Super Test: fast Telephoto zooms

Matthew Richards weighs up the options with this versatile range of fast and technologically advanced telephoto zooms

Eight of the fastest zooms in all of Photoplus are tested to the max

Favoured by professional photographers all over the world, 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses are fabulous for shooting action sports, wildlife, weddings and plenty more. The availability of short, medium and fairly long telephoto focal lengths, combined with a fast and constant aperture that enables a tight depth of field and rapid shutter speeds is a potent mix. But that’s not the whole story.

A drawback of 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses is that they’re bulky and quite heavy, weighing in at around 1.5kg! If you’re prepared to set your aperture aspirations a stop slower, at f/4, there are 70-200mm zooms on the market that are slimmer and only about half the weight. Mostly, they feature the same advantages of the zoom and focusing mechanisms being fully internal, so the physical length of the lens doesn’t extend at any zoom or focus distance.

The fast telephoto zooms category doesn’t just contain 70-200mm lenses. Sigma offers two notable alternatives in the shape of its 50-100mm Art and 120-300mm Sports lenses. The former is designed for APS-C format DSLRS, where it gives an effective zoom range of 80-160mm on Canon bodies, but with an even faster constant aperture rating of f/1.8. The 120-300mm lens is comparatively massive, tipping the scales at about 3.4kg. Unlike more budget-friendly 70-300mm lenses, this one is unique in retaining a fast and constant f/2.8 aperture, more commonly associated with shorter 70-200mm zooms. Let’s take a closer look at what’s on offer.