Zoom Lens for T2i

[wolverines]

Hello,
I'm a newbie to the forum. I purchased a T2i a few months ago and have enjoyed it so far. I'm looking at purchasing a new lens and need some advice. I'm photographing wildlife and am currently using a 55-200 mm. I was thinking about the 100-400mm but am up for all advice and opinions. Most of my subjects have been in th 20 - 70 yd range.
Thanks

 

[beagle100]

Hello,
I'm a newbie to the forum. I purchased a T2i a few months ago and have enjoyed it so far. I'm looking at purchasing a new lens and need some advice. I'm photographing wildlife and am currently using a 55-200 mm. I was thinking about the 100-400mm but am up for all advice and opinions. Most of my subjects have been in th 20 - 70 yd range.
Thanks

the old original 100-400 is good, the newer Sigma 150-600 is better as well as the 100-400 V2

Untitled by c w, on Flickr

 

[TCampbell]

Sigma makes the 150-600mm zoom in a "C" (classic) and "S" (sport) version. The "sport" is their highest quality glass. In side-by-side comparisons, I do notice the "S" has slightly better detail resolving capability... but I'm not so sure that the difference is so great that it would be obvious to most observers without taking a magnifier to the image.

Tamron also makes a 150-600mm lens. Quality-wise it seems to be more compatible to the Sigma "C" version. And in the images I saw, it looked like the Sigma was a tiny bit better than the Tamron.

Canon's 100-400mm vII is fantastic. Optically it's judged to the be the best... but of course it covers a completely different focal length range. Canon doesn't have anything directly in the 150-600 range. But the Canon glass is so good, that more than one review have pointed out that you can take and image shot with the Canon at 400mm... crop it in to make it a 600mm equivalent, and it'll *still* look better than the Sigma or Tamron lenses. I've also read that if you happen to own a camera that can auto-focus at f/8 (the T2i can only have working auto-focus up to f/5.6) that the Canon 100-400mm vII paired with the Canon 1.4x III teleconverter combination (which makes the lens a 140-560mm lens... but widest aperture at that end is f/8) still provides sharper optics. In other words... it's a REALLY good 100-400mm lens (but on your camera you cannot use it with the 1.4x Teleconverter and have working auto-focus).

The question is... will you notice the difference?

If I were in your situation, I'd probably give very serious consideration to the Sigma 150-600mm ... either the "C" or "S" as budget allows.

 

[table1349]

Your Budget????

This would do the job nicely. Make sure to budget for a tripod as well.