The 70-200mm f/2.8 is the most universally deployed professional zoom in photography. Wedding photographers, sports shooters, photojournalists, commercial photographers — across every discipline requiring reach and light-gathering in a single optic, some version of this lens has been on the camera. Canon’s RF version, redesigned for the mirrorless mount, is the current benchmark for the category. The RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM shrinks the physical footprint of its EF predecessor significantly — the retractable design reduces the barrel length at 70mm to a degree that initially reads as implausible for an f/2.

The arithmetic of cropped sensors and telephoto glass is one of the more useful free lunches in photography. The Canon R7 — a serious APS-C body with genuinely professional-grade autofocus and a 32.5-megapixel sensor — transforms the EF 70-200mm f/4L into a 112–320mm equivalent. A zoom range that, on full frame, would require an expensive, heavier f/2.8 lens or a dedicated super-telephoto prime. Here it arrives via a quarter-century-old zoom that trades used for well under $600.

Telephoto zoom ownership typically involves a familiar trade negotiation: reach versus weight versus cost, with meaningful performance in all three simultaneously requiring a budget that narrows the market to professionals and committed enthusiasts. The Nikon Z50 II paired with a used Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II via the Sigma MC-21 EF-to-Z adapter disrupts that negotiation in a way worth examining. The EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II is one of Canon’s most undervalued lenses.

Wildlife and bird photography has a reach problem. Subjects do not cooperate with proximity, environments punish heavy equipment, and the focal lengths required to fill a frame with a distant bird in flight push into ranges where cost and weight traditionally become prohibitive. The OM System OM-1 Mark II with the M.Zuiko Digital ED 150-400mm f/4.5 TC1.25x IS PRO solves this problem in a way that nothing else in the market currently replicates.

The Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM is one of the most respected telephoto primes ever made and one of the few legacy lenses where the secondary market price has declined meaningfully as photographers have migrated to mirrorless systems and RF glass. Used copies trade in the $600–$750 range — less than they commanded five years ago, and substantially less than the optical quality warrants. The Sigma MC-11 adapter, which communicates the EF protocol to Sony E-mount bodies with high fidelity, adds approximately $199.

The 135mm focal length occupies a curious position in the portrait photographer’s arsenal. Long enough to fully compress a face from a comfortable working distance, fast enough at f/1.8 to produce background separation that rivals shorter, wider-aperture alternatives — it is the choice of photographers who have thought carefully about what they actually want rather than what specifications suggest they should want. Sony’s FE 135mm f/1.8 GM is the best lens in this category.

Bird photography has a reputation for being gear-hungry, almost elitist, as if meaningful images only happen beyond the 500mm mark with lenses that cost more than a small car. The Canon RF 100–400mm f/5.6–8 IS USM quietly pushes back against that idea. This image of urban parakeets after rain is a good example of what affordable reach can actually deliver when expectations are realistic and observation matters more than specs. From a respectful distance, the lens allows you to frame behavior rather than just presence, isolating the birds against a pale winter sky while keeping the scene calm and undisturbed.

This photograph is the kind that only really makes sense when you’ve spent a bit too much time thinking about focal lengths, compression, and why 200mm is such a strangely addictive number. Shot with the Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM, the image pulls Manhattan’s skyline tight, stacking decades of architecture into a single dense plane where old limestone crowns press against glassy new towers, all of it hovering above that long, stubborn band of brick housing blocks along the river.

Canon’s latest telephoto zoom lens, the RF 75-300mm F4-5.6, enters the market not as a groundbreaking innovation but rather as a cautious refresh of a classic, budget-friendly design. In fact, its optical construction closely mirrors Canon’s EF 75-300mm F4-5.6 III, originally released in April 1999. More than two decades later, Canon has reintroduced this venerable lens for RF mount cameras, targeting beginner photographers and hobbyists who desire an affordable option for wildlife and sports photography without breaking the bank.

Sony Electronics recently announced the introduction of the FE 50-150mm F2 GM lens, model SEL50150GM, characterized primarily by its constant maximum aperture of F2 across a telephoto zoom range. This lens represents a unique addition to the current range of telephoto zoom lenses available for the Sony Alpha camera system, specifically due to its combination of focal lengths traditionally covered by prime lenses (50mm, 85mm, and 135mm) into a single zoom lens.