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On my off days I sometimes go to the nearby creek to take pictures of these water fowl that are usually chill about getting their picture taken. Stills are nice, but I wanted to use my 7D to it's full potential for getting action shots of them flying or taking off. I have a Canon 75-300mm USM III f4.0-5.6 that I got dirt cheap to play with.

My issue is that 95% of the time I'm taking pictures I'm at 300mm, so I started thinking I needed to look into a lens to use more of the focal range. Instead of just impulse buy something and hope for the best, I wanted to ask for some suggestions on what would be a good lens/teleconverter option to go with a Canon crop sensor.

My original idea was to grab a 1.4x teleconverter and upgrade to the newer Tamron 70-300mm at a later point, as this current Canon telephoto really shows why it's so cheap. My white storks are turning purple.

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  • "use more of the focal range" Do you mean a lens with a longer focal range ? "chill about getting their picture taken" Did you get a model release ;) Chill, was the water cold ? urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chill
    – Alaska Man
    May 10, 2020 at 19:52
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    amazon.com/Sigma-150-600mm-5-6-3-Contemporary-Canon/dp/… this 150-600mm lens seems to be very good value for the relatively cheap (considering its focal lenght) price
    – Jonas
    May 10, 2020 at 20:40
  • As I said before, a $20 ghillie suit can get you closer to the birds than a $2000 lens.
    – xenoid
    May 11, 2020 at 14:44
  • @xenoid I said that once here a long time ago on a similar question and was roundly criticized. Maybe even downvoted multiple times.
    – Michael C
    Jun 11, 2020 at 13:36

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Both Sigma and Tamron currently offer 150-600mm f/5-6.3 image stabilized lenses in the Canon EF mount. Those are probably the most budget conscious choices beyond 300mm for relatively new lenses.

There is also the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 IS II and its predecessor, the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 IS. Although the names, focal lengths, and maximum apertures are similar, these two lenses are significantly different designs. Tamron and Sigma also offer 100-400mm f/5-6.3 designs for the Canon EF mount.

With the third party lenses, be sure to get the most recent offerings that allow USB "docks" to be connected to the lenses to update firmware and do camera/lens calibration. For Sigma, these are what are known as "Global Vision" lenses: the Art, Sports, and Contemporary series. For Tamron, you just have to see when the lens was introduced and if it is "TAP-in" console compatible. The 150-600mm "G2" (generation 2) and latest 100-400mm are both TAP-in compatible lenses.

The older Tamron and Sigma budget 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lenses aren't that much of an improvement over your EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6. I'd recommend saving the money until you can afford something that will make a bigger difference.

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