Best Telephoto Zoom Lenses for Canon DSLR Cameras

A telephoto lens is a long-focus lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. Telephoto zoom lenses for Canon are typically used for wildlife, bird photography and also in action and sports photography.

Telephoto lenses are sometimes broken into the further sub-types of medium telephoto: lenses covering between a 30° and 10° field of view (85mm to 135mm in 35mm film format), and super telephoto: lenses covering between 8° through less than 1° field of view (over 300mm in 35mm film format).

Looking for best telephoto zoom lenses for Canon DSLR cameras? Here are some recommendations according to DxOMark ratings and to our suggestions.

Best Telephoto Zoom Lenses for Canon DSLR Cameras

Telephoto Zoom Lenses for Canon Full-Frame DSLRs

Below you can see the best telephoto zoom lenses for Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 5D Mark II, 6D, 1D X Full Frame digital SLR cameras.

From the list below, we can easily say that Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD is the best telephoto zoom lens for Canon full frame DSLRs. The lens is much cheaper than Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM and provides almost the same great image quality with closer DxOMark score overall.

Canon’s EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM is also another best performing telephoto zoom lenses for Canon Full Frame cameras. The newly released Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM S is also another great lens. See the good alternatives when compared to the ones mentioned above.

Telephoto Zoom Lenses for Canon APS-C sensor DSLRs

Below you can see the best telephoto zoom lenses for Canon EOS 7D Mark II, 7D, 70D, 60D, Rebel digital SLR cameras.

When it comes to APS-c sized sensors Tamron and Sigma lenses are the best performing telephoto zoom lenses for Canon. Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 SP Di VC USD, Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM APO and Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM are all good lenses for your Canon APS-c DSLRs.