…yep – I know this is ancient tech now!

I bought this camera when DSLRs where first coming out with the great intention of using it a lot(!), but it’s been sat in the cupboard for most of it’s life.

My 14yr daughter has recently taken to using it though for horse eventing photography. The standard 18-55mm lenses isn’t much cop for this so she has expressed an interest in a bigger zoom lens.

We don’t want to spend a fortune and I see Canon EF 70-300mm ones can be bought for around £100 – are these OK for learning with? Or is there something else around this price range.

We figure she can learn the basics with this set up (as the pics are still good), and move on to something better at a later date.

I bought Boy1 a Nikon Lens for his birthday in June. I shopped around and got it for about £160. It works well enough, but it’s not a pro level lens.

Something similar will be more than adequate to learn with. If it becomes a real serious hobby then look forward to up-graditus. A bit like us and our toy bicycles. 😉

Remember it has a crop sensor, so 1.6x smaller. So you’ll need to scale the focal length of anything you buy accordingly.

The 55-250 is a considerably better lens than the 70-300 and not stupid money, take a look at that.

Remember it has a crop sensor, so 1.6x smaller. So you’ll need to scale the focal length of anything you buy accordingly.

Now you’ve got technical!

Wot lens to make things biggerer! 😀

It will make biggerer the focal length of any full frame lens by 1.6x as it’s only getting the ‘middle’ bit.

Like this:

I am not familiar with the Canon range of zoom lenses, but I would try to get something with optical stabilisation if the budget allows.

You need a nice, bright day to get sharp shots using a long zoom lens unless you spend a LOT of money on the lens.

I’ve got a Nikon 70-300 VR lens with stabilisation & the difference it makes is massive.

The 55-250 will work out around the same with the 4:3 crop factor on the 300D
I have the 70-300 and use it on the 350 and the 5D a lot.&’
Gives very good images on the 5D

I take photo’s with a variety of lenses on a crop sensor and can’t say I’ve once considered the difference in focal length it would have made if I was on FF.

Don’t get too hung up on the above Tim – a 70-300mm will give a decent enough focal range, swapping back to the kit lens if she needs a closer range

I take photo’s with a variety of lenses on a crop sensor and can’t say I’ve once considered the difference in focal length it would have made if I was on FF.

Quite. It’s useful when comparing lenses between different cameras but I’ve found little practical reason to care.

Not actually the best advice above – on a crop sensor it is a long way from being a 70-300mm
The 18-55 kit will leave a huge hole between them.
At least by going for something like the 55-250 she will have a crossing point.
Usual on either of mine is a 24-80, next is the 70-300. Both EF.
Several primes in there too. EF also.
I have a fairly decent crossover so lose nothing.
If I was to stick with the 350 and only the 18-55 and the 70-300 means having to mess around moving considerable distances, etc due to the 15mm missing. With that being on the 4:3 format it is very, very noticeable.
Lens are quoted on FF so whilst the 18-55 kit EF-S lens will be that as its designed for 4:3 the 70-300 is EF so FF.
This is what’s being missed.

Ok hammyuk, there will be a ‘bit’ of a gap – hardly a ‘huge hole’. I’ve got a 16-50 and a 70-300 and I never really wish I had a 50-70. One lens gets used for one purpose and the other for a different purpose.

For some photographers it might well be a real issue, but for a girl wanting a long lens for shooting horses, I’m sure a 70-300 will be fine. Maybe a 55-200 might be more suitable, who knows?

The point that isn’t being missed, is that withering on about the focal length on a FF camera to someone that may well never use a FF camera, is a bit pointless.

Not pointless though if she’s using lens designed for two different formats though is it!
The focal lengths will be very different.
Your two lens are both EF, yes? (Or the Nikon equivalent) so will be matched in their “difference “, the factor you are using them on is in this case irrelevant.
An EF-s kit lens designed specifically for 4:3 will be that focal length – the 70-300 won’t be as it’ll be EF (well EF-S are out there but not at the £100 mark)
I agree the 70-300 will be ideal for what she wants it for but the difference between the two is going to a lot, lot bigger than you would first think because the 1.6 factor needs applying to the 70-300.
I have both the lens the OP is asking about so can state first hand the issues using the latter on the 4:3 when swapping between them.
On another note – whilst all EF will fit the EF-S, they will not swap the other way at all so make sure OP you check that if nothing else.

