Cheap old zoom lenses

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Discussion

jimmy156

Original Poster:

3,691 posts

187 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
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Hello all,

I am starting a "Wildlife photography club" at my school and need to buy as much equipment as I can for as little money as possible! I am looking at getting some cheap 70-300 lenses and wondered if anyone had any experience or knowledge of the following lenses and could give any recommendations as to which might be the better purchase. All can be had for between £60 and £70 pounds.

Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro

Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM

Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG Macro

At the moment the Tamron is winning purely because its a touch cheaper and has the ability to do 1:2 macro, so would have an extra use (as would the Sigma). Any reasons any of these should be avoided completely?

TIA for you help,
James

Edited by jimmy156 on Tuesday 1st September 18:07

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

254 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
I had an old canon 75-300 it was terrible.. does that help?

jimmy156

Original Poster:

3,691 posts

187 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
RobDickinson said:
I had an old canon 75-300 it was terrible.. does that help?
hehe a bit i suppose.

The situation is that the school currently has 3x dSLR's with kit lenses, and i will have circa 30 students coming to the club. My budget is around £800. It doesn't make things easy!

To be fair, it doesn't matter too much that the lenses aren't best, its more about getting the students out there taking photo's! biggrin


Simpo Two

85,422 posts

265 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
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s/h on eBay would be your best bet. How about a Nikon 70-300 ED?

jimmy156

Original Poster:

3,691 posts

187 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
Hi Simpo,

I'm going with Canon bodies because it's what the school already has and its also what i know. To simplify things i was looking at buying from mpbphotographic.co.uk or similar, because i can buy a whole bunch of kit in one go, and i will have some kind of comeback if the lens or body isn't as described.

Gemm

1,833 posts

215 months

Wednesday 2nd September 2015
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If you are already used to USM lenses, then Sigma is terribly slow and noisy but I guess it should be ok for your specific purpose and price range.

sgrimshaw

7,323 posts

250 months

Wednesday 2nd September 2015
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Both the Tamron and Sigma are less than £90 new.

Reviews suggest both equally as good.


jimmy156

Original Poster:

3,691 posts

187 months

Saturday 5th September 2015
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went for 5 of the 70-300 Sigma's in the end, along with 5 450/400d bodies + memory cards etc. Not bad VFM i reckon. Will find out next week if that was the right call