I have a 70-300mm lens for my canon digital rebel, what lens would be the next step up?

Question

I have a 70-300mm lens for my canon digital rebel, what lens would be the next step up?

Answer 1

your lens covers a good range of tele, now u need something for wide-angle or closeup lens, like 16-80mm range.

Answer 2

take a good long look at Nikkor's 16-85mm

if it fits on your camera, save up your money and buy it

easy to work, great fun indoors and out

with these two lenses you have the world covered

Answer 3

Depend on what you would like to do?

Bird watching, longer zoom or longer fixed focal(between 300mm and more)

Landscape, ultra wide angle(8mm to 28mm)

Macro, you can start cheap with close-up lens or extension tube. A real macro lens will be great for portrait too.

Depend on your budget too.

Answer 4

The next "step up" in terms of build quality and image quality would be on of the Canon 70-200mm L lenses.  (But its a step down in focal length range.)  There are four of them, two at f/2.8 and two at f/4.  Each stop has a version with an Image Stabilizer and without.  In terms of cost, the next step up would be the 70-200mm f/4L, then the f4L IS, then f/2.8, and finally f/2.8L IS.

In terms of focal length, there are only a few steps up.  Pretty much all of these are going to be L lenses.  You could get something faster like a fixed 300mm f/2.8 or f/4.  You could get a zoom that includes 400mm (such as the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6), or get a fixed 400mm in either f/2.8, f/4, or f/5.6.  There is a 500mm in f/4, a 600mm in f/4, and an 800mm f/5.6.  (Yeah there is a special order 1200mm f/5.6, but that's too much lens for you.)

All the other answers are recommending a wider lens.  What do you have in terms of wide angle?  How about normal lenses?  If the 70-300mm is your only lens, you've got a few gaps to fill.

Ok, based on your message, the 18-55mm kit lens is good enough for your wide angle shots.  What you want is indeed a longer telephoto lens.  Normally the cheapest way to do it is to add a teleconverter.  Typical teleconverters are 1.4x, 2x, and 3x.  Canon only makes a 1.4x and 2x and unfortunately it doesn't work with your lens.  You can look for a third party teleconverter, but I haven't heard any good stories of them working well, so I tend to not recommend them.  The other lenses I recommend above are all a serious investment.  Most of them are pretty heavy.  The 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS or the 70-200mm f2.8L (whether or not to get IS is your choice) and a Canon EF Extender 2x II would be my recommendations for a Canon lens.  (The 70-200mm f/2.8L is an amazing lens.  You'll love it.  It's the best investment, plus its great for kids in the park and sporting events and you can attach a 2x teleconverter and still have autofocus since the lens becomes f/5.6.)

A little bit cheaper but covers what you don't have and extends to probably what you want is the "Bigma".  It's made by Sigma and has a focal length range of 50mm-500mm.  It's got an variable aperture of f/4-6.3, so near the max telephoto range, your camera won't be able to autofocus.  Just make sure you get the one made for Canon.