I posted here before about acquiring a 400mm telephoto lens for my little Canon EOS Rebel SL1 and that lens is worth every dime I spent on it. The only drawback is its size and weight when you want to go out into the desert to capture a few photos of critters. It is a bit clunky lugging it around on a walk up the road or for other events where you might want to get photos of subjects that may be dozens of yards away or perhaps more than that.
Image – Camera with the new EF-S 55-250mm Zoom Lens attached. Click on the image to enlarge.
The SL1, when I purchased it in 2014, shipped with the standard 18-55mm lens and an additional 75-300mm telephoto lens, neither of which were of really decent quality. The latter, after a couple of years, developed an autofocus intermittency and had to be scrapped. Plus, in 2019, we replaced the stock lens with a superior quality 18-135mm lens.
So, the bottom line is that I wanted a lightweight intermediate zoom lens for those times that I mentioned above. So far, since I received the new lens last Thursday, I am pleased with its performance. I took the cactus wren photo today at a range of about 35 feet and the lunar photo last Friday during the full February “Snow Moon.” I cropped both images down from the full-frame size to enhance the subjects. Click on either image to enlarge. I am especially pleased with the sharpness of the mountains and craters on the moon which is not bad for an intermediate telephoto lens.
I other news, I renewed my expired AZ Driver’s License yesterday. The expiration was covered by an extension due to the pandemic, but that extension ran out at the end of February, so I drove to the MVD and got my renewal. I should get the new license by mail in a week or two.
In other other news, our COVID-19 vaccines have not yet arrived in our area. There are two venues in town through which we can be vaccinated but neither on-line registration is yet available. We’re both eligible for the vaccines by virtue of age.
I haven’t bought any new glass since I worked for Boeing, and had beaucoup disposable income!
I’ve got an auto-stabilized one that goes out to 400mm, and an F/2.8 300mm zoom.
I really need to get a macro lens for the close-up technical photography I use. Maybe I’ll divert some of my eBay sales proceeds to that!
Dr Jim – I should get a macro also since we regularly post food photos on our family food blog. Tam, of View from the porch, inspires a lot of which lenses we acquire.
I used to be really up on what the current “good” lenses were, but I’ll have to see what’s out there now. The last time I looked, a 100mm Macro seemed to be the sweet spot for what I wanted to do. It’s one thing I miss about Boeing. I could sign out about any lens I wanted!