Advise on telephoto lenses please

Daffodil

I am looking to get a lens for Xmas and wondering if there's one on the market now that anyone can recommend? I'm looking to spend around £700ish now. I want to be able to photograph stuff like birds in flight and maybe aeroplanes flying overhead and just the beauty of nature that it's not always possible to get up close to. Thanks.

ziggy53

A used "bigma", Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3 EX DG HSM, is sometimes available for that kind of money. It's not a perfect zoom, by any means, but the results can be interesting if you are lucky (to get a sharp copy) and if you are careful in post processing.

Here are a couple from an airshow a couple of years ago:





... and a 100% crop from the second image:



Mine is not as sharp as I've seen from other copies, but it's good enough that I'll keep it for times when it's appropriate. BTW, I like this lens a lot better on FF body, even though the effective reach of the lens is not quite as much.

puzzledpaul

For a tad more (fifty quid) I bought a used 100 - 400 L which has its uses in 'minimum kit walkabout' mode.

The 300 f4L (non is) and 400 f5.6 L are also within that budget if bought used - and, I suspect, a 300 f4L IS - a 1.4x teleconverter added to the 300 route would also give you an extra option to offset the non-zoom aspect ... and stay within the f5.6 AF capability of the body you're using.

Depending on where you are, you could try a couple of the above ... (am not selling mine, btw )

pp

jww

For the money you have and depending on how often you really want to play with a long lens, you might just look to renting one (especially the ideas above) here or there. That way you could try a few different options that you might be interested in before committing some serious cash to something you may end up being unhappy with.