Long Lenses
A question that most professional photographer’s get asked is; what is your favorite lens?
I guess with the thought that if a new photographer could buy one lens, what would it be
As you can imagine, there is no right answer to this. But I will let you know what lenses I use most for wildlife photography.
Hi, this is Terry VanderHeiden I’m a professional photographer and your host of the Nature Photography Podcast. Welcome to my episode on lenses.
The first aspect that we need to look at is what is the wildlife we are looking to capture in our cameras? Are the subjects large? Am I safe when I get close to them? Or, are they small and nervous animals that live their life like…, like the prey animals that they are?
Let’s start with small subjects. Really small subjects like tiny insects are mostly shot with a 28mm lens. What??? A 28mm is a WIDE ANGLE lens!
The way I use my 28mm lens is I put on a reversal adapter on the front of the lens, it threads on like a filter, then I flip it around and attach it to the camera in reverse. In fact, I attach the 28mm lens to a set of close-up extension tubes in reverse.
Think about it like this: A wide angle lens takes a large scene and projects it onto a small sensor. If you flip that lens around, you now have a lens that projects a tiny subject as a large subject on that same sensor. In normal configuration, the wide lens makes large scene, tiny. So, reversed, the wide lens makes a tiny subject larger.
This, all coupled with extension tubes, will allow you to get super close to your subject. In some cases, only a few millimeters away from a subject.
If you want to get a photograph of an ant’s head – that’s how you can do it.
The first drawback to this system is shallow depth-of-field. So shallow, that the ant’s head might be in focus but the body of the ant is totally out of focus.
This means that you cannot hand hold this kind of shot. Just your slight movement will put your subject in focus, then you inadvertently move a bit, it will be totally out of focus.
This rig has to be on a tripod. In fact, I use a set of focusing rails to zero in on the exact thing I want to focus on. This also allows me to stack focus if I want to.
The next thing you lose is infinity focus. If you are out in the field, photographing bees on flowers and a UFO lands in the field right in front of you, you won’t be able to swing your camera up and refocus and capture that. The focus range is very small when the 28mm lens is configured this way.
The last thing that might be considered a drawback is that you lose any automated features that the lens was giving you. Not auto focus, no auto aperture – it becomes a complete manual lens.
The next wildlife lens I use is the 105mm macro. I use all Nikon products so the length of these short telephoto macro lenses varies from each manufacturer. I think Sony makes a 90mm, Canon makes a 100mm and so on.
The great thing about a macro lens is it is very versatile. You can use it for your close up work as well as anything else. Because the focus works very close-up as well as for subjects that are far away. You do not lose infinity when working with a macro lens. Everything is available to you. This makes the macro lens, one of the most all-around lenses you can buy.
The next lens that I use in my wildlife work is the 70-200mm zoom lens, f/2.8
You’re probably thinking that this is not much of a wildlife lens, but think about it like this:
If you end up getting surprisingly close to a subject you will need something with a zoom that you can pull back still get your subject in the frame.
If you think about it, one of the most used tools in wildlife photography is your vehicle. Your car or truck can be used as an excellent blind when photographing wildlife.
As it turns out, if there is an animal along the roadway, a passing vehicle doesn’t necessarily register as a threat to that animal. Certainly not like a human can. Slowly approaching wildlife in a car is sometimes the best way to get really close. Plus, you have the personal safety of the car in most cases.
In order to do this kind of photography, when in the vicinity of wildlife, roll your windows down in advance. While a car rolling up is not a problem for many animals, rolling down the window when you get there, is usually a sound that strikes panic in your subject. Even if it’s cold out, drive around with the windows down already.
Next, and this should go without saying, but turn your radio off, turn your cell phones to silent mode as well as any two-way radios you might have working. No talking, keep communications to a whisper if need be.
When you are shooting like this, a short telephoto is a good idea to have attached to a body in the car, at the ready. You never know when subject appear just around the bend in the road, and a shortish telephoto might get you the shot.
Next up for me is the 300mm f/2.8. This is where you start getting into the more high ticket items and it revolves around the wide f/stop.
You can buy a new, 300mm Nikon lens, for about $2000. A lot to pay for one fixed prime lens. However, that lens is an f/4 lens.
To buy the new Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lens – just one full stop brighter than the f/4 – that will cost you around $5,500 – well over twice as much.
How can you rationalize a purchase like that?
Not only is price a factor, weight is another. The f/4 version weighs in at about 27 ounces or about a pound and half. While the f/2.8 version weighs in at 6.3 pounds.
