Telephoto lenses allow you to capture close-up images.
When focusing on wildlife becomes a favorite pastime, don't rely on your everyday lenses to capture the memories. Photographing birds with one of Canon's Digital Rebel series cameras paired with a telephoto lens will create close-up, sharp images of your feathered friends. Whether you opt for a Canon lens, or a Canon-compatible lens made by an independent manufacturer, look for key telephoto lens features.
Lens Length and Compatibility
To capture subtle movements and habits of birds, choose a telephoto lens that allows you to get visually close to the bird without physically disturbing its environment. Two types of telephoto lenses fit on a Digital Rebel: fixed focal length and zoom. Although fixed lenses offer the sharpest images, zoom lenses offer flexibility in composition.
Choose a Canon-mount lens with a minimum focal length of 70mm to capture nearby birds. Zooms with ranges from 70 to 200mm or 100 to 300mm work well when capturing birds at a distance. Telephoto lenses with a longer focal length are physically longer and more difficult to maneuver. As your skills and photography budget increase, allow yourself to take on more cumbersome equipment if desired.
Canon's Digital Rebel lineup of cameras can accept any of the manufacturer's EF-S series lenses. If you choose a Canon-mount lens made by an independent manufacturer, pick a lens with autofocus capabilities and a threaded screw mount. Bayonet mount-lenses will not work on a Digital Rebel.
Maximum Aperture
Every telephoto lens has a maximum aperture rating. Canon makes telephoto lenses that can open to a maximum 2.0f or 2.8f aperture. The wider the aperture ring opens, the softer and more blurred your background becomes. This makes the bird stand out against a non-distracting background of smooth color, not texture.
Although you don't have to use the lens on the widest setting, having the option to blur the backgrounds gives you more creative control. Set the exposure mode on the Digital Rebel to Av, or aperture priority, to manually select the aperture of the lens.
Stabilization Feature
Some Canon lenses offer Image Stabilization technology. When a Canon-brand lens attaches to a Digital Rebel, this feature works like shocks on a car. Internal elements of the lens help minimize and shaky or jarring motions caused by an unsteady grip, or when standing on an unsteady surface. A Canon lens with IS technology would benefit bird photographers documenting waterfowl from a boat.
Mounting Options
Photographing birds requires patience. While waiting for a mother to return to the nest to feed her young, stay comfortable by mounting your camera lens to a monopod. Telephoto lenses with optional mounting rings clamped around the lens barrel can attach to a one-leg supportive monopod and take the weight of the long lens off of your wrists and arms. Canon's various 70 to 200mm lenses -- and those with longer focal lengths such as a fixed 300mm lens -- include mounting rings as a standard accessory.
Tags: Digital Rebel, telephoto lens, Canon Digital, Canon Digital Rebel, focal length, lens with, lenses offer