What lens for wildlife photography?

[Nekomi]

Hi everyone,

I'm extremely new to photography and don't have all the terminology down pat yet, so please bear with me... :o

My husband and I love to hike, kayak, and camp, and we frequently encounter wildlife on our little adventures. Unfortunately, our G6 can't really zoom in far enough to get most of the shots we want unless the animal in question happens to be very close.

I'd like to purchase a lens that would allow me to zoom significantly closer to the subject without a noticeable loss in image quality. I would mainly be shooting larger subjects such as birds of prey, herons, coyotes, deer, and moose; although I would like to take shots of small songbirds as well, this is not as high of a priority, and I don't want to compromise the quality of the lens' ability to do one type of subject in order to do the other. (I'd rather have a really darn good specialized lens than a mediocre all-purpose one.)

So does anyone have any recommendations for me? Also, what price point am I looking at? Thanks so much, everyone, can't wait to hear your feedback. :)

[vkalia]

I have an article on the subject that might be of interest to you:
http://www.photosafariindia.com/Articles/beg3-wildeq.htm

Cheers,
Vandit

[Reeforbust]

I've got an Opteka 3.2x tele-photo lens for my G5........I wouldn't suggest this lens because I get a lot of vignetting and some distortion.

I would say to buy a Canon lens made for your camera.....That will get you the best quality and picture.

Canon telephoto Lens part#.......TC-DC58N

Canon Adapter tube for lens........LA-DC58D

Found the lens online......
http://www.advancephotosource.com/8159a001.html


Also with the 58mm adapter tube, you can buy different filters to give you more control of your pictures.....


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[Nekomi]

Thanks for the links, guys. Vkalia, your article was very informative and helped me narrow down what I needed, but I'm not interested in going SLR at this point as your article stressed (out of my price range until I know I'm serious about this).

Reeforbust, thanks for the link to the site. That lens looks good, but I was hoping to find something with a better focal length than 245mm. Something in the 350mm - 450mm range. Any other suggestions?

[Reeforbust]

Something in the 350mm - 450mm range.

You do have a G6, right?


It might be hard to find something like that to add to your G series.......Any lens you add is going to mount over the original lens unlike a dslr camera where you can change the lens totally.

Here is the exact lens I got......
http://cgi.ebay.com/3-2x-HD2-Telephoto-Lens-for-Canon-PowerShot-G6_W0QQitemZ7589162231QQcategoryZ106844QQrdZ1QQcmd ZViewItem

It works pretty good, just get vignetting in the corners. I'm thinkin this is the biggest you'll find unless you "rig" up something...BUT, then you gotta worry about the amount of light getting into your camera.

How about this one!!!!
http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/images/images17.php



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[vkalia]

Nekomi, if you plan to shoot wildlife, then the G6 is *not* the right camera for the tool, even with accessories.

If you want a small camera, look into getting a Panasonic FZ30 - that has the focal length to get you into wildlife territory. I've been playing around with an LX-1 and have been very impressed (it seems to have been designed for photographers) - the FZ30 looks like the best of the bunch for long reach. While it wont help you with action shots, it is a good starting point for portraits and wildscapes.

Vandit

[Terrywoodenpic]

Hi the best you can do is with a Tiffin 2x convertor
See this site
http://www.lensmateonline.com/G5_Telephoto/g5kenko2x.jpg
Shows a the quality if you click on the picture.

Terry

[Andy_T]

Amanda, there are several lenses that might get you closer to animals.
Whether the results are really what you expect, remains to be tested.

One of the most suitable might be the Crystalvue LX 8x lens (http://www.ckcpower.com/cvlxlens.htm) because it does not display vignetting on the G series (tested with G2 and G3, but optically the G6 is very similar)
Others that come to my mind are the 'eagle eyes 5x' or Kenko KUT 300.

You might do a forum search for these terms to find more information.
Some more lenses are discussed at here (http://kazutoku.maxs.jp/G1andG2/report1_eng.htm), but it mostly covers conversion lenses in the 0.5x-2.0x range.

Best regards,
Andy

[rckaine]

Crystalvue LX 8x (http://www.ckcpower.com/cvlxlens.htm)
Andy

Has anybody tried this lens? I have never herad of it before.

Kaine

[Andy_T]

Try using the 'search' function with 'Crystalvue' as search criteria.

There are some threads there but they are not too new. The lens was brought to the market when the G2 was the camera of choice. And ... quite obviously ... it is not too portable.

Best regards,
Andy

[Vicky2]

vkalia, thanks for the link to: http://www.photosafariindia.com/Arti...eg3-wildeq.htm

I am new to photography too. I just got this for my birthday: It is kind of a beginners package but it is great to me!

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Zoom Lens
Bogen 718SHB Compact Digi Tripod with 3-Way Head
Canon Digital Rebel XT BLACK EOS SLR Camera Kit with 18-55 Lens
Circular Polarizer Filter 58mm (HAVE NO IDEA if I should use this)

Well, I found out really fast that a 300mm lens isn't enough for the wildlife photos I want to take (I live in little everglades). All my really cool pictures are just too far away and a little fuzzy. I will post some of them on the site if I can figure out how.
Anyway, I think I need to get a 500mm lens and the website above suggested the Sigma 50-500mm. (I can't afford the Canon one). YIKES!!!

So my question is will 500 mm be enough? It is about $900 so I won't be getting another one for a REALLY long time if I get it.

I am going to have a lot of questions in the near future so thank you for this site and the help everyone is giving to eachother.



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[vkalia]

The thing is, if you just expect to meander up and get frame filling shots of wildlife, you'll never have enough. When I try doing that, a 500/4 + 2xTC on a 1.3 crop body (that's 1300mm) becomes too short. You are better off learning a little bit more about your subject and how to approach them closely, etc.

The 50-500 is a very good lens indeed. Paired with the 1.6 crop body, that is 800mm of focal length. The top pros, until a few years ago, used to get award-winning shots with focal length in that range. So yes, by all means go for it.

The one thing to consider is usage - if you are going to use a good tripod regularly (and given where you are and where you'll be shooting, you should!). If you will do a lot of shooting from jeeps, etc. then it may be worth trading off a little in the way of focal length for IS.

Look at it this way - a big tele is a long-term investment. Spread over 10 years or so, $900 is $90 per year. That is nothing compared to the pleasure of being outdoors in the wild.

I think perhaps this discussion ought to be taken to the appropriate forum, or feel free to PM me if you have any more specific questions.

Cheers,
Vandit

[Vicky2]

Thanks vkalia, I went to the right forum now. Thanks for the advice and I love your site, really helpful!