quality of pictures I can expect at various magnifications?

thanks

 

[Mav]

300mm is enough to do animals at the zoo, wildlife, outdoor portraits or even indoors with a flash, kids playing outside, and other stuff like that. For birds, even 300mm will be fairly short though. Slap a Canon 500D close-up filter on it and you'll have nearly full 1:1 macro for shooting tiny stuff that you can get close to. Because of the slow maximum aperture (f/5.6) you'll need a flash for the most part unless you're in very good light. The pro telephoto zooms are f/2.8 which are much faster, a lot heavier, and a lot more expensive.

 

[jg123]

Of all the things listed the one thing I will probably not shoot is birds. The 500D close up filter goes on the 300mm? And how does that work?

Also when the description seays f/4.0-5.6 does that mean the max is 4.0 or 5.6 or does it depend on an external factor?

thanks

 

[Mav]

It'd be f/4 at the wide end (75mm) and then decrease to f/5.6 at the long end (300mm). Most consumer level lenses are similar and have the most sensitivity to light at the wide end. The Canon 70-200mm f/4L stays at f/4 through the whole range and is $500, and then there's an f/2.8 version that's around $1000.

I have a Nikon 70-300VR lens which has 67mm filter threads. I got a nice and sturdy solid metal B+W 67 to 77mm step-up ring, and then a 77mm Canon 500D filter (Nikon no longer makes their close-up filters, heh). You can get a 67mm 500D filter too, but if you ever get a lens that takes 77mm filters then you're screwed. Best to just get the bigger size to begin with and step-up rings, and then you don't have to pay twice.

My 70-300VR at 300mm and close focus.

With 500D close-up filter