Lens for Canon T71.... nature and sports

[RickSteth]

My wife loves to take pictures of my Granddaughter playing soccer and also nature pictures. Most recently she has been taking many pictures of local bald eagles. The zoom lens she has is the one that came in the package deal with the camera. I am trying to find a good one that fits her camera. The lens that I am currently looking at is Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM Lens. Can anyone let me know if this is compatible with the T7i ? Is this the lens that you would recommend? 

Thank you 

[rs-eos]

That lens will work. Though that lens is outstanding, note that it will be quite a heavy lens. If weight is an issue, and you don’t need the faster f/2.8 aperture, there’s an f/4 version of the lens.

[RickSteth]

Again as this is for my wife ... can you tell me the exact name of the F/4 lens that would fit her Canon T7i ... not sure if you can recommend a purchase place on this message board or not. But because when I google anything there are so many options. I want to get a competitive price but I also want a good merchant that is reliable. 

[rs-eos]

The f/4 version is “Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS II USM Lens”.

In terms of where to buy, definitely stick with authorized Canon resellers. Personally, I get virtually all my photo and video equipment from B&H Photo. Though I did get a couple of items from Adorama as well.

See the full list of Canon USA dealers at This Link. 

[RickSteth]

Again as this is for my wife ... can you tell me the exact name of the F/4 lens that would fit her Canon T7i ... not sure if you can recommend a purchase place on this message board or not. But because when I google anything there are so many options. I want to get a competitive price but I also want a good merchant that is reliable. 

[wq9nsc · Accepted solution]

As Ricky noted,

The f4 version of the 70-200 is lighter (and less expensive). 

Whether that is a good tradeoff depends upon how many of the soccer matches she plans to shoot are after sunset both now and in future years.  High school field lighting has improved a lot at many schools in recent years and image sensors are getting better so f4 is more of a reasonable choice than it used to be.  I recently shot a playoff match using a Canon EF 200-400 f4 with integrated extender that turns it into a f5.6 lens and it worked well under LED field lighting BUT I was using it with a 1DX Mark III body which plays very well at high ISO. 

With a t7i and night field conditions, a f4 lens may push the image sensor speed up to a point where significant noise is added and detail is lost.  This greatly reduces the ability to crop a large image while retaining quality. 

I use two bodies for sports events with a 70-200 f2.8 on one and a longer telephoto prime on the other so for me the 70-200 is for close to medium range shots and I am shooting from just off the sideline.  From the fans area, the distance is considerably longer so in most cases ability to crop is going to be needed. 

So you will need to decide about the weight and price tradeoff versus better low light performance.  A monopod attached to the 70-200 f2.8 to take the weight is another consideration.  I am an outlier because I don't use a monopod that would limit my mobility on the field so I handhold very heavy lenses like the EF 400 f2.8 and EF 200-400 f4 but from a fixed location a monopod would work well.

Rodger

[amfoto1]

The Canon EF 70-200mm lenses are excellent! No argument there.

However, what lens does your wife already have? T7i were often offered in kit with either EF-S 18-55mm or EF-S 18-135mm. They also often could be bought with a two lens kit: EF-S 18-55mm and EF-S 55-250mm.

If she already has that 55-250mm lens, a 70-200mm will not be of any help to her.

For that matter, if she has the 18-135mmm, a 70-200mm would be a relatively minor improvement.

Even if all she has now is an EF-S 18-55mm, "shooting soccer" and "photographing eagles" both call for as much telephoto as she is willing to carry around. I really don't think the 200mm of a 70-200 is "enough".

Canon EF 70-300mm IS USM II would be a little bit better and is a fairly compact lens. And it's less than half the weight of a 70-200mm f/2.8! 

Even better still would be a Canon EF 100-400mm IS USM II. But it's considerably larger and even slightly heavier than a 70-200mm f/2.8.

I shoot all day some days with a 100-400mm on one of my two cameras. I've also got a pair of 70-200s and sometimes have one of them on the other camera, for the closer shots. I'm shooting sports. For wildlife, birds and such, I use the 100-400mm or a 500mm... often with a teleconverter added.

You need to check what lens your wife already has. Then, taking that and the weight of these lenses into consideration, get her the longest telephoto she will be willing to carry around.

18-135mm, 55-250mm, 70-200mm f/4 & 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses.

18=55mm, 70-300mm, 70-300mm L & 100-400mm lenses.

I do not recommend the Canon EF 75-300mm lens. It is the cheapest, but also slower focusing, lacks image stabilization and doesn't have very good image quality.

***********

Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif., USA
"Walk softly and carry a big lens."
GEAR: 5DII, 7DII (x2), 7D(x2), EOS M5, some other cameras, various lenses & accessories
FLICKR

[ebiggs1]

The opinion of Ricky and Rodger is spot on. However, this is also very true..........

"If she already has that 55-250mm lens, a 70-200mm will not be of any help to her. For that matter, if she has the 18-135mmm, a 70-200mm would be a relatively minor improvement."

We have a few bald eagles nesting around us. I use a 150-600mm zoom to take pictures of them. The Sigma C model or the Tamron G2 model will work very well on the T7i. Both lenses are big but they are not unbearably difficult to handle. Adding a monopod may help but I simply hand hold mine most of the time. The old saying, "you can never have enough focal length", remains mostly true.

I would suspect if you checked out some of the birder web sites all would agree 200mm isn't enough FL most of the time. Not even 300mm.

I consider this to be personal choice as both of these are very good and are very close in specs. My personal choice if I were to buy today would be the Tamron G2 but only slightly.

Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary Lens.

Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 

Normally I would recommend sticking with Canon but Canon does not have a lens in this category. They do have the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Lens. Outstanding lens but it is more than twice the price and you give up 200mm of FL.  Canon also has the Canon EF Telephoto 400mm f/5.6L USM which is no longer made and a wonderful lens that is very light and extremely sharp. You can find them on the used market at reasonable prices. If I opted not to buy either the Sigma or Tamron that is my lens of choice. I have owned two of them.