Stigma lenses

farmgirl

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PLease can someone suggest a suitable lens for wildlife photography, maybe a stigma one? Should it be macro?

Thanks
 
I love my sigma 150-500 OS
It's a fantastic lens for wildlife.
I'm only selling it to fund a 120-300 OS

seconded the question about your budget though.

Also, what wildlife??!!? Lions & tigers & bears? (oh my!) or birds? Or...?
 
It depends on what sort of wildlife, for insect and butterflies then a macro, for birds then 400mm upwards. I used the Sigma 150-500 for three years and it's a great lens, I've now changed to the 120-300 f2.8 with a 2X multiplier. More expensive and heavy!!!
 
Hi,

I have a canon 550D,

Am after a compatible lens for wildlife photography aswell mainly birds.
ive used a 55-250 today at RSPB Fowlmere ( near royston/cambridge, amazing place for bird photography with lots of hides !) and entry is free !

dont have a massive budget but want to get something ok.

please help !
 
The Canon 55-250 is often cited as the best budget telephoto lens for Canon cameras :)
 
I can't zoom in far enought with the 55-250. If I want to zoom in further im going to need to spend some money, something around £200-£300.
let me know your thoughts
 
That budget would net you a used Canon EF-S 70-300mm IS which is a decent lens for the money, by most accounts.
 
To be honest the 150-500mm OS is a bargain and well worth the money if you can stretch to it (£600-£700ish). I bought one espcially for my trip to Uganda last year and had no problems lumping it about through jungles and used it for everything from warthogs to gorillas and leopards. As a general purpose wildlife lens I do't think you can go wrong.

There's also the Canon 100-400 which is well regarded, although I have no experience of that and it's a tad more expensive.
 
The Sigma 100-300mm f/4 is a nice piece of kit but probably wont have the overall length that you'll need. It's a great lens nonetheless, although I wouldn't have a clue what used price are - not even sure if it's still in production as it's been around for a few years.

We've just got a Canon-fit Sigma 120-400mm f/4.5-5.6 (£599 new) in the office and it seems a decent buy. It's not bomb-proof but it seems to have the reach most people would require and stopped down slightly it seems good. The guy who's using it has it mounted on 7D so have has some higher ISO headroom to play with to make up for the slower maximum aperture at 400mm.

The Canon 100-400mm is impressive despite the fact it's been around since the stone area :lol: It seems to be the lens that many Nikon shooters want from the Canon range and within Canon circles, it's very popular indeed :)
 
I can't zoom in far enought with the 55-250. If I want to zoom in further im going to need to spend some money, something around £200-£300.
let me know your thoughts

Sorry to say but £200-300 isn't really anything in the world of big telephoto, either get the 55-250 or save some more for one of the Sigma alternatives.
 
I sold my (Nikon fit) one of those for £490 which is as cheap as I've seen them go 2nd hand.
 
for 300 quid you could probably pick up a sigma 170 - 500mm APO DG but make sure it is the DG version and not just APO
the non DG version will l only work wide open on a digital body so that bit is pretty important

i owned one of these for a while and there good up to around 425mm after that they go a little soft but not to such an extent the photo's are unusable but it's noticable

the usual place fro these would be ebay , gumtree or pre loved
 
The 170-500 are the cheapest for what i need but am I better off spending a bit more and getting maybe a 150-500/50-500??






for 300 quid you could probably pick up a sigma 170 - 500mm APO DG but make sure it is the DG version and not just APO
the non DG version will l only work wide open on a digital body so that bit is pretty important

i owned one of these for a while and there good up to around 425mm after that they go a little soft but not to such an extent the photo's are unusable but it's noticable

the usual place fro these would be ebay , gumtree or pre loved
 
The 170-500 are the cheapest for what i need but am I better off spending a bit more and getting maybe a 150-500/50-500??

yes you would
i would go for the 150 - 500 personaly the 50 - 500 is a good lens but it's too big to be used as an every day lens and the reality is the short end of the lens ( 50mm ) won't get used that often
people buy long lenses with the intent of using them at there highest magnification ( especially for bird photography ) and more often than not thats where they stay the shorter end of the zoom doesn't really get used much as there are a lot of more suited and lighter lenses that are more appropriate

i replaced my 170 - 500 with a 300mm f4 L prime and 1.4x converter that gives me about the same reach the sigma was useful at ( about 420mm ) but with much better quality

at the end of the day 300 quid will probably buy you a 170 - 500mm zoom and for the money it's not a bad lens
once you start talking more money then it's the golden carrot scenario and the depth of your pocket and to a point there will always be better out there
 
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