Help choosing a lens...

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andyscholes1968

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Hi,

I could do with some advice, I've just recently purchased a canon 650d which comes with the standard lens, I would like to a try a 70-300mm lens or similar but I,m absolutely blinded by the options, all I've managed to work out is, I could do with Image Stabilization I think! however, I'm totally confused with which make or model, I do not understand all the letters in the lens descriptions, any guidance would be helpful.

thanks Andy
 
Canon do have a number of 70-300’s and even a 75-300mm, I’m not sure why they need quite so many tbh.

I’m not a Canon shooter but will try and help.

IS is image stabilisation and is handy for telephoto lenses, although not essential.

USM is ultra sonic motor (or something very similar) which basically means the autofocus will be fast and quiet.

L denotes the more premium lenses.

If they’ve brought out newer models these are marked II for second generation and III for third generation.

EF lenses are full frame lenses which can be used of full frame and APS-C (crop) camera bodies.

EF-S lenses are designed for APS-C camera bodies and aren’t really suitable for full frame camera bodies as the image circle produced by the lens doesn’t cover the entire surface of a full frame sensor.

Choosing the right one will usually be dictated by budget. Usually you’d expect a mark II lens to be better than the mark I, and the L lens should be better than the non L version. Buying second hand is a good way to get a better lens within your budget.

P.S. You then have third party manufacturers such as Tamron and Sigma. The Tamron 70-300mm VC is a good option, for the price it’s hard to beat.
 
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Welcome to my world, Andy. I recently posted because I was having the same problem deciding on a telephoto lens for my Canon EOS 70D. I think there are as many different lenses available as there are types of Canon cameras and the varying prices confused me as much as the lens ... do I buy cheap from grey importers or keep saving and get a very high spec from a shop. Then there are the substitutes brands. My problem is paying out a lot of money and possibly having the lens sit in a bag unused.

You might like to have a look at some of the responses I got to my post (Buying a telephoto lens for a Canon Eos 70D) as there was a lot of advice given, some with photos.

Lesley
 
stay with the 70-300 as the 75-300 is not that good. I would get one with "is". my best upgrade when I had a 550d was a 70-200f4is I still have this lens it is great and as its an ef lens it will fit both aps-c and ff
 
Yes try to get image stabilisation ( IS ) although I found on the affordable lenses the IS is not as effective as IS on the expensive lenses for some reason
 
Not sure why people are suggesting IS without knowing what your photographing...

If you tell us what sort of photogrpahy your interested in and what sort of budget you ahve then it's easier to advise :)
 
I bought a 75-300 on here for (I think it was) £40, tested it against my 55-250 and sold it back on here pretty much straight away.
Nothing about that lens is any good, at £79 new they look like a bargain but you're much better off putting that £79 towards something better.

Be careful about the USM denotation too, there's proper ring ultrasonic motors which are fast and near-silent but there's also the micromotor ones which are slower and noisier.
The ring USM lenses can be manually focused while in AF mode, the MM ones can't.
 
55-250 is a good option, has IS and good IQ for the price. It is ef-s though so can only use it on crop sensor cameras so if you're thinking of upgrading to a full frame body any time soon you may want to go for an EF lens.

I had the 75-300 as part of kit bundle with a 1200d, used it on a couple of bodies and the image quality was just not good.
 
Basically at midrange price wise your looking at two lenses.

1 - Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS II USM - £422 new - sharp, IS works well.

2 -Tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 SP Di VC USD - £329 new - Sharp, VC (Tamrons version of IS) works well, I've personally been able to hand hold this at 1/15th second @ 300mm in poor light and it was perfectly sharp.
 
snerkler said:
Canon do have a number of 70-300’s and even a 75-300mm, I’m not sure why they need quite so many tbh.

I’m not a Canon shooter but will try and help.

IS is image stabilisation and is handy for telephoto lenses, although not essential.

USM is ultra sonic motor (or something very similar) which basically means the autofocus will be fast and quiet.

L denotes the more premium lenses.

If they’ve brought out newer models these are marked II for second generation and III for third generation.

EF lenses are full frame lenses which can be used of full frame and APS-C (crop) camera bodies.

EF-S lenses are designed for APS-C camera bodies and aren’t really suitable for full frame camera bodies as the image circle produced by the lens doesn’t cover the entire surface of a full frame sensor.

Choosing the right one will usually be dictated by budget. Usually you’d expect a mark II lens to be better than the mark I, and the L lens should be better than the non L version. Buying second hand is a good way to get a better lens within your budget.

P.S. You then have third party manufacturers such as Tamron and Sigma. The Tamron 70-300mm VC is a good option, for the price it’s hard to beat.
Click to expand...
+1 for the Tamron, best value for money 70-300 on a Canon.
 
The Canon 55-250 is the one to get, very good optically and relatively cheap too.

The Tamron 70-300VC (must be VC model) is also very nice.
 
Worth noting, the STM lenses are great for smooth autofocus when shooting video.

It’s the reason I still use the 18-55 stm and haven’t “upgraded” to a 2.8 alternative as I originally planned.

I also have the 10-18 stm which is fantastic with my 80D for recording video.

So in my case I’d go 55-250 stm if I needed a tele for video. Of course I missed out if you need it for video work too, sorry!
 
db247 said:
Worth noting, the STM lenses are great for smooth autofocus when shooting video.

It’s the reason I still use the 18-55 stm and haven’t “upgraded” to a 2.8 alternative as I originally planned.

I also have the 10-18 stm which is fantastic with my 80D for recording video.

So in my case I’d go 55-250 stm if I needed a tele for video. Of course I missed out if you need it for video work too, sorry!
Click to expand...
The new USM Nano focusing system is also silent and is amazingly fast. Missus has an 80D with the new 18-135 kit lens and 70-300 II (as mentioned above). Both have USM Nano systems, both silent and almost instantaneous focus. The 70-300 II focuses faster than my EF 100-400 II, which in itself is impressively fast.

The 55-250 STM is cheaper, has a plastic mount, is more compact and has pretty decent image quality. Very good bang for buck. Had we not been able to take advantage of £170 discount off the 70-300 II, the missus would have the 55-250 STM.
 
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