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Hi what or which lens would be best for animals and birds in low light conditions in KNP early morning and late afternoon year round, as well as birds in the undergrowth. Im using a 100-400mm on a 40D and 450D I also have the 70-300usm is and 18-200mm is but find especially in the early morning and late afternoon a lot of shots are lost due to light conditions.

Oh dear wingman, I have a feeling you are not going to like the answer.

I have the 100-400 and I know what you mean.

Firstly there is no canon fitting lens that will do all that you want.
[The nearest is the Nikon 200-400 f4 @ a quazzilion rand/pounds]

All will need IS if you are going to push things to the limit, so that means real Canon lenses. With real Canon prises.

80-200 f2.8 This is the only canon zoom that has the sort of light gathering that you are after and you did say the best.



Then it’s one, or even two of the primes below.

300 2.8 Considered by many the best canon lens ever and the absolute limit for size/weight as an on foot stalking lens.

400 2.8 and 500 f4 Both these are monsters for been bag or tripod use only in low light.

[The 500 f4 is considered by many the best birding lens ever.]


The cost of these masterpieces is simply frightening, but the only alternatives with IS are the

300 f4 great lens but not the best and the

400 DO f4 not significantly better than the 300 f2.8 with a 1.4 canon extender, so why?

I agree with UKBadger.

I am fortunate to own the 70-200 f/2.8 IS, 300 f/2.8 IS and the 500 f/4 IS (yes it is excessive I know ). They are all great lenses, but for birds I mainly use the 500 f/4.

Hay madach

hoooooooly ;!"£$%^&*()



That is the ultimate teli lens teem!!!!



Oh well, great minds do at least think alike, even if they don't quite spend alike!!!

thanks for the info guys I will give a few of them a try out before making a decision then see what crops up in the 2nd hand market , new these are a bit heavy on the budget, Ive read somewhere before members picking up lenses i think online from an outlet in the states at half our SA rates can anyone give me those details.

I've just baught, via Ebay outlet, a Nikon 80-400 f/4.5 at 1.000 euro. Not bad at all considering Nikon official prices was close to 1.500.

Wingman, dont know what outlet you are referring to but you might like to take a look at KEH in the USA.

http://www.keh.com/onlinestore/home.aspx

They specialise in secnd hand equipment, laced with some new stuff.
The pickings are a bit thin at this time, "used" has become popular. They seem to have quite a few Canon 300 f2.8's though??
I have had good experience of buying from them.
Ideally you should have the purchases shipped to friend in the USA for personal delivery or for fetching. This to avoid local taxes/duties etc.

Otherwise B&H in New York is a well known and reputable shop with competitive prices:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

Good Luck!

I have just been on the keh sight and must say there prices are much better than here.But I am not a fan of importing.

Those lenses are fine.
Up the ISo on the camera. that's what it is for.

I use a 1D3 & 500/4 (so does my wife) for most of our Kruger stuff, and we have a backup each, she has a 5D2 and 100-400 and I have the 1Ds3 and a 70-200/2.8

But we're kinda the exception. With the lenses you mentioned you should be getting good images in low light with those cameras in my opinion.

This image (after my name) is taken in awful light, but we used technique to get something from it.
The noise is less of a worry than missing the image. A lot of people think that.

Cheers
Rob

Amazing shot Lecter! The B&W makes the noise much less offensive and in this shot, it looks totally fine. Great job.