Good zoom lens for 60d

[Donnawr]

60D

[cicopo]

Everything's a compromise unless you have an unlimited budget. Since I happen to shoot superzooms way more often than anything elso they can be a good choice but the really good ones are HEAVY I've owned & shot the Sigma 18-200 and the OS version too along with the Tamron 18-270 VC and currently shoot both the older Canon 35-350 L and the current 28-300 L IS. The 28-300 L IS is noticibly heavier than the 35-350 & both get heavy quickly if you're out & about. I'll be shooting an event this weekend with one or the other on 1 body & the 100-400 on another & will be on the flight line at least 6 hours per day with that load.

If you have any questions about any of the above lenses I will do my best to answer them.

[cicopo]

Just an FYI re the idea of going the 70-200 PLUS TC there's a discussion comparing the 70-200's against the 70-300 L IS here.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1215992

I followed it for a while but I'm not up to date & won't offer an opinion.

[Donnawr]

Thanks for the info. Will f/u with the discussion link

[Donnawr]

Using extenders is very new to me. Haven't used that so not sure if it would help as I've read ( and taken short 5 wk photo class) that you loose the f number-which confuses me ?? Thx for your input

[Bill-Emmett]

Hello again, Extenders will place more glass between the actual lens, and the camera sensor. The more glass add to a lens, consumes light. This mean if you have a f4 lens, a extender will reduce the amount of light to the sensor by 2 full f stops. This is like reducing your aperture to f6. (making a smaller aperture allowing less light to the sensor) The extender does magnify the output of the lens. Because the the extender reduces the light, it can also not allow the lens to focus due to lack of contrast and electronic connections to the camera body.
Also, you must be careful about which extener you buy. Canon extenders are not compatible with all lenses. Canon extender have a lens protruding into the lenses back element. If you use it on a non-compatible lens it may damage the lens. This is true even with Canon lenses. So make sure you buy compatible products.

[Skirball]

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@Bill-Emmett wrote:
This mean if you have a f4 lens, a extender will reduce the amount of light to the sensor by 2 full f stops. This is like reducing your aperture to f6. (making a smaller aperture allowing less light to the sensor) The extender does magnify the output of the lens..

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f/8

Also, as a point of clarification:  Autofocus won't necessarily not work.  It will be slowed in all situations (to 25%).  Whether it works at all is dependent on the camera body and lens combination.

[stubby]

Something else to keep in mind is that on your crop sensor a 200mm lens will be the equivalent of 320mm, and a 300mm will actually be 480mm. When I started out I used the 70-300 on the 60D for a lot of wildlife shots. Sometimes it will come up short as others have mentioned but worked 80% of the time. The 70-200 2.8 is a great lens but you will lose autofocus on the 60d when combined with a 2.x teleconverter (not an issue with the 5d). My favorite lens for wildlife right now is the 100-400L and you can pick those up used for about 1200.

[Bill-Emmett]

We must keep in mind the crop factor is just the angle of view. It does not give any further magnification to the subject. So, you just get to see a larger angle of the image.

[Donnawr]

Thx much

[kenschneiderusa]

For wildlife photography, I have been generally happy with a 420mm f/5.6 fixed lens system (300mm f/4.0 L IS USM + 1.4x converter) with a monopod. On the 60D it is light enough to carry on long treks in the field. I use a monopod. The past two weeks while traveling I have been using a borrowed Canon 100-400mm l/4.0 IS USM zoom. It is MUCH heavier, but it has the great advantage of being able to shoot large subjects such as herons and alligators at close range without cropping. Worse, I did not have my monopod. It took many great photos, although I had trouble getting sharp focus on small subjects such as songbirds at 20-30 feet range. Using center point focus, it seems that the focus area is larger or more diffuse than with my 420mm system, so I had many bad out-of-focus outtakes in these circumstances. It seemed to focus on the foreground or background, or intervening vegetation that would not have been a problem with the 300mm_1.4 extender. It also seems not to focus as closely in the macro setting. BTW, I always carry a point-and-shoot for landscape and macro shots when needed. You may see my more recent shots and compare them with past ones on my FLICKR pages.