The bottom line is speed and quality. When you are buying the more expensive lens, you are getting the best glass your manufacturer can produce. You are also buying a lens that not only allows you to shoot earlier in the morning and later in the day without boosting your ISO, you also getting twice the shallower depth-of field.
This will often be the difference in making your subject pop off the screen as it will isolate them against just about any background This is an effect that is not believable when done with software.
It’s a look that cannot be done, any other way.
I’m sure there are professionals that buy lenses and equipment for the status of it. However, most professionals will save some money if they can. Professional agree, lens buying is not the place to become frugal.
Yes, the f/2.8 version costs way more. Yes, it weighs 4 times as much as the smaller lens. Then why would anyone purchase this lens?
The answer is simple. Professionals see the difference in quality. They see that the backgrounds are pleasingly softened, they see that they can shoot things in the low light times of day that other photographers can’t. They can create images that stand out.
Here is my take on spending good money for top-of-the-line lenses.
I know that camera bodies come and go. Next year they will have a body that shoots at a faster frame rate, higher ISO, better color etc. You will change out your camera bodies every few years. That’ just how it goes. The technology advancements are too good to pass up.
Lenses, however, are a lifetime investment. If you save up and buy a long telephoto lens when you are in your 30’s, you will be shooting on that same lens when you are in your 70s’. That could be 40 years of use!
If take the cost of a prime top of the line 300mm lens at $5500 today’s price and extrapolate that out over 40 years, that is a cost of $137 per year to have the best lens money can buy. Or .38 cents a day if that is easier to visualize.
At some point the weight of the lens may become a problem as you get older. Carrying it around in the field just may not be fun anymore, or just may be too exhausting.
Since you paid good money for it when you bought it, you can sell it on the after-market. This is assuming you take good care of your expensive equipment, and if you spend that much on a lens, I’m pretty sure you will.
At the time of this recording, That $5500 lens is being sold for about $3500 today. That is about 64% of your initial investment, can be returned to you if you sell it as a pre-owned lens.
If you buy the substandard f/4 lens, spending $2,000 on it. Today, you can turn around and sell it for about $300. That is only 15 percent of your initial investment.
Since I didn’t get into nature photography for the mathematics, let’s move on.
The last lens on my list is a big one. I use the Nikon 600mm f/4 for most of my shots of birds, and larger animals that I can’t or don’t want to get close to. Occasionally I put on the 1.4 teleconverter to boost it even more, but generally I don’t like giving up the extra stop of light that the 1.4 teleconverter requires and I don’t think that the images are as sharp as they are without the teleconverter.
The large, fast super-telephoto lenses are quite a commitment. First, they are very expensive. They are also quite heavy. This weight factor is a item that not often considered, but should be.
This lens is not very conducive to hand holding. So you have to have a tripod or at least a monopod.
If you go with the tripod, you should also consider getting a gimbal head to go with the tripod. On that tripod should be a leveling base as well.
The way this system works, when you go out, have your Gimbal head attached to your tripod. I know I have talked about this product before, but what I like to use is the Wimberley Gimbal head.
When you get to your location, you set the length to your tripod legs and secure each knuckle on the legs. I always do this twice. I had a rig crash to the ground one time and I don’t want to experience that ever again. So, I check all the connections twice.
Next, since I have a leveling base on the tripod, I can very quickly get the Gimbal head, that sits on top of the leveling head, nice and level with the bubble indicator.
Now I slip the foot of the long telephoto lens onto the Wimberly head and I then have to balance that. This is done by moving the foot on the tripod head forward and back, tightening it down each time, until I can get the up and down pivot of the lens to hold its position when I let go of it.
This is the beauty of using the Wimberly or just about any gimbal head. Once it’s all level and balanced, you can follow subjects and leave the lens trained on the subject without having to hold the lens. You let the head and the tripod to all the heavy work.
One of the ways to get around the heavy costs of using long lenses is renting them. I highly recommend using rented lenses BEFORE you buy. That way you can work with the equipment before you buy, to make sure you are getting the right products. Also, it lets you test two different styles of lenses if you want. Paying only the small rental fee as opposed to the big price of a long, fast telephoto lens.
The company that I turn to when I want to rent equipment is Lens-Pro-To-Go.
To tell us more about renting equipment, On the line with us today from Lens-Pro-To-Go is
Mike Duval,
The folks at Lens Pro To Go has offered the listeners of The Nature Photography Podcast a discount on their next rental. Use the code TERRYV10 at check out.
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Until next time, this is your host, Terry VanderHeiden with THE Nature Photography Podcast.