Camera Labs

I love my wife, I really do, but she gets a little nervous when it comes to expensive things. This weekend will be our last camping trip in Alaska While camping we are going to do a Glacier boat tour which generally get in some whale viewing. I REALLY want to rent a 100-400 to take with us but it is just too much for her to think of "What if?" So, I'm not going to push her on it, I pled my case and she asked that we don't.

This leaves me with too options, my pretty good Sigma 18-125 that is stabilized or a cheap kit 70-300 lens without IS. Which would you do; the better of the 2 lenses with limited reach or big reach with the possibility of getting a shaky shot? UUGGHHHH

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Mike "The Squirrel"
Canon 550D | Canon EF 35mm 1:2 | Canon 50 f/1.8 II | Sigma 18-125mm DC OS | Tamron SP 70-300mm Di VC USD | Canon 430EX II
Military Issued Canon 40D | Canon 55-250mm IS

You can't take both with you?
For shooting anything on the boat I'd go for the Sigma but for the whales the 75-300mm would probably be much better.
I used a Canon 100-300mm USM before buying my 100-400mm and got pretty acceptable "manual IS" results playing sniper: http://simon.deobald.org/priv/hobby/foto/sniper.jpg
At 300mm I got good shots down to about 1/60 - 1/80 sec.

But I'm not sure how long the 75-300mm is - it doesn't really work with too short lenses.

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466

I was in Alaska 15 years ago with a Canon Rebel G (film of course) and the Sigma 28-300. For the landscapes there, the 28 mm focal length was excellent and the 300 mm I’ve used for an occasional eagle or deer. But those were very few and tricky to catch from a moving boat.
Now for the whales. I really didn’t see those swimming on the surface. They swam submerged and, just for a few seconds surface, first the upper part of the head expiring, then the dorsal fin and finally the tail. I don’t think that it lasts for more than three seconds or so. The bad news is that you don’t know where the whales surface and you have to be VERY quick in spotting them and catching the tail in your finder. I wasn’t able to do that at longer focal lengths most of my catches were with 50- 70 mm or so. The good news is that you may be close to the whales, 10-15 meters, and a shorter focal length isn’t that bad.
I hope that helps.

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Radu
Canon PowerShot S100
Canon 50D , SIGMA 10-20 f3.5 ,Canon EF 24-105 L IS USM, Canon EF 100/2.8 macro Canon EF 50/1.4 ,Canon EF 85 f1.8,Canon EF-S17-85 4-5.6 Old Tamron 28-300 inherited from my Canon Rebel G film camera
Canon580EXII
http://www.errre.net

This trip is the main reason that finally pushed me over the hill in getting a DSLR. When I took the trip before, everything was from the boat; wild life and whales. The whales we only got breaching shots and they were a good distance off, that's why I'm concerned about my 300mm with no IS while on the boat. They were pretty cooperative about giving us multiple breaches so we had time to run to that side of the boat for shots. I would SO wish to get a whale up close to the boat. It was a great trip last time, just my little point-and-shoot just barely performed. I'll try to post a few pics from the last trip. I may just take a few sample shots with the 300mm and see how I feel before we get any wild life.

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Mike "The Squirrel"
Canon 550D | Canon EF 35mm 1:2 | Canon 50 f/1.8 II | Sigma 18-125mm DC OS | Tamron SP 70-300mm Di VC USD | Canon 430EX II
Military Issued Canon 40D | Canon 55-250mm IS

Hire the lens but take out good insurance then no worries if it gets broke. Once in a lifetime opportunity don't end up regretting it

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EOS 40D / Ixus 500 / S95, Canon 24-105 F4L, 50 F1.8, Canon EF 70-300 F4-5.6 IS, Canon 10-22 IS, Speedlite 430EX II, 580 EXII
My flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/hairyfrog/