Canon IS Lenses a Boon for Wildlife Photography
When shooting wildlife pictures, a telephoto lens is essential as you can’t normally get close enough to the animals to use a standard lens. You wouldn’t want to try getting too close anyway, not only for your own safety, but also for the wellbeing of the animals.
In the picture above, a Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM telephoto zoom lens was used at its maximum focal length of 300mm. As the lens was fitted to a Canon EOS 400D digital SLR camera, the equivalent focal length was in fact 480mm because of the 1.6x crop factor resulting from the smaller, APS-C size sensor in the camera (See Canon Crop Factor for an explanation of this).
It’s extremely difficult to get sharp pictures when hand-holding a lens of 480mm focal length and for the above shot, the camera was placed on a beanbag resting on the side of the game drive vehicle for additional support. However, what has made a huge differerence for wildlife photographers using long lenses in situations where it’s not possible to use a tripod is image stabilization (IS).
IS lenses help combat camera shake, making it possible to hand-hold tele lenses at slower shutter speeds than is possible with non-IS lenses. To find out more about image stabilization, its benefits and how it works, see Canon IS Lenses and for the full range of Canon lenses fitted with this technology, see Canon IS Lens Lineup.
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This is a great lens. I bought it because I wanted to take photos of my daughters. This is was the perfect lens.I’m not a professional photographer, so I did not want to buy a very expensive lens before I know what its features mean. This lens was close enough and verrrrrrrrrrry cheap, and it’s Canon! It’s my first non-zoom lense, and actually my first fast lens. At f/1.8 I can take very clear shots at night or indoors without popping the flash out. And the bokeh created by this lens is just great. The only thing with it, is that its body is made of plastic. But it’s working just fine. Just don’t drop it :-)I only wish there was a canon EF 30mm with an f/1.8 or 1.4, with a cheap price like this one.So, for 90$ with great photo results, I would recommend this to everyone who wants to take great portraits. Also, for any amateur like myself to try a lens with such technical properties before they buy the expensive stuff!