How to choose a lens for wildlife photography?

Before choosing a wildlife photography lens, you must first determine whether you like wildlife photography. After determining your interests, you should consider what subjects, shooting locations and shooting time. After confirmation, the most critical factor is the budget.

The following are the key factors to consider when choosing wildlife photography lens:

1. Personal preference

2. Effectiveness

Shooting theme

4. Budget

First, the technical factors to be considered when choosing the best lens for wildlife photography

Let's talk about the technical factors that should be considered when choosing the best lens suitable for wildlife photography.

1. Focus range

The focal length range is very important for shooting wildlife images. You need a longer focal length to photograph birds and mammals. To shoot birds, you need at least a focal length of 400 mm, which can reach 600 or even 800 mm.

If you want to shoot mammals, the required focal length is 200mm to 600 mm. The longer the focal length, the wider the coverage.

However, there are exceptions in some cases.

When you want to show wild animals in their habitats or you can get close to them, you can use a shorter focal length, such as 12mm or 14 mm.

But in the case of most wild animals, there will be a distance between you and the wild animals being photographed. Therefore, a longer focal length is useful.

2. Maximum aperture

The aperture of the lens determines how much light reaches the camera sensor through the lens, and a larger aperture helps to capture the maximum light.

A large aperture lens also focuses faster than a small aperture lens.

In wildlife photography, the action is fast, so to capture the fast action, you need a faster focusing lens. Therefore, it is best to use a large aperture lens for wildlife photography.

The maximum aperture can be f/2.8 and f/4. Lenses with fast aperture (few in number) can focus quickly.

A lens with a faster aperture has excellent image quality, depth of field and clarity.

If you choose a lens with an aperture value of f/2.8 or f/4, the smallest aperture that can be achieved is f/5.6. Try not to choose a lens slower than f/5.6.

3. Focusing speed

Focusing speed is very important for wildlife and bird photography.

The best lens should focus quickly and accurately, even in low light conditions.

The focusing speed mainly depends on the maximum aperture and lens structure.

When viewing the lens structure, you will not be able to calculate the focusing speed. But based on the maximum aperture number, we can know the focusing speed of the lens.

A lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 or f/4 can focus quickly and accurately.

Usually, the performance of fixed-focus lens is better than that of zoom lens, because there are fewer moving glass elements. (There are exceptions. Some zoom lenses focus very fast; We won't discuss it too much)

4. Accessories and ergonomics

Accessories and ergonomics determine how to operate and use the lens.

Lens zoom and manual focus ring should be smooth and accurate.

The lens should be zoomed by optimized ring rotation, so it is not necessary to rotate the zoom ring 360 degrees.

Auto-focus and manual magnification (A/M or M/A) are a great function. You can auto-focus the lens. In addition, to fine-tune the focus, you can focus manually.

Shock absorption/image stabilization helps to compensate for any camera movement, which helps to capture clear images at low shutter speed.

The weight of the lens is also an important factor in choosing the lens. I've always wanted to lose weight, because I can take my lens with me when hiking or traveling. Similarly, smaller lenses are also suitable for travel packaging.

Most wildlife and bird photography lenses are bulky. Of course there are exceptions. At much lower weight and size, some lenses are equally excellent in image quality, but those lenses are more expensive.

5. Compatibility with rangefinder

The lens should be compatible with the rangefinder (autofocus performance, such as accuracy and speed).

Rangefinder helps to expand the lens range. For example, a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens with a 2X converter will be 140-400mm f/5.6. It doubles the focal length range of the lens and reduces the maximum aperture of the lens from f/2.8 to f/5.6.

Any lens brand usually has a range extender of 1.4 times, 1.7 times and 2 times. If the lens is compatible with all three rangefinders, it should be compatible with at least one rangefinder.

If your lens is compatible with the rangefinder, you can enlarge the focal length of the lens.

