GorbyJobRabbits wrote:
But I'm looking for something I can get some distance on. Love the bird and wildlife pics - Out of the fallowing which would be best
As a first step, if you're not familiar with lenses in general, I'd suggest you take a look at the thread
What are those numbers on lenses? in this Camera Corner. That explains the various focal lengths and what they're good for, with examples of pictures taken at the various focal lengths covered by the zooms you're looking at.
That said, I'd go for the 55-250 zoom over the 75-300, mostly because the 55-250mm has Image Stabilization (IS) and the other does not. The other lens does have a 20% longer maximum focal length, but in practice it's not a huge difference in terms of field of view. I have Nikon's 18-200mm and 70-300mm zooms, and while there's enough difference between 200 and 300mm to make it worth carrying both if I'm being serious, by the time you get to 250mm on the longer zoom the extra 50mm doesn't add that much. On the other hand, the IS system is a VERY big difference.
As you get to longer lenses it becomes harder to hand-hold and still get sharp pictures. The IS technology compensates for the slight camera movement of your hands, and thus you (a) get sharper pictures and (b) can hand-hold the camera at slower shutter speeds.
I'm not a Canon person (I use Nikons), but I'd assume that Canon's IS is similar in capability to Nikon's VR, and the VR system is great. Both Canon and Nikon claim a four-stop improvement, and I can personally vouch for the fact that Nikon's VR can do what it says it can do. Both my 18-200 and 70-300 zooms have VR, and the difference with VR on and off is very noticeable, especially at the longest focal lengths. You zoom on the subject, push the shutter halfway to focus - and the image freezes. No vibration at all. Magic.
There is one very important thing about VR which they don't make very clear. While it's really great when the camera is hand-held, you MUST shut it off if you're using a tripod. If you don't, the VR actually creates fuzzy pictures because it's trying to compensate for the hand-held vibration which isn't there.
I don't know what other lenses you have for your Rebel. What's the upper end of your "normal" lens? The shorter 55mm low-end of the IS zoom would probably give you better coverage upward from your normal lens, and would be more useful for closer objects - 75mm is fairly long if you're not going for small or distant wildlife.
