Looking for some 400-500mm lenses for canon rebel xti

[matt_behm]

<p>Im 17 just bought a new canon digital rebel xti on ebay. I originally bought it to take my senior pictures with but now I am hooked on photography. However it does not have a large enough lens to get some great wildlife shots that i would love to take. I can't afford a brand new quality lens so maybe if you have some used lenses you no longer want or have upgraded you could let me know. I am looking for some lenses that are in the 400-500mm + range. I also may be interested in a 2x teleconverter. If you have any that you are selling let me know. Thanks alot Matt</p>

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>If you're interested in a 2x teleconverter then that quite often means losing the autofocus facility unless you have a lens of f2.8 or faster. Also, the quality is poor, even with Canon's professional 2x extender. There is no cheap way of getting quality telephoto pictures unless you are willing to either crop your images drastically or spend some serious coin.</p>

<p>If you can put up with manual focus then you could consider a 500mm mirror lens which will give reasonable quality for very little money. They're usually f8 so they're no good in low light but they are cheap and are very compact and lightweight.</p>

<p>For a little more money look for a used Sigma 400mm f5.6. They're half decent lenses and you'll have autofocus too. With the exception of mirror lenses and those horrendous Russian made manual focus monstrosities found on FeeBay, lenses over 400mm are very expensive.</p>

<p>Unless you're going to dump serious cash on a decent telephoto lens, forget teleconverters altogether. I know they sound tempting on paper but, believe me, they are next to useless on anything but the best prime lens optics. You have been warned!</p>

[sattler123]

<p>Matt, slow down and do some homework! If you want to take wildlife pictures you do not necessarily need a super tele lens - the cheapest of those - the Canon 400 f/5.6L runs about $1400. They are not much cheaper on the used market. The next step up will get you into the $5,000 range - again, used ones cost almost as much. Nobody will sell you a lens of that size for what youcan/want to spend. A good alternative, esp. on a Rebel might be the Canon 70-300 IS lens. It is very reasonably priced and will give you a field of view equal to a 480mm lens on your Rebel camera. As Jamie pointed out, stay away from those cheap eBay lenses - the resulting quality is terrible and you would just waste you money. Learn about the behaviour of the wildlife you want to photograph - this will allow you to get much closer and save you lots of money:-)</p>

[rayabel]

<p>70-300 plus the 2x teleconverter will get you something that will usually auto focus out to about the 200mm+ area. 200mm*1.6*2x=640mm autofocus. It will be "slow" (need a lot of light) but it works. I've done it. Since it is a 300mm lens, 300*1.6*2=960mm will NOT focus automatically but it can be manually focused. You CAN get an "almost" sharp photo out of it but it is not common. A tripod and high noon sunlight helps a lot!<br>

I found that the combination of the 70-300, a tripod, good light makes good photos but you have to learn how to hunt. Full camouflage helps so you can get in close.<br>

Anyone that duck hunts or bow and arrow hunts knows that you have to get close to the game to get a shot and for a photo you have to get closer and get lucky.</p>

[mary_kossik]

<p>Matt;<br>

You've gotten some good advice. My first setup was the Rebel and a 28-200 and then I upgraded to the 100-400, then the 500 f/4 then the 300 2.8 and 4 camera bodies later and a lot of $$$$ later...... All the best advice came from this site. I read everything I could here first and so should you. Forget the 2X unless you upgrade your body and buy a super fast lens. I almost never use mine. You can't auto focus with the extender unless you buy a pro body (1D), not even with the 5D Mark II. Get a bag blind for $100 and get the 70-300 or the 100-400. One nice thing is that the lenses hold their value very well, you can always trade up. It works in theory, but then it's hard to part with that lens :) If you get an extender get the 1.4X. As your gear grows, that extender will service you well. </p>

[john_hanlon3]

<p>Hello Matt,</p>

<p>Be aware that the Canon teleconverters are made to fit only their 200mm and up telephoto lenses (and the 180mm macro). They will not fit on the 70-300 IS.</p>

[alan_bryant1]

