5 Best Wildlife Lens For Canon 80d + Tips to Help You!

There is a wide variety of wildlife to be found. A wide range of tolerance and motivation for human presence exists in wild animals, and this is also true for the photographers who document it.

Wildlife photographs can be framed in a variety of ways, from tight headshots to wide environmental portraits, which further complicates the process of taking them. A wide range of lens lengths is useful for wildlife photography because of this.

Animals are most active in the morning and evening when light levels are lower. Having a wide aperture allows for slower shutter rates at lower, less noisy ISO settings, which is very useful in low-light situations.

Even in direct sunshine, a wide aperture can be effective in capturing fast-moving wildlife (birds in flight, deer leaping, etc.). The lens’s capacity to blur the background is enhanced by the wide aperture.

Image stabilization can be a tremendous help in low-light wildlife photography if your subject isn’t moving or is moving slowly. Alternatively, a tripod, monopod, or other support can be employed.

Rain and snow are not a problem for wildlife, but they are for some lenses (and cameras). For wildlife photography, nothing beats a weather-sealed camera and lens set, and even then, using a LensCoat camera rain cover or something similar is a smart idea.

You’ll be able to distinguish yourself from your competition by using the greatest wildlife lenses because they’re some of the most expensive on the market.

So, here are the top pick for the Best Wildlife Lens For Canon 80d

Best Wildlife Lens For Canon 80d

• Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Lens

For the first time in a generation, my new Canon 100-400mm IS L II has overtaken 70-200mm lenses as the standard for professional telephoto zooms for shooting wildlife because:

There is no longer a need for my macro lens and any 70-200mm with the new 100-400mm! It’s the shortest lens in the 70-200mm or 80-200mm range. Stepping back is no longer an option for us!

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However, my 100-400mm zoom lens has a focus distance of 78 cm (31″) or 2.55 feet from the sensor at most focal lengths, and a focus distance of 90 cm (35″ or 2.95 feet) when zoomed in to 400mm. No 70-200mm or LEICA telephoto lens can focus this near, yet this lens extends to 400mm!

For many individuals, like myself, the new 100-400mm zoom lens replaces both our previous 70-200mm zoom and our macro lens.

Even while we lose a small bit of range at 70mm, we gain a lot more flexibility in our photography by being able to focus so closely.

At greater focal lengths, a 100-400mm lens provides a superior viewpoint to a specialized macro lens.

Shooting at 1/3 life-size, it has more room between you and your subject than any other lens, including the 100mm F/2.8 IS L.

Even at 400mm, it is extremely sharp, but we expected it. Using a lens profile for picture correction isn’t necessary, but if you choose, you can use one.

• Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary Lens

Having the ability to shoot at a focal length of 600mm without spending a fortune has long been a goal of many wildlife photographers working on a budget, as lenses in that focal length range often cost in the region of $12K or more.

When photographing subjects at varying distances, 150-600mm lenses can provide a wide range of focal lengths to choose from, which can be extremely handy.

Many 600mm prime lens owners would attest to the difficulty of shooting with such a long focal length due to the weight and potential atmospheric haze issues.

If you’re getting close-up shots of bears in Alaska or an African safari, a wide-angle lens may not be ideal.

In these situations, many professional photographers prefer the 200-400mm f/4 lenses, because they allow them to capture activity at both short and long distances.

• Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM Lens

The EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM is the world’s lightest 400mm f/2.8 lens*, delivering the exceptional image quality of a Canon L series super-telephoto.

Due to the use of Super Spectra Coating (SSC) and Air Sphere (ASC), the lens’ minimum focusing distance has been shortened, improving both comfort and portability.

You may shoot for longer periods even in the scorching sun using advanced heat-rejecting paint.

There is two focus presets to assist you in the rapid dial in the location you desire, as well as full-time manual AF to make operation simple.

EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM allows pros and advanced photographers to produce stunning images of nature, sports, and other subjects with ease thanks to its sharp image quality and ease of use.

• Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM Lens

Photographers of sports and wildlife will appreciate how much lighter this lens is than Canon’s 400mm f/2.8 equivalent, making it an ideal choice for those who need a lightweight, high-performance lens.

This lens is designed to be the lightest, most portable sports and wildlife lens on the market, as well as one of the best overall. This camera was built for folks who are serious about photography and is priced accordingly.

• Canon 300 mm f/2.8 IS USM

Incredible image quality may be achieved using the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM Lens. In terms of image quality, this Canon EF lens may be the best yet.

I would say that the current Canon EOS 200mm f/2.0L IS USM Lens is better than the older version. They’ve pushed the bar even higher with the latest “II” extreme telephoto lenses.

The Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM Lens is known for its excellent sharpness. A very tiny improvement may be seen while shooting at f/2.8, but the results are still incredibly sharp from the center out to the edges of the frame.

As long as the super-narrow DOF (Depth of Field) is enough, this lens is extremely useable at f/2.8 (I usually use it at f/2.8).

• Tamron 100–400 mm

Compared to the professional Canon 100-400mm L IS II or Nikon 80-400mm VR FX, this Tamron 100-400mm Image-Stabilized does almost the same thing for less than half the price.

Mechanical quality and in-camera lens corrections are sacrificed, but for a thousand bucks or more, this is an excellent lens that produces nearly identical images.

In addition to being far less expensive than the Nikon and Canon lenses, this Tamron also focuses closer and weighs less than either of these two options.

In my line of work, mechanical quality is more important than price, thus I own the excellent Canon 100-400mm L IS II, but if you’re reading this review I know you’re concerned about cost, so go for it!

This lens would be much more appealing to me were it not for the fact that Nikon’s 80-400mm VR costs more than the Canon 100-400mm and isn’t even as good!!

This Tamron lens performs better on Nikon than Canon because Nikon cameras can correct chromatic aberration, which Canon cameras cannot.

There are no lens profiles, so you won’t be able to use the camera’s in-camera distortion correction, and there will be no correction of lateral color fringes or corner falloff on Canon.

For those who care about saving money, this lens is a good option over the Canon or Nikon lens. If you’re considering this lens today, you’re probably not concerned about ten or twenty years from now.

The authentic mechanical focus ring can be used at any time to override the camera’s automatic focus.

• Tamron 150–600 mm G2

Even though the Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 VC was fantastic optically, it was plagued by autofocus freeze-ups on Nikon systems, and the long barrel extension coupled with the absence of weather-sealing made it an absolute dust pump.

Despite this, the lens’s low weight, outstanding image stabilization, and overall hand-holdability won me over.

With the Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 VC, I was able to get to places I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to.

It was quick to focus and followed birds in flight quite well. Although I didn’t get as many images as I would have otherwise, it was worth it in the long run.