UKC

Hi, I'm thinking of splashing out on a decent telephoto lens for my canon 60D. I currently have a 15-85mm lens, but would like something for taking wildlife shots at a distance. Budget, I guess up to £400 or so.

Any recommendations?

In reply to MikeR:

either of:
canon 100-400 f5.6
canon 400 f5.6
would do you well, but you'll need secondhand (and probably poor condition at that budget). I have the second one and it was worth every penny of the £550 I got it for ( I was lucky though).

In reply to MikeR:

http://www.digitalrev.com/product/tamron-sp-af-70-300mm/MTMyNzQ_A

Love this on my 700D, £50 cheaper now than when I bought it 18 months ago. Read a lot of good reviews before I bought it and have not been disappointed. Might be able to get something even better though if your budget is £400. All my favourite photos seem to be taken with this lens!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/100520660@N07/15140623064/in/dateposted-publi...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/100520660@N07/14092081257/in/dateposted-publi...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/100520660@N07/15140626544/in/dateposted-publi...

In reply to mudmonkey5:
Thanks for the recommendations guys. I could maybe Dutch the budget a bit if I saw something I really liked.

Nice photos BTW mudmonkey

In reply to MikeR:

Further to my suggestions, if the wildlife you're interested in is pretty static, but shy (e.g. it'll fly off it you get too close) and you have a tripod, using an extender could help double your reach. I've used a 2x extender (canon 2x vII) with a 70-200 f4 lens with some success. Drawbacks are it turns the f4 into f8 (or an f5.6 into f11) and you would generally loose autofocus ability.

The non-IS Canon 70-200 f4 is very good value way to get an L quality white one:
e.g. http://www.mpbphotographic.co.uk/used-equipment/used-lenses/used-canon-fit-...

This one was with 2x extetender on a 70-200 (so became 400mm f8) and a lucky manual focus job!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/readza/9554165361/in/photostream/

In reply to MikeR:

I agree with mudmonkey5, the Tamron 70-300 is a cracking lens. I am selling mine [use fuji now] so if that is of interest, give me a shout.
Mac
ps - apologies if that is a bit entrepreneurial of me...

In reply to MikeR:

Pop into your local camera shop and test out a few models. In places like Jessops the staff stand outside with you whilst you take a few test shots. I've never used one but sigma do a 150-500 f5/6.3 and if you can push your budget a bit then theres one here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sigma-150-500mm-f5-6-3-Digital-Cameras/dp/B001542X6...

In reply to MikeR:

There is also the Sigma 50-500mm (or Bigma as it is known)

Looking on Ebay, you should be able to pick up an earlier non stabilised one 2nd hand for your money ().

Not used one, but they are popular and seem to have quite a following.

In reply to chris fox:

That's quite a bit more than I was hoping to spend, but it looks very nice. I'd be a little concerned about the weight, but I suppose must decent lenses of that size are going to weigh a fair bit?

Very tempting. Need to decide if I can justify the cost..

In reply to MikeR:

Keep your eye out for a Sigma 100-300 F4. They seem to come up on Ebay fairly often and fall in to that price range (mine's a Nikon fit one). With a 1.4 extender it still works fine with autofocus on a Nikon D7100.
It's a little heavy hand held, but lovely and sharp and a big step up from the slower basic 70-300 lenses I've tried. I'm still getting my head round using it, but so far pretty happy with some of the results and gives a fairly decent flexibility:
https://flic.kr/p/fwJrmM
https://flic.kr/p/pdz6bd

http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/328-sigma-af-100-300mm-f4-ex-hsm-apo-lab-te...

In reply to Jon Read:

Bang on. The 70-200 F4 L non is an amazing lens. It works superbl;y on APS-C Canons. I have a 1.4X extender (buy first gen one on ebay for £100) and the accuracy and speed of focus is amazing.