Worth Buying a New Lens to Replace Canon 70-300

by Penny
(Buckhorn Ky United States)

I have the Canon 70-300mm . I like to shoot wildlife and birds. Would I gain enough reach to buy a 100-400mm? I can’t afford to go up to 600mm. I shoot with a T6.

Hi Penny!
You're interested in updating from your Canon EF 70-300mm and you're not sure if the step up to the Canon 100-400mm lens is worth the money. It's a good question.

You gain 33% in terms of magnification when you go from a maximum focal length of 300mm to a maximum focal length of 400mm. The question is whether or not it's a smart move to plunge around $2,000 for such a small increase.

Although I Love my own Canon EF 100-400mm II as my go to lens for shooting both wildlife and birds, I likely would not upgrade from the 70-300 for a new 100-400. It's not a big enough jump in zooming power to warrant such a big investment.

Your Rebel T6 has 18,000,000 pixels. Your images would not suffer that much if you simply cropped a little tighter using software.

If you were a pro wildlife shooter, using a full frame camera, or wanting to make extra large wall prints, perhaps you could justify the spending. Here are 2 other ideas oh how you can get more magnification that the Canon 70-300mm lens has.

Canon 70-300mm Lens Alternative Upgrade

TAMRON or SIGMA 150-600MM LENS: These lenses would give you a 50% increase in magnification. I had a Tamron 150-160 and absolutely loved the 150-600 zoom range for such an affordable price. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with the sharpness with the lens wide open. Perhaps it was just my copy. The Tamron 150-600 Facebook group had a lot of photography members who were thrilled with the sharpness of the copies they had.

The Sigma 150-600mm lens for Canon gets remarkable high photographer ratings on Amazon. With your T6 "crop" camera, you'll have the equivalent view of a 240-960mm lens with either the Tamron or the Sigma.

CANON 400MM PRIME: I also loved my Canon EF 400mm prime lens. It was crazy sharp wide open at f/5.6 and was nice and light. You can get used Canon 400mm f/5.6 lenses at really affordable prices. And yes, they will work perfectly on your Canon t6 camera.

Penny, I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any other questions or comment on what direction you take.

Thank you!
Bruce


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