I recently bought a Canon EOS 7D versus a nikon 7000....very happy with the decision...


Question, I am looking to purchase a new lens and would like your recommendation. I will be hunting in zim this June and would like to bring just one lens....

Based upon your experience, what do y'all recommend?

Thank you, bill

The lens I use most on my 7D is a 24-105 L series. If what you want is photos of your trophies, scenics, friends around the campfire and so on this would be a good lens.

Very sharp, focuses quickly, image stabilization works well, and with the 7Ds good low-light capability it is fast enough. For the occasional wildlife photo at longer distances the high image quality gives you the option of cropping in closer with your photo editing program.

If your main objective is wildlife photos you probably need a bit more reach. I've used a Nikon 80-400 for a lot of African wildlife photos. With the Nikon 1.5 crop factor the lens is equivalent to 600mm at the long end and I was very pleased with the results.

If I take the 7D to Africa I'll add the 100-400. With the 1.6 crop factor it is the equivalent of 640 at the long end.

For one lens, if you plan on wildlife photos, you might consider the 28-300 lens. I've never owned or tried it but Saeed has, if he gives it a good review that is good enough for me.

Not meaning to complicate things for you, but a $200-300 pocket-size camera is a handy item to have on long walks when the bigger cameras get left with the truck.

28-300 would be great BUT like $4000
And that would be a big lump of camera to carry all the time.

What lens have you got now?
Don't know the 7D .. would the 18-200 be good on it? Or is that not suitable.
I'd want a wide angle if I was heading for Africa, 16mm or wider. But a small fixed lens doesn't take much room to pack.

I have a 28-135IS on my camera for general everyday carry it covers most all situations.
One lens will just not cover all situations. Many times I carry two cameras with different telephoto lens so that I won't have to be switching lens as it most often seems that that moment comes at the most unoppertune times.

I have a 16-85 (so 24mm to 127mm) it's perfect for me, but I'd say it wasn't really long enough to be your only lens in Africa also at F3.5 it's a bit slow.

Ditto the 28-135 with IS. don't forget filter(s). Don't ask me how I know.

24-70 2.8

I am using a Nikon D200 with the 18-200. Now if I were to recommend a single lens to leave on the camera and just go. That would be the one. I have taken it on backpacking trips in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and we just got back from our latest trip to Nepal. After 4 years it is still working great!

I thought Canon made an 18-250mm. This would seem to be a good choice, on paper at least.

Canon make an 18-200mm lens not sure about the 18-250mm. Tamron certainly make that lens for the Canon along with the 18-270mm which sounds like the perfect all in one lens (seems to stack up OK on dpreview). Image quality is certainly going to suffer to some degree with a lens with that much variation. That's where the trade off begins. Better lens, less reach or carry two lens. In my experience the image quality starts to become an issue when low light is an issue. Most cameras and lens can take a decent image is good light. Therefore it will depend on your hunting situation.

Are you looking for a lens to take close ups of you and your kills, scenics, etc?
Or are you looking for a lens to use to photograph wildlife?