Best entry-level lenses for wildlife photography

Capturing intimate images of wild animals and birds in their natural habitat requires an understanding of animal behaviour, fieldcraft skills, patience and persistence. But even with all of those, you still won't get far without the right wildlife photography gear – including a telephoto lens.

The good news is that you don't need to break the bank with an expensive professional lens in order to get started in wildlife photography. There's a wealth of lightweight, high-performance wildlife lenses to choose from, with prime and zoom options to suit EOS R System mirrorless cameras including the Canon EOS R7 and EOS R100.

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Not always. You can sometimes use a wide-angle lens – usually defined as one with a focal length of 35mm or less – to capture pictures of wild animals in their environment, but you will have to get close to do this. If you want to get frame-filling wildlife photos, you usually need a lens within the telephoto (85mm or greater focal length) or super-telephoto (300mm-plus) range. These types of lenses capture a narrower field of view – only a sliver of the scene in front of you – which makes distant animals and birds appear larger in the picture.

Telephoto zoom lenses are more versatile, allowing you to change the framing of your photo without having to move your position or stop shooting and switch to a different lens. Prime lenses offer just one focal length, but they are generally lighter in weight than the equivalent zoom lens. They are also available in longer focal lengths, making it easier to photograph wildlife that you are unable to physically get closer to when even your zoom lens doesn't have quite enough reach.

Birds are typically smaller and harder to approach than other wild animals, so you often need a longer focal length to photograph them. While you can take frame-filling shots of a large mammal with a 300mm or 400mm lens, you may need to use a 500mm, 600mm or even 800mm lens for some types of bird photography.

The size of your camera's sensor can help, though. The sensors inside APS-C mirrorless cameras such as the EOS R7 and EOS R100 are smaller than the full-frame sensors found in other cameras in the EOS R System range, such as the EOS R6 Mark II. So, in effect, they crop the image from the lens, making the subject fill a larger proportion of your frame. This 1.6x crop factor increases the reach of the lens so, for example, using the RF 50mm F1.8 STM lens on an APS-C camera gives you the same field of view as you would get with an 80mm lens on a full-frame camera, and using a 100mm lens gives the same field of view as a 160mm lens on a full-frame camera.

Lenses with longer focal lengths can be harder to hold steady, but a built-in optical Image Stabilizer (IS) can help to correct any blurring caused by camera shake. The EOS R7 and EOS R6 Mark II also feature in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) which can deliver up to 7-stops and 8-stops of IS respectively when used with a compatible lens.

A powerful focus motor, meanwhile, will help you to keep up with fast-moving animals, and the quieter it is in operation, the less likely you are to scare an animal away. The RF mount on EOS R System cameras enables a super-fast connection between camera and lens for ultra-quick, reliable focusing speeds. The Canon EOS R7, EOS R10 and EOS R6 Mark II also make the most of the inherent autofocus speed of a lens and share a processor that uses deep-learning artificial intelligence to recognise and track animals and birds with amazing speed and efficiency. To guarantee you get your shot in action-based wildlife photography, it's best to take a burst of images, and the EOS R7 and EOS R10 deliver blistering drive rates of up to 30fps and 23fps respectively², complete with AF tracking.

A higher maximum aperture (lower f-number) means the lens can let more light into the camera, which can help if you're photographing fast-moving animals in low-light conditions. Full-frame mirrorless cameras such as the EOS R6 Mark II and EOS R8 work particularly well in this scenario.

Finally, you should consider the size and weight of your lens, as you're more likely to carry a compact, lightweight lens with you. At 300g, but with a powerful effective zoom range of 28.8-240mm, the RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM, for example, allows you to make the most of any opportunities for wildlife photography.

The Canon RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM is one of the first lenses to be designed specifically for APS-C EOS R System cameras such as the EOS R7 and EOS R100. It features a powerful 8.33x zoom range that stretches from a wide viewing angle to telephoto reach. This can give you a distinct advantage if you're shooting in dusty environments or need to react quickly to different wildlife photo opportunities, where you might miss a shot while changing lenses.

Thanks to the 1.6x crop factor on these cameras, the lens has the effective zoom range that a 28.8-240mm lens would have on a full-frame camera, yet is comparatively compact and lightweight, weighing just 300g.

Another versatile zoom lens that’s designed for EOS R System cameras with APS-C sensors, the Canon RF-S 55-210mm F5-7.1 IS STM offers even more reach at the telephoto end. It’s actually a little lighter to carry than the RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM, and offers the same 4.5-stop image stabilisation performance, so it’s easy to use for handheld wildlife photography.

