{"id":4641,"date":"2011-03-14T20:36:57","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T00:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/?p=4641"},"modified":"2013-07-27T08:27:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-27T12:27:03","slug":"which-is-the-best-under-1500-canon-intermediate-telephoto-lens-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/03\/14\/which-is-the-best-under-1500-canon-intermediate-telephoto-lens-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Which is the Best Under-$1500 Canon Intermediate Telephoto Lens for Me?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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This Fish Crow was photographed at Merritt Island , Florida with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f\/5.6L USM Autofocus lens<\/a> with the EOS-1D Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1\/3 stops: 1\/1250 sec. at f\/8. For years the 400\/5.6, my beloved toy lens, was my very favorite flight and action lens. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

What is the Best Under-$1500 Canon Intermediate Telephoto Lens for Me? <\/h3>\n

Rarely a week goes by when I do not get asked, “Which is the best under-$1500 Canon intermediate telephoto lens for me? In each instance, the person asking the question is looking for an everyday workhorse lens for bird photography. Last week I was asked the same question several times; this prompted me to write this post. Many of the thoughts that I will share with you here were published in The Art of Bird Photography II<\/a> (ABP II: 916 pages on CD only) nearly five years ago. The more things change the more they stay the same. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

For years, mostly in the days of film, the 400mm f\/5.6L IS lens was my very favorite flight lens. I carried it on my shoulder whenever I was out in the field photographing birds. Then along came the Canon Telephoto EF 300mm f\/4.0L IS Image Stabilizer USM Autofocus Lens<\/a>, a stop faster with Image Stabilization. I bought and used one of those. That was followed soon after by the Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS USM Autofocus Lens<\/a>. More reach than the 300 f\/4 IS and much more versatile then either that or the 400 f\/5.6. So I bought one of them. Actually several. I treat my equipment harshly and the 100-400 is not the world’s most ruggedly built lens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This Black Tern was photographed in Kamloops, BC, Canada with the hand held Canon Telephoto EF 300mm f\/4.0L IS Image Stabilizer USM Autofocus Lens<\/a> with the EOS-1D Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1\/3 stop: 1\/1000 sec. at f\/4. We got lucky just before sunset when the wind switched to the west. The 300 f\/4 IS is an excellent flight lens. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

The question at hand however, is not which of these three lens might be best as an auxiliary lens for me then or now (the answer to that is none of the above), but which of the three would make a good choice for beginning bird photographers looking to purchase as their first intermediate telephoto lens to use with their 40D, 50D, or 7D. If you will be working on a tripod nearly all of the time, will be buying a 1.4X teleconverter, and have good vision and are adept at focusing manually, then the older 400mm f\/5.6L (non-IS) would be my recommendation. Why? It will give you the greatest reach: 400 X 1.6 for the crop factor X 1.4 for the TC = 896 mm effective focal length with 17.9X magnification. But most folks are not willing to purchase a good tripod like the Gitzo 3530 LS or the right head for the job, the Mongoose M3.6. And even fewer are willing to carry a tripod in the field. For those folks I would quickly rule out the 400mm f\/5.6. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This mayfly was photographed near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL with the tripod-mounted Canon Telephoto EF 300mm f\/4.0L IS Image Stabilizer USM Autofocus Lens<\/a> with the EOS-1Ds Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1\/160 sec. at f\/8. With it’s excellent close focus, the 300 f\/4 IS can be used to photograph a variety of small subjects. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

The next most obvious choice is the extremely popular 100-400 IS L zoom lens. It offers 400mm at the long end but will not autofocus with the 1.4X TC when used with a pro-sumer body like those mentioned above. As you can see by the two Chinstrap Penguin images, this lenses is incredibly versatile. If you like birds but also like to photograph a variety of natural history subjects then this may the best choice for you. Over the years I made a zillion quality images with this lens and sold a good many of them. It is a great blur lens at places like Bosque Del Apache. And it is the prime lens for several excellent photographers who hand hold exclusively: BPN crack Avian moderator Dan Cadieux and BPN member Aidan Briggs. Whenever I hear folks whining about how good they could be if only they could afford a long lens I send them to see the images created by Dan and Aidan with “only a 100-400.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This Chinstrap Penguin was photographed from a Zodiac at Coronation Island in the South Orkneys with the Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS USM Autofocus lens<\/a> (hand held at 400mm) with the EOS-1Ds Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering + 1 stop: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/11. The experience of photographing these birds was one of the best half hours of my life. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

If you insist on hand holding and want a lens mainly for birds then the Canon Telephoto EF 300mm f\/4.0L IS Image Stabilizer USM Autofocus Lens<\/a> is the clear choice for you. You will have autofocus with the 1.4X TC and IS all the time. One of the sweet features of this lens is its extremely close focus. It is great for frogs and turtles and dragonflies and butterflies and large bugs and flowers. And it is a great flight lens as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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These Chinstrap Penguin were photographed from a Zodiac at Coronation Island in the South Orkneys with the Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS USM Autofocus lens<\/a> (hand held at 180mm) with the EOS-1Ds Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2\/3 stops: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/8. I created this image as an afterthought as we motored away from the iceberg…. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Canon 70-200mm f\/4L IS Lens<\/h3>\n

For complete info on this lightweight, versatile lens, see “I Can’t Believe That I Forgot This One.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The fact is that all of the lenses above are capable of making great images in the right hands. At this point in my life, I would not consider a lens without IS so my old toy lens is on the shelf (though it is likely that I could still use it effectively. \ud83d\ude42 Unless you wish to use a tripod all the time (except when doing flight photography), your choice is between the 100-400 IS and the 300 f\/4 IS. It is a tough choice. Good luck making it \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n

Shopper’s Guide<\/h3>\n

Below is a list of the gear discussed above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Canon 400mm f\/5.6L<\/a>. My beloved toy lens is still a great flight lens. Just not for me as I now rely on Image Stabilized lenses.
\nCanon 100-400mm IS L zoom lens<\/a>. I used this lens for years with great success.
\nCanon 300mm f\/4L IS lens<\/a>. A great lens for flight, hand held bird photography, and large macro subjects.
\nCanon EF 1.4X III TC<\/a>. This new TC is designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
\nCanon EOS-7D<\/a>. I loved my 7D but sold it so that all of my bodies would be the same. Less strain on the brain that way. <\/p>\n

And from the BAA On-line Store:<\/p>\n

Gitzo 3530 LS Tripod.<\/a> This one will last you a lifetime.
\nMongoose M3.6 Tripod Head.<\/a> Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with all intermediate telephoto lenses.
\nDouble Bubble Leve.l<\/a> You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am on a tripod and not using flash.
\nDelkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card.<\/a> Fast and dependable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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This Fish Crow was photographed at Merritt Island , Florida with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f\/5.6L USM Autofocus lens with the EOS-1D Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1\/3 stops: 1\/1250 sec. at f\/8. For years the 400\/5.6, my beloved toy lens, was my very favorite flight and action lens. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-90","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}