New Lens

[Distant Thunder]

Hi all
After looking at the top class pics on here thought you the best peeps for advice.
I recently purchased a new Canon DSLR and am in the market for a big(ish) lens for aircraft photos
I have a budget of around £600 .
Have looke at Sigma 50-500mm but it would be an older non OS lens
Also looked at Sigma 120-400mm OS or Canon 70-200mmL F4 non IS
Any thoughts or suggestions would be great

[Vodka]

I would first check some of the previous threads reagrding the lenses in this focal range and price. There's been several over the last 3 months with which give you a good review and insight to the pro's and con's on the lenses you mentioned above.

But adding to those, i would also look at the second hand market, Canon's do tend to hold their price though.

[Vodka]

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=43110 will give you some ideas on the sigma range / options to start with

[Agg]

In that price range I would go for the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, I used this for air shows for several years before upgrading to the 100-400L, and I know that quite a few people in here use it. If my memory serves me right, I think mr LN Strike Eagle uses it, so have a look at his pictures

[Vodka]

Remember that your camera has a cropped sensor too. So that 70-300 would be a 110- 480mm on a x 1.6 crop sensor. Should give you the reach you require

[Hatstand]

Remember that your camera has a cropped sensor too. So that 70-300 would be a 110- 480mm on a x 1.6 crop sensor. Should give you the reach you require

Um. Do I misunderstand sensor crop?

I was under the impression it doesn't give you more "reach" (magnification)... it just gives you the equivelent field of view of a longer focal length?

eg. it's still the same "reach" and magnification of a 300mm lens on a full-frame sensor... but the image is literally cropped, so that the field of view (subject area) is reduced to the same as 480mm on a full-frame sensor?

Or, putting it another way: Say you take a photo at 300mm with a full frame camera. Then take the exact same shot at 300mm with a 1.6 crop camera. Isn't the photo from the 1.6 camera, just a cropped version of the photo from the full-frame camera? With no additional magnification or detail?

[Distant Thunder]

cheers for the replies

[Vodka]

Yes your'e right, my explanation is somewhat misleading.

Better than I can explain regarding maginification factor/ focal length mulitplier

see link below,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_factor