You don’t always need the latest and the greatest photography equipment to take great wildlife pictures. In the digital photography world, dominated by quick-changing technology these days, most photographers feel the urge to keep on updating their equipment because otherwise they won’t be able to make good pictures anymore. Especially in wildlife photography, most amateurs feel they need to migrate to full-frame cameras and buy the best super telephoto lenses to get the desired results. This means that you are easily spending more than ten thousand dollars to have the latest wildlife camera gear kit. In this article, I want to demonstrate that you do not have to spend the same amount of money that could buy you a nice second-hand car.
For many years I also have been longing for the latest and the greatest, but due to financial limitations I had to compromise, and sometimes that would mean less quality. A few years ago, I discovered that by using high quality, but old, prime lenses, you can get amazing results at much more affordable prices.
My main interest is wildlife photography and in particular birds. An even more zoomed in you could say my main interest is water birds, be it on a lake or at the seaside. My main camera body at that time was the Nikon D7100, a 24 MP crop-sensor camera and a Sigma 50-500 HSM OS which basically was always at 500mm, because birders always need more reach…
Since I live 5 minutes walking from the beach, this is my place to go for when going out shooting birds. At the beach I will first locate my subjects and then try to get closer to them. One of my favorite species is the Sanderling – this bird runs faster than I can walk despite being only 10 cm tall (I am almost 20 times taller).
These quick creatures run to the water level, pick their food as quickly as possible and when a wave rides in they run back to the sand. In other words, you need to be able to maneuver quickly with these critters! Although the Sigma (or Bigma as a lot of people call this lens) is a reasonably fast focusing lens, it is not very light, pretty big and thus due to its mass hard to relocate quickly.
Usually I am lying on the sand using an angled viewfinder for optimal low point of view, hand-holding the camera / lens combination. Although I always longed for a ‘real’ birding lens like the Nikon 500mm f/4, I knew that the ‘mass’ of this lens would even be worse than when using the Bigma and that long hikes would be a problem because I would also need to carry a tripod!
Then I stumbled upon a 16-year old Nikon AF 300mm f/4 ED, built like a tank and for only €400. The lens weight was just 60% of the Bigma, and its size also considerably smaller, making it ideal for fast movement. Unfortunately, no VR and no fast focusing, so it looked like a bad change compared to the Bigma. But the reality proved to be different. First of all, the image quality of this prime was (and still is) fantastic, much more micro detail than the Bigma. Second of all, it worked perfectly with a Kenko Telepro 1.4x TC, giving me an effective 420mm f/5.6 combo. The Bigma at 500mm proved to be just 460mm at f/6.3 so the focal length difference was less than I thought it would be.
But the biggest advantage proved to be the much smaller size and the lower mass, allowing for much quicker movement of the combination, meaning I could follow a fast-moving subject easier and with better focus tracking, despite the slower initial focus acquisition (thanks to screw drive AF). And often I was using the Nikon D7100 with the Nikon 300 f/4 ED in 1.3x crop mode, effectively giving me a 15.3 MP 550mm f/4 setup with a carrying weight of just 2kg, very high quality images and relatively low cost.
Of course there were some disadvantages of the older lens, most noticeable in visible chromatic aberration, something you are often confronted with when photographing at the sea. But Lightroom was usually able to remove most of that, so I used this lens for quite some time, later with a second-hand Nikon D800 as my main camera body. Also on this hi-res FX camera, it produced amazingly sharp images, even wide open.
Then, a little more than 2 years ago my financial situation changed for the better, and since I was getting older, also longing for even lighter equipment. So currently I own the Nikon 300mm f/4E VR PF, its weight now only 60% of the older 300 f/4, fast focusing and no CA, also perfectly compatible with the Nikon 1.4x and 1.7x teleconverters. I sold my old 300mm f/4, but I knew the new owner would not be disappointed with this lens that will probably last forever…
This guest post was contributed by Frank Baldé. To see more of Frank’s work, check out his Flickr page.
This article makes a lot of sense.
Most people reading the above lines can surely say to themselves: Hurray! I allready have the gear!
Get out there and go wild….life! :-)
I have a cannon dlsr camera.
Hi guys
i have a panasonic gx7 could anyone advise on an affordable wildlife lens.I love wildlife and was always of the opinion that i could not afford any kind of telephoto lens for bird watching.Fantastic article really gets the photography juices flowing.
Regards
Jeff
I use the Lumix 100~300 f4 lens. It is light and weathersealed and focuses quickly. A tripod is best but I get good images handheld. Another option is the costly Leica 100~400 f4.
Cheapest way to start out is surely the Nikon P9000?!?! 2000mm equivalent, although it doesn’t shoot RAW you can still get some wonderful photos.
