Benefits of having a 300mm lens in your camera bag
I have a few lenses – Canon 24-105 L lens, a Tamron 10-24 wide angle, a Canon 50mm prime lens and a 300mm lens , specifically the 70-300mm Canon zoom lens (f4.0,non L type). On a recent walk in Ardmore Co. Waterford I ended up having the zoom lens on the camera 90% of the time. Firstly the Coastguard helicopter went over, which is why I put the zoom lens on in the first place. After that, I wanted to scan the ocean incase there were any whales or dolphins passing and during the scan I spotted a few seals. With other wildlife such as gulls and sea birds the 300mm lens certainly pays for itself. Some of the shots from this 300mm Canon zoom lens are shown below.
Seagull taken with the 70-300mm Canon zoom lens
Helicopter about 500m away taken with the 70-300mm Canon zoom lens.
Seal taken with the 70-300mm Canon zoom lens from the top of a cliff
The basic 70-300mm Canon lens has IS and 2 stabiliser modes and focuses well – coming in around £356 (depending on where you go) or just over 420 euros at time of posting this blog post. If you want to splash out the 300mm L lens is £999, or 1,180 Euros – I’m not ready to spend that money just yet!
I have even used the 300mm zoom lens for doing nice bokeh effects by zooming in on food photography, I recently used it when photographing some chocolates at Arcane Luxury Irish Chocolates and it worked really well.