Zoom lenses

[boomer1709]

I own a 350d with a 75-300 lens but I am keen to shoot wildlife and think this lens may not get me close enough. I was thinking about getting either a tamron 200-500 lens or a sigma 50-500 lens. Will the difference between the 300 I have now and the 500 be really noticable or will I be spending money for little gain? Is it just a question of sitting down quietly in a strategic place and being patient with the wildlife with my current lens or will either of the other 2 let me get shots from a greater distance away?
Any views would be appreciated.

 

[Moose]

Now forgive me if this is wrong but let me try and help.

From what I know the 350D has a focal length multiplier of 1.6x so in fact your 300mm is around 480mm.

A 500mm lens is around 800mm.

Considering that it is almost twice the length, I would say it would be a noticable difference.

Hope this is (correct) and helpful.

Moose

 

[fmw]

A longer lens will certainly magnify your subject in the frame. If you a buy a zoom, you will be better off with whichever has the shortest zoom range - the 200-500 is almost certainly better than the 50-500, as an example.

However, understand that the wonderful shots you see from wildlife photographers are the result of a lot of patience and a lot of work. These people will sometimes spend a year or more to get a particular shot of a particular animal. They build blinds, the often leave food for the animals, they spend days letting an animal become familiar with their blind. It isn't snapshot shooting. I can assure you of that.

 

[Don Simon]

I'm assuming the 75-300mm lens you have is fairly slow in terms of maximum aperture at the 300mm end (f5.6?); the Tamron is f6.3 at 500mm so even slower. Yes a zoom that goes to 500mm will give you extra reach, but it may also be quite limiting in terms of the small aperture versus the high shutter speed required both to avoid camera shake and to capture movement. Fortunately you're shooting a Canon so using an ISO of 1600 or even 3200 could be a way around this, but I can't help thinking you might be better off getting a zoom with a wider maximum aperture, or maybe even a prime (say 300mm) and good teleconverter, and then closing the distance by walking (or sneaking as the case may be). Just a thought.