For me, the fairly new Sigma 100-400 C has been that kind of can opener, something that has changed my way of photography, not least birds. With the TC-1401 it gives me 550mm focal length, and I use either D7500 (with extremely able AF), or D3300 (with higher resolution), or any of my Nikon 1 cameras, giving me 1.5 meters focal length (equivalent). That is pretty amazing. Sharpness is no issue, lack of light is: if you use high ISO on a Nikon 1 camera you are bound to have noise issues, there is simply no way around it, except long exposures, or focus stacking.
If the sun is really bright, by all means, bring the Nikon 1 along, if it is not, use the lens on the D7500, a lovely combination, especially if you like birds in flight (aka BIF). Hardly a shot will be out of focus, and the end result is smashing!
Tord,
Like you Thomas Stirr uses Nikon 1 system and getting excellent pictures. I can’t wait when Nikon or Canon moves up to more mirrorless bodies so that they can handle more demanding lighting conditions. Several fast prime lenses would be great. Better yet if Sigma and Tamron beginning to offer their 100-400 and 150-600 lenses with mirrorless mounts.
Frank,
Thank you for sharing the article and the great photos. You mentioned the “16-year old Nikon AF 300mm f/4 ED” used on D7100 body and getting good result. I am a bit confuse and please help to correct me if I misunderstood you. My understanding is that the older Nikon AF lenses are driven by a screw from the camera bodies. Nikon has since moved on from this mechanical means of AF, and instead the AF is driven by internal motor within each lenses. Can you still maintain AF and correct exposure reading from the D7100?
Currently I am using manual focus Nikkor wide angle lenses on D810 body strictly for astrophotography. It works but it is a very slow process (much slower than on my F2A body.
Only the recent 3xxx and 5xxx series of DX bodies lack the screw drive for older lenses. Your D810 will perfectly focus any old screwdrive AF lens and expose correctly.
Frank
How about posting some images from time to time captured with the other system as well! Example Canon EOS 70D + Canon EF 300mm f/4 IS USM combo.
Regards.
A compelling article, and a powerful plea for less experienced photographers to avoid having a bad attack of “GAS”. In fact, for ALL of us to avoid it. Before we think of buying something just because it had good reviews, or because it’s “the latest and greatest”, we all need to make quite sure how it can improve our photography. Otherwise, we might get more pleasure out of spending a similar amount, buying a stock of vintage champagne.
Frank, you can’t imagine how much I appreciate your article. It was only 24 hours ago that I was having a discussion about this very issue – and in relation to the very same kind of photography – with the manager of my favourite camera shop. I left empty handed, because neither of us could think what lens I should be looking at. You’ve just provided me with the answer. You’ve made my day! And I have to add – it can’t get any better than that! :)
thank you Jean Pierre, good to hear!
cheers, Frank
Frank,
Great images and a vivid reminder that it is the photographer’s skills that really make the difference. Many of us have used crop sensor cameras with a high quality 300mm f/4 + 1.4x or a 400mm f/5.6 lens and captured quality images while not breaking our backs or our bankbooks. In the Canon world, the EOS 7Dii +100-400mm L IS II is a very portable and capable system for bird photography at an affordable price, and the whole rig is weatherproof and hand-holdable. The 150-600mm zooms currently offered by Tamron and Sigma are great lenses and again, affordable. A used 300mm f/2.8 with 1.4x and 2x on a 1.6x crop-factor body is a VERY versatile system that get you to EFV of 960mm at f/8. So, if you are keen on bird photography, their are lots of affordable options these days. Its an exciting time to be a bird and wildlife photographer!
Hi, thanks for the great article & photos. I find myself in a similar position, after retiring I decided to spend more time coming to grips with photography, but with little idea of what I would photograph. DSLR’s seemed heavy to drag around – especially if flying to a destination, so eventually I settled on a Sony A6000 mirrorless with it’s two kit lenses – certainly a step up from my old Canon point & shoot. I was very happy with the camera, but found myself drifting into wildlife photography, the 50-210 kit lens is good for many things, but birds from 50 metres is not it’s forte. I started looking for a bigger lens & quickly learned that there is nothing really available in E mount, I could go A mount & an adaptor, but the $ were escalating rapidly. Eventually I found an ancient Tamron 200-500 weighs in at just under 3kg and looks very silly with my A6000 perched on the end, with a passive M42-E mount adaptor. But I’ve managed some passable shots & even if I throw the lens away I could regard the $300 I spent on it as a very cheap photography course, I’ve Learnt so much by using a purely manual zoom lens. I generally use continuous shutter in the hope that at least one shot will be decently framed as the camera/ lens combination wavers around as I hand hold it. Also The subject (usually a bird) needs to sit still as of course there is no auto focus. As as a side benefit my biceps are growing as I manoeuvre the 3kg lens – so win/win I don’t need to pay gym fees. Thanks to Photography Life for hosting these forums, it’s my first stop when researching anything new.