For Wildlife: Best Lens?

Honestly I think the 70-200 f4 may be a better bet on the telephoto. It is shorter than the Tamron, but it is an L lens and is faster. You can find a clean second hand copy for around 500 if you are patient. As for the wide angle, I did a considerable amount of research before purchasing my Tokina 12-24 f4 II, and I am not one bit disappointed. The Sigma is about the same price ($400ish second-hand), though I am not sure it matches the optics of the Tokina.

JessicaMorgan said:

It has become a budget of about $500 each. I think I am going with the Tamron 70-300 mm and the Sigma 10-20 mm. Thoughts?
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J. Morgan

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Chengdu nanhai said:

Honestly I think the 70-200 f4 may be a better bet on the telephoto. It is shorter than the Tamron, but it is an L lens and is faster. You can find a clean second hand copy for around 500 if you are patient.

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That lens has no IS. Good luck pointing it at areas where wildlife hangs out (bushes, dark edges of forests) and not using a tripod.

Chengdu nanhai said:

As for the wide angle, I did a considerable amount of research before purchasing my Tokina 12-24 f4 II, and I am not one bit disappointed. The Sigma is about the same price ($400ish second-hand), though I am not sure it matches the optics of the Tokina.

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It does,and it has 10mm and HSM.
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Grizzly bears of Glacier National Park
http://www.parkcamper.com/Glacier-National-Park/Glacier-grizzly-bears.htm

Can you give us a guide as to what you mean by wildlife and how easy it is to approach in your area? 250 to 300mm is pretty short for birds where I live and even on a 1.6 crop body 400mm can be short. However I had a day in Hyde Park, London and managed much better results than I would have expect with the 55-250 because the birds are used to people and come quite close. So your ability to get close is the key to what you need.

As to landscape unless your current lens is definately not wide enough you may get more keepers by adding a range of filters. If you already have filters forget that bit

JessicaMorgan said:

I am looking to get serious about my wildlife and landscape portfolio, but need a telephoto and possibly a wide angle lens. I need suggestions for the best lens to get on a budget. I have a Canon Rebel T2i and would like to stay in a lower price range, maximum $500.

Thank you!
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J. Morgan

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I live in Colorado so there is a broad range of wildlife out here; but my goal is wild horses. As for filters, please do tell me more. I would love to just need one lens for right now so if I can make the lens I have now shoot wide angle with a filter that would be amazing.

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J. Morgan

Shooting wild horses sounds great, how close can you get? Do you want to shot a small group or individuals? I'm guessing both but if you can have a stab at guessing distance it would be easier to work out the focal legth you need.

Back to landscapes, first are you finding that your existing lens is not wide enough or is it letting you down in terms of sharpness or another area? If for now we assume it's wide enough then one of the hardest parts of shooting landscapes is loosing detail in the sky. If you are side on to the sun a polarizing filter can help put the blue back into the sky. If the sky is too bright to get the correct exposure without the rest of the image being too dark then graduated neutral density filters can be used to balance the exposure. If you want to shoot at slow shutter speed to blur clouds or water then neutral density filters can enable this, though you'll probably want a couple of different strength ones. Or you could go the software route and do HDR.

JessicaMorgan said:

I live in Colorado so there is a broad range of wildlife out here; but my goal is wild horses. As for filters, please do tell me more. I would love to just need one lens for right now so if I can make the lens I have now shoot wide angle with a filter that would be amazing.

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J. Morgan

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I would probably be between 50 and 100 yards away from the horses. My lens right now isn't wide enough to create the landscapes I want.

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J. Morgan

JessicaMorgan said:

I would probably be between 50 and 100 yards away from the horses. My lens right now isn't wide enough to create the landscapes I want.

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well, then you can guess the focal length you want to have approximately by simple geometric proportions. Let's say you want to have a horse (2 meters high) fill the frame on the camera, and it's 50 meters away.

The Rebel sensor is 22.3 x 14.9 mm , i.e. 15mm high.
So: 2000mm : 50000mm = 15mm : x

x = 375mm. So, a 250mm lens might just be ok to get a horse with a bit of space around it, but you want more if you would like to have single horse close ups, if they are 100 yards away.

So, what is your current lens then? 18mm? That's pretty ok for landscape.
If you go wider, most of your subject will become rather small.

JessicaMorgan said:

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J. Morgan

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Life is short, time to zoom in ©