<p>Some good information on budget telephoto here -</p>

<p>http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/telefoto.htm</p>

<p>When possible, getting closer is usually a lot cheaper than getting a longer lens.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>I will give you a boon. Most people don't want to hear it, but here it is anyhow.</p>

<p>Premise: no modern AF telephoto lens of quality is likely to be in the price range that you are likely have the money for, except the 55-250mm IS "kit" lens. This is a terrific lens for the price, but 250mm is not all that long for animal photography.</p>

<p>However, and here is the pitch, you CAN buy a cheap, optically decent 400mm telephoto that is totally manual--that's stop down the aperture manually and focus manually. The viewfinder on the XTi is not perfect for this, but you are young and still have decent eyes, I hope. Long before there was any such thing as autofocus, people managed quite well with manual focus lenses. Just set your XTi on either Av or M, if you want to set your own shutter speed and "match the needle" in the viewfinder.</p>

<p>I am speaking of the classic Spiratone 400mm f/6.3 preset lens. This is available on eBay for around US$40 plus shipping, although you may need to be patient to get it at that price. At any one time there will be a half-dozen or so on offer. It is a T-mount lens, which means that you will need to buy an EOS T-mount for about $20. Alternatively, you can buy it with either an Nikon or M42 (Pentax/Praktica) T-mount and buy an adapter from either of those to EOS for about the same price-really doesn't make any difference.<br>

Despite its price, the optics are surprisingly good. It even works well with either a T-mount telextender or one from whatever other mount you may have it in. Like any lens this long, this is clearly going to be a lens used on a tripod.</p><div></div>

[sam_stovall]

<p>Another idea.. I bought one of the $20 Nikon converters (it works great) and use my old 55mm micro-nikkor macro lens. I sold my Nikon (c. 1975) 400mm lens on ebay reasonably cheap, maybe you could pick up one. It won't be auto focus, but it should be sharp.</p>

[matt_behm]

<p>yes, I do alot of hunting and i know what it is to get up close on animals but it always seems that when I'm close to them they don't seem to do anything out of the ordinary like i see some do at far distances. Also, what are the best settings for birds in flight? Thanks everyone for your input</p>

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>Also look for used examples of the Sigma 170-500mm and 50-500mm. They are both autofocus lenses and give decent quality for the price and will certainly be far superior to mucking about with teleconverters.</p>

[awindsor]

<p>Actually my pick from the current group of AF zoom lenses would be the Tamron 200-500 lens. It is lighter than the Sigma 50-500.<br>

Both the Sigma and the Tamron are slow lenses at the long end. This is not as terrible as it once would have been since higher ISO capture is quite clean on the DSLRs. In the days of film ISO 400 was very fast film for a wildlife photographer.<br>

For most wildlife photography you will need to tripod mount these lenses.<br>

The next challenge is that I expect neither of these lenses will focus particularly rapidly (I have not used the Tamron lens). Not a problem for wildlife photography in general but it is a problem for photographing birds in flight. Check out<br>

http://www.birdsasart.com/<br>

His recommendation is for the 400/5.6L lens as a flight lens. I have the 300/4L and often use the 1.4x TC. The combination is optical fine but slow to focus. It does focus quite closely which lets you focus on small mammals and birds. The 400/5.6 does not focus very closely but its autofocus is fast and reliable and you can use servo focusing successfully.</p>

<p> </p>

[JDMvW]

<p>So far as Nikon lenses (Nikkors) go, I very commonly use a Reflex-Nikkor 500mm f/8 mirror lens. I have a Nikon mount 2X extender to go to 1000mm f/16 (never tried two to go to 2000mm, I mean there <em>is </em> a limit....).<br>

This works well on a tripod or even a monopod. The trick with old Nikkors of any focal length is to find what are called "non-AI" or "pre-AI" lenses since they generally do NOT work on modern Nikon film or digital cameras, so are cheaper to buy. These are still more expensive than the 400mm Spiratone refractor I mentioned above, of course.<br>

Sure, what you <em><strong>really</strong> </em> need is a EF 100-400mm L lens, but it will cost a bit more than many of us find convenient, at least, to pay.</p>

[matt_behm]

<p>just got a canon L series 100-400mm. cant wait for it to get here. </p>