6. Weatherproof seal

A lens suitable for shooting wild animals should be able to resist the influence of outdoor weather.

The lens should be rain-proof, extreme temperature-resistant (cold and hot temperatures) and dustproof.

The seal should be sufficient to prevent raindrops and dust from entering the lens.

The tightness of the lens depends on the structure of the lens, the protruding lens element, the zoom/focus ring and the seal type at the camera base.

Having said that, please pay more attention when shooting outdoors, and it is best to clean the lens after each shooting. It is sufficient to clean the lens contact, lens holder, front element, zoom/focus ring and protruding parts.

7. Low light performance

The performance of low-light focusing also depends on the lens and camera, which play a vital role in low-light focusing.

Most wildlife activities occur in the early morning and dusk, when the lighting conditions are poor.

A good lens should be fast and accurate enough to focus in low light.

The weak light performance of the lens depends on the maximum aperture and the movable glass element. The larger aperture of f/2.8 or f/4 and fewer moving glass elements mean that the lens can focus quickly. Suppose your camera has excellent low-light autofocus performance. )

Second, wildlife photography with different lens types

1. Fixed focus lens

Fixed focus lens is most suitable for shooting birds and wild animals in the distance.

Due to fewer moving glass components and the largest aperture, the autofocus performance is very good.

For the fixed-focus lens, the image quality, clarity, low-light ability and focusing response are excellent, and the fixed-focus lens is also compatible with rangefinder.

Compared with zoom lenses, fixed-focus lenses are more expensive and may be heavier.

However, buying the best fixed-focus lens is the most important investment when you take pictures. These lenses can be used for more than ten years and can continuously shoot beautiful images.

2. Remote zoom lens

The telephoto zoom lens is a variable focal length lens. You can change the focal length of the lens by rotating the zoom ring on the lens.

The telephoto zoom lens is most suitable for shooting birds and wild animals at long distance and close range.

Compared with fixed-focus lens, zoom lens has more movable glass elements, which will affect the focusing performance.

When choosing a telephoto zoom lens, please pay attention to the aperture number, such as f/2.8 and f/4 (for specific lenses, it can be increased to f/5.6). The maximum aperture of telephoto zoom lens is helpful to improve autofocus performance, low light ability, image clarity and smooth shooting effect.

3. Microlens

If you like insects, snakes, butterflies or small animals, then microlenses are for you.

The most popular lenses for photographers are 105mm f/2.8, 180mm f/2.8 and 90mm f/2.8. In all 105mm f/2.8 lenses, the picture quality, range, size, weight and price are in an appropriate balance.

4. Miniature 4/3 format lens

The micro 4/3 frame lens is slightly different, and the camera sensor equipped with micro 4/3 system is smaller.

Micro-4/3 system has its advantages, such as small size, compactness, weather resistance and convenience. Compared with Quan Huafu sensor, when the sensor is small, there is a compromise between image quality and dynamic range. Micro 4/3 system has excellent lens and excellent glass quality, weather resistance and ergonomics.

Therefore, especially for wild animals, micro-4/3rds photography is an excellent and unique choice.

Third, pay attention to choosing the best lens for shooting wild animals.

Now that you know what kind of lens can be used for wildlife photography, let's take a look at the matters needing attention in lens selection.

Determine your photography requirements

Find out what interests you and decide where to take pictures. You may need to photograph birds, large animals or small creatures. The key is to find what you are interested in.

Evaluation lens

Once you find the place where you like photography best, choose the lens accordingly. For example, if you like to shoot birds, please choose telephoto (fixed focus lens). If you like shooting butterflies and insects, please choose a micro lens.

Rental lens

Before buying a lens, you can rent it to learn about the precautions for lens shooting. For example, if you want to find a telephoto (fixed focus) lens for birds, please rent a lens with 600mm f/4, 500mm f/4 and 400mm f/2.8 to see which lens feels comfortable.

If you want to shoot wild animals, please try to