Camera Labs

Book a cruise to Alaska next summer for a surprise for the wife and had to dip deeply in my super zoom lense account to make ends meet. My friends tell me to just rent so need some advice. I have a A350 and my biggest lense is AF 75-300 I am happy with it, but after my last two trips to Yellowstone I know I need some more reach. The two rentals I am looking at is Sigma 50-500mm f4.5/6.3 APO DG OS HSM for $124 10 days and an Sony 70=400mm f4.5/5.6 SSM $109 for 10days. I could add an Teleconverter for $37.
I am going in September and I know weather can kill a big zoom. I also have read the Sony is alittle quicker for flying bird shots.
Need lots of advice,

John

Okay after 58 views I thought I would get some type of advise, I have never used a super telephoto, let alone in an environment like Lower Alaska, now I am also looking at a Tameron 200- 500mm it is a pound lighter and thinking it might help shooting from a boat without a tripod.

John

cannot help you directly with any experience as I have never been to Alaska or used those lenses, but I would just take the Sony 70-400 lens and not bother with the others.
The Sigma 50 -500 apparently just falls short of a true 500 and the Tamron falls a bit short in image quality.

I still have my first DSLR, a Sony A100 it came with the 75-300 and its not exactly a lens to get excited about, why not leave it at home.

Not sure that an extender is really worth taking, it does affect quality and focus speed and the 70 - 400 gives you a pretty good working range.

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Canon Powershot S95, Canon 7D, 15-85, Canon 85 1.8 USM, Sigma 30 1.4, 50mm 1.8, Canon 100 2.8L IS Macro, Canon 70-300L IS USM+Kenko 1.4 Pro 300DGX, Canon 430EX II and RS 4 Classic