Capturing Wildlife with a 60D

inevitablyissie wrote:

Hello all, hope you're having a good day!

As a Wildlife Photographer I made my first Canon lens purchase the new 55-250 STM which is an incredible lens. I've recently been comparing it to a 70-200 f2.8 on my 60D and have found them to have very similar IQ so as much as I would love a 70-200L lens, I don't think it'll be necessary with my current kit. I also now have a 50mm STM (for filmmaking) and 10-18, both lenses that cover very creative focal lengths.

Last year I took the 55-250 to a Nature Reserve and spent a lot of time in hides photographing birds, squirrels and deer.

My query is that after some time I felt I wasn't able to easily isolate my subjects and would imagine this may be because of the aperture on the lens. I also felt I needed just that bit extra reach to get close enough to the action and unfortunately an extender is not an option for the 55-250.

I would love to know what you think, should I consider upgrading to a lens with further reach and better aperture? Or keep practising with what I have?

CameraCompanion

The nice thing about the 70-200 F2.8 is that it takes extenders well and you can get to 400mm (640mm crop) with a Canon 2X and still be at F5.6 with all your focus points. But all that glass gets expensive.

You can also pick up a mint used 400 F5.6 prime (very sharp) in the $750-800 range... a much less expensive option. I still have an 400 F5.6, although I don't use it as much as I used to, but won't sell it because it is so good.

Check the fredmiranda forum Buy/Sell site. They have great buys every once in a while.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/board/10

You will want more reach than 250mm for wildlife.