Would like advice on bird photos & lens: I am new to my 70D & this web site! Love seeing all the nature, wildlife and bird photos. I'm not very happy with the sharpness of my bird...

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

I am new to my 70D & this web site! Love seeing all the nature, wildlife and bird photos. I'm not very happy with the sharpness of my bird photos and would love to hear from everyone what lens they recommend. I am using the 75-300 mm the camera came with. I am contemplating the Canon 100 - 400 or the Tamron 150-600, or 200-500 (I see it may be discontinued by Tamron) does anyone have any experience with these, looking for any and all advice!

CAM1017 Loc: Chiloquin, Oregon

Photolady2014 wrote:

I am new to my 70D & this web site! Love seeing all the nature, wildlife and bird photos. I'm not very happy with the sharpness of my bird photos and would love to hear from everyone what lens they recommend. I am using the 75-300 mm the camera came with. I am contemplating the Canon 100 - 400 or the Tamron 150-600, or 200-500 (I see it may be discontinued by Tamron) does anyone have any experience with these, looking for any and all advice!

You are doing really good with your current lens. Sharpness seems good. The Canon 100-400 or the Tamron 150-600 would give you more reach. Both are excellent. The Canon will cost $500 to $600 more. I am currently using a Canon 100-400 that is about 8 years old and is still going strong. I am thinking about purchasing the Tamron 150-600 in the near future having seen some excellent results from it on this site. Good luck! :thumbup:

bobzeller Loc: San Angelo, Texas

Photolady2014 wrote:

I am new to my 70D & this web site! Love seeing all the nature, wildlife and bird photos. I'm not very happy with the sharpness of my bird photos and would love to hear from everyone what lens they recommend. I am using the 75-300 mm the camera came with. I am contemplating the Canon 100 - 400 or the Tamron 150-600, or 200-500 (I see it may be discontinued by Tamron) does anyone have any experience with these, looking for any and all advice!

I am a very successful bird photographer, selling much of my work, being published in various magazines, etc. I own two 70Ds, and for birds I use a Tamron 150-600mm lens pretty much exclusively for the birds. I also occasionally use my 100-400mm. You can see my results at http://bobzeller.wordpress.com. Click on galleries.

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

Love your photos! I assume you use a tripod most of the time. Are you ever able to hand hold the 150-600 lens? Is that the lens in the photo of you? I used a Lumix with a 60X zoom before my 70D & I am amazed at how large the lenses are! The little Lumix did a great job being so compact, but I am really enjoying the 70D so far.

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

Thank you for the advice so far!

bobzeller Loc: San Angelo, Texas

Photolady2014 wrote:

Love your photos! I assume you use a tripod most of the time. Are you ever able to hand hold the 150-600 lens? Is that the lens in the photo of you? I used a Lumix with a 60X zoom before my 70D & I am amazed at how large the lenses are! The little Lumix did a great job being so compact, but I am really enjoying the 70D so far.

I use a tripod some of the time. Otherwise, I use a monopod when walking, or I shoot from my car resting the camera on the window sill. Actually, the lens in the pictures is my "old" Canon 500mm lens. After being so successful with the Tamron 150-600, I put it, the 500mm, in the closet. Maybe I'll sell it. I also need to get a new picture. :-)

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

Thanks, I have a tripod, but not a mono pod as of yet. I will have to look into one.

bobzeller Loc: San Angelo, Texas

One more thing, I can hand-hold the Tamron 150-600 lens, too.

Photosmoke

If your not happy with the sharpness of those shots I don't know why they look pretty darn good to me.

Allen Hirsch Loc: Oakland, CA

I do a lot of bird photography. I'm still using "old" bodies: 40D and 50D. And all my long lenses I've bought used, to keep the cost down.

I've used a Canon 300L f4.5, often with a 1.4x (until the lens and extender were stolen). I replaced that with a Canon 400L f5.6, which I use handheld, without an extender, mostly for birds in flight.

And I have a 500L f4.5 that I use mostly with a tripod and Gimbel head.

My website of images: http://allenh.zenfolio.com/
Click on wildlife to see most of my bird images, or, for my "best of", go here:

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/p882622938

I'd recommend getting the longest-reach, best-resolution lens you can afford. The glass never wears out (my 500L is almost 25 years old - I bought it used 6 years ago), but you'll replace bodies much more frequently.

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

Thank you, it took many shots to get a few I liked.

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

Allen, seems you like prime lenses, is that correct and why?

Allen Hirsch Loc: Oakland, CA

Photolady2014 wrote:

Allen, seems you like prime lenses, is that correct and why?

Yes, I do. I believe primes are generally sharper than zooms at a similar focal length.

I rarely find myself too close to a subject if I'm birding, so I don't need to zoom out to get everything in the frame. And if I need to zoom in, I use my feet whenever practical (or crop more, which I have more latitude to do if the resolution is as sharp as possible).

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

Allen, just went to your web site. Very very nice! What lens do you use for the flowers. I have also looked at the Canon 100 macro lens.

Allen Hirsch Loc: Oakland, CA

Photolady2014 wrote:

Allen, just went to your web site. Very very nice! What lens do you use for the flowers. I have also looked at the Canon 100 macro lens.

I use the Canon 100 macro, mostly. Though I occasionally find wildflowers while out with a long lens birding, and have liked the effect of isolating a flower from a distance with either the 400L or 500L, in some cases.

You can hover over the top RH corner of any individual image (click on it first from the gallery), and the exif will show, so you can see the data including focal length.