Ah, right, I get you – my apologies. I DID miss that one was designed for a crop and the other as a FF lens

I learnt that one the hard way – took a Pro friend explaining it a number of times whilst giving me lots of free tutorials before it clicked.
Made sure everything o bought though was right though from there on and made getting the 5D a breeze so I owe him

You lot are confusing yourselves.

An ef-s 18-55mm lens has exactly the same zoom range as an ef 18-55mm lens. The difference is that the ef-s lens is only capable of projecting the image onto the smaller sensor (ie : if you fitted that lens to a full frame body, the corners of the image would likely have extreme distortion or be darkened). For an ef-s body (as the 300d is), this factor can be completely ignored.

a-55mm kit lens is complimented well by a 70-300mm lens. The gap is minimal, and can (if critical) be achieved by simply cropping a 70mm (or longer) image. Likewise though, a 300mm image can be achieved by cropping a 250mm image. Cropping isn’t ideal as the resultant image is slightly smaller, but for this sort of use case it’s marginal.

It’s worth noting that the distances are relative – that is to say that the difference between 250mm and 300mm is the same as 25mm to 30mm – so a 50-250mm lens isn’t significantly less ranged than a 70-300mm lens.

Either would be fine. Optical stabilisation would be nice, but unlikely at the price point – and not essential. You can get very sharp long zoomed shots with a tripod, and it’d be good practice for a beginner to learn the relationship between focal length and minimum shutter speed (hint, to shoot at 200mm you need at the very minimum 1/200s shutter speed, preferably double)

Aftermarket brands are generally cheaper, look for tampon and sigma, and have a look at the prices of new import lenses on ebay and the amazon warehouse section – often they’re no pricier than second hand. For all lenses you just need to make sure the fit is ‘ef’ or ‘ef-s’ – canon has another fit and obviously the fit for other brands is different too

Tampon?

Yeah Hammy is confusing the matter and 5lab has it right.

You can forget about the crop factor issue unless you’re planning to use the lens on a different camera or you’re used to focal lengths from an older (eg film) format.

The kit lens of that era is junk though. You may be better off getting just a better lens rather than more zoom.

Tampon?

lol, auto correct. Tamron 🙂

As above – there is some confusion here about focal length & crop factor that I think slab has cleared up.

The focal length is not dependent on the sensor size. So, you can have a ‘full frame’ 18-70 lens and ‘crop sensor’ 70-300 lens & you have seamless zoom capability. The only problem you will have is if you use the ‘crop sensor’ lens on a full frame camera because the lens won’t project an image over the full size of the sensor.

This is a good article about crop factor (if you don’t get too bogged down in the maths, a 1/3 down the page)

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/understanding-crop-factor

and here is a bit about ‘digital specific’ DX Nikon lenses from Ken Rockwell.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/dx-lenses.htm

The main advantage of a dx lens as I understand it is that they can be lighter & more compact because the actual lenses within are smaller (as they don’t need to project onto such a large area).

I have a Sigma 18-200 which is my “generally good enough for everything” lens.

You’d be looking at used prices if you wanted it around £100 though.

I have a collection of primes and a longer zoom if I need it, but generally try not to carry too many at a time…

OP

I’ve got a Sigma 70-300 that came with my 50D when I bought it last year, that I really don’t use. Don’t want much for it, if that’s of any interest…?

incidentally, if the horses are *bloody miles* away (I don’t know the format of such events), the 2nd hand market offers cheap tamron 200-400mm lenses as well, such as this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamron-200-400mm-f-5-6-Telephoto-zoom-lens-for-Canon-EF-750E-READ-500151/152749678849?epid=101730675&hash=item2390972101:g:jkQAAOSwVlVZ6JQT

They’re pretty inflexible (as they weigh a tonne, and can’t ‘zoom out’ very far) but they’re good for extra distance photography on the cheap. below are a couple of shots I got with mine (on a 400d so a pretty similar body to that asked about) – all are handheld, but admittedly in good light..

[url=https://flic.kr/p/76Mx1B]Lion[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/76RMuJ]B&W Cheetahs[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/76RtRo]Pretty Blue and Purple Bird[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr