What Size Lens?

It seems many ask about what size lens is needed for wildlife photgraphy, or how far away one can be. In response to a thread called "Telephoto Lens Options", I ran a simple comparison to show how big an animal (a Montana cow elk decoy in this test case) will appear at various distances from 100 to 800 yards. The lens was approximately a 630mm equivalent on a full frame camera body, as I used my Nikon D90, 300mm lens, and 1.4xTC teleconverter.

(300mm)(1.4xTC)(1.5 Nikon crop sensor factor) = 630mm

This would be like a 400mm lens on a Canon T3i (400mm)(1.6x crop factor)=640mm



Below @ 800 yards


Below @ 600 yards


Below @ 400 yards


Below @ 200 yards


Below @100 yards





You are welcome to visit my Photo Gallery here http://www.plateaulightphotography.com/

What about these. LOL

It's super depressing to see this, as it just shows how difficult it is to get great wildlife photo's.

Even with tens of thousands of $$$ you can't buy getting close to the critters. I'm super fortunate that my dad invested in a 600mm Nikkor lens back in the 80's and that I can still get it to work on my DSLR.

Here's what 960mm equivalent focal length does on an elk at 150 yards.


Here's a 100% crop.


The point being, it takes some serious zoom and more so, a serious dedication to crawling around in the dirt, mud and snow to get the kind of images that folks are putting up on the cover of magazines.

Even with all the tools at my disposal, I can't seem to get it.

Cheers,
Pete

redrabbit,

Very informative post. Thank you!