With the 77mm Canon 500D +2 diopter closeup lens, the 300 mm focuses between 2 feet and 2-1/2 feet, which is actually too close to prevent spooking a butterfly or dragonfly and that's 30-40mm wide (about 1-1/2 inches) in a crop digital frame so won't even fit a larger butterfly. The sensor is 23.7mm wide so almost 1:1 at 30mm wide.