When mounted on an APS-C camera, the RF-S 55-210mm F5-7.1 IS STM has an effective reach of 88-336mm, which is right in the sweet spot for larger mammals and birds.

The Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 is an adaptable all-rounder zoom lens that covers an extensive 75-300mm focal length range. It is a classic beginner wildlife lens, providing flexible framing options for larger animals. Attach the RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 to an APS-C camera such as the EOS R10 or EOS R100 and you’ll get an effective zoom ran ge of 120-480mm. This dramatic magnifying power makes it possible to photograph very small or distant subjects as well as skittish birds and animals that would be spooked by a photographer trying to get closer. At the telephoto end of the range it focuses as close as 1.5 metres too, so you can capture more details of approachable subjects such as insects and garden birds.

Weighing just 507g and compacting down to approximately 146mm in length, the RF 75-300mm F4-5.6 is an easy lens to travel with, and as it’s compatible with Dual Pixel CMOS AF, it offers reliable autofocus tracking of animals when paired with a camera that offers advanced subject detection.

If you're looking for one lens that’s ready to take on a wide range of wildlife and nature photography duties, the versatile RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS USM is a great option. This 10x zoom can capture sweeping shots of animals in their environment and then zoom right in to capture wildlife portraits. It's designed for full-frame EOS R System cameras such as the EOS R6 Mark II and EOS R8, but when paired with an APS-C model such as the EOS R100 it gives the equivalent field of view of a 38-384mm lens. Yet it’s lightweight at just 750g and easy to carry during a day out at a zoo or a wildlife park, or on a trip further afield.

Canon's RF lenses for EOS R System cameras feature a number of design innovations, and the Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM is no exception. It's one of the best lenses for wildlife photography for beginners; lighter than the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM but with a longer reach, which can be further boosted with RF extenders. It has the advantage of a 5.5-stop Image Stabilizer for sharper handheld shots, which increases to 6-stops with IBIS-equipped cameras such as the EOS R6 Mark II and EOS R7. It also uses super-fast yet virtually silent Nano USM autofocus technology that won't scare subjects you're trying to get close to. This lens has a boosted effective zoom range of 160-640mm when used with APS-C cameras such as the EOS R7 and EOS R10.

The RF 800mm F11 IS STM enables you to get frame-filling shots of wildlife, whether you're photographing big game or birds in your back garden. Add the Canon Extender RF 1.4x or Canon Extender RF 2x to the lens and you can get even more reach – up to 1600mm with the latter. The EOS R System cameras are able to focus automatically even at this impressive focal length. Mount the lens on the Canon EOS R7 or EOS R10 and the crop factor gives you a mighty 1280mm effective focal length, without a reduction in aperture caused by using 1.4x or 2x extenders.

For a lens with such a long reach, the RF 800mm F11 IS STM is surprisingly compact and lightweight, and features a 4-stop Optical Image Stabilizer for sharper handheld photos and videos.

While the Canon RF 800mm F11 IS STM is particularly suited to bird photography, the RF 600mm F11 IS STM is a more general-purpose super-telephoto lens, suited to birds and animals alike. Its feature set is similar to the RF 800mm, including a bladeless aperture of f/11 for pleasing background blur and an STM motor for near-silent autofocus, and it works with the Canon Extender RF 1.4x (giving you 840mm focal length) and Canon Extender RF 2x (giving you 1200mm). On APS-C cameras such as the EOS R7 and EOS R100, it has an effective focal length of 960mm without an extender. The lens also retracts down to less than 20cm in length, making it a versatile super-telephoto that you can take anywhere.

Although telephotos are the workhorse lenses for wildlife photography, there are plenty of other lenses that can be put to creative use when photographing animals and birds.

Macro lenses, such as the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L MACRO IS USM and the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM are perfect for taking pictures of insects and other tiny creatures. Although the Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM is not a dedicated macro lens, it has an impressive near half-size magnification. You can also use RF-S lenses on full-frame EOS R System cameras such as the EOS R8 and EOS R6 Mark II, and the camera will automatically reframe for the lens's smaller image circle, giving you tighter shots – a bit like adding a 1.6x extender to the lens.

Wide-angle lenses such as the Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM and the ultrawide Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM can also be good for capturing more of an animal's habitat, or a whole flock of birds, or even a vlog with yourself in the frame talking about the wildlife behind you.

Written by Marcus Hawkins

¹During still photo shooting, with an f/1.2 lens, Centre AF point, One-Shot AF, at 23°C/73°F, ISO100. Excluding RF lenses with Defocus Smoothing coating.

²Continuous shooting speed may vary depending on various conditions; see specifications for details.