southstar066
New member
any suggestions?
best nikon lense for aniaml shoots?
- Thread starter southstar066
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IPT
Active member
yeah, need more info...
In general the faster and longer you have the better you are. Gets expensive real quick. When shooting wildlife on a reasonable budget there are a lot of compramises.
What I ended up settling for and has generally served me well is a 300mm f4 lens with a 1.4x tele converter. Gives me a reasonably fast 300mm that doesn't weigh a ton, and a sort of slow F5.6 420mm. I recently aquired/permently borrowed a 300m f2.8 and because of it size it rarely gets used.
So much of it "depends", give us more info.
In general the faster and longer you have the better you are. Gets expensive real quick. When shooting wildlife on a reasonable budget there are a lot of compramises.
What I ended up settling for and has generally served me well is a 300mm f4 lens with a 1.4x tele converter. Gives me a reasonably fast 300mm that doesn't weigh a ton, and a sort of slow F5.6 420mm. I recently aquired/permently borrowed a 300m f2.8 and because of it size it rarely gets used.
So much of it "depends", give us more info.
southstar066
New member
it would be primarily zoo. my camera is the nikon D60
TitusvileSurfer
New member
I don't have a Nikon but I do have a 70-200 f/2.8 IS (IS=VR). With lesser focal length lenses, I don't miss IS at all. between 135mm and 200mm it starts to really come in handy though.
maroun.c
New member
You can also consider the 80-200 2.8 which is a bit old now but still a very fine lense. doesn't have VR and focuses maybe a bit slower than the 70-200 VR but for around 800 usd that is a fine lense to use. even with a TC It'll still be faster than a 70-300 VR and should still give you sharper images I guess.
IPT
Active member
If you can swing the 70-200 F2.8 and a tele converter THAT is the way to go (IMO). It gives you speed, tele, and a small aperature for making fences and bars disappear. My guess is the 3000mm is an f4 (?). If so, you'll have the smae with the f2.8 and a tele (if it's like Canon) but you will be able to use f2.8 if you want (low light, animal far away and bars in front you want to "go away").
TitusvileSurfer
New member
I think the 70-300 is a f/4-5.6 which would be a full stop slower wide open.
Absolute Reef
New member
another vote for 70-200 f/2.8 VR.
with te-14E II teleconverter for extra reach.
I and hope you mean wild animals in the wild, not wild animals in your tank.
70-200 is very difficult for shooting fishes...it requires some distance and your tank has to be very very well lid to increase shutter speed without the need of raising ISO.
with te-14E II teleconverter for extra reach.
I and hope you mean wild animals in the wild, not wild animals in your tank.
70-200 is very difficult for shooting fishes...it requires some distance and your tank has to be very very well lid to increase shutter speed without the need of raising ISO.
The 1.4 Extender will not give that much more reach specially on a 70-200 will only give you 280MM at the high end. When doing wildlife reach is everything The best option is 500MM or more is what you need if your serious about wildlife photography but thats where the big bucks come in. With a 1.4 Extender you get 700MM and only lose one F stop IQ still is preserved quite well.
maroun.c
New member
He could still use the 70-110 range of it for fish closeups which should be fine.
If the minimum focusing distance is not very big it should not have any limitations over other lenses when used at the wide side as it's a fix 2.8 and sharp enough to be used at 2.8. Depending on your camera performance in high Iso I don't think it would be very hard to achieve 1/50 -1/70 shutter speed at an Iso of 500-640 on most tanks.remember that this lense has VR which would allow you to shoot at 4 times slower speeds and get away with motion so when shooting even at 200 focal distance a sharp image is achivable only at 1/50 or even slower. I get away with shots at much slower than that with my 18-200 Vr which is far from the 70-200. one problem I see is use of flash as when you're far away it will reflect off the glass. and also lense weight. In the end he did mention that it's for zoo animals.
Add to that the crop factor of Nikon as he's shooting crop body not a full frame then you endup with a 420. it will eatup one stop or maybe less light but still it'll be faster than a 500mm F4. Don't know if you're mentioning the 500mm Vr by Nikon or another one? but the 500 mm VR is an 8000 USd worth lens so way overkill for someone with a D 60 wanting to shoot animals in a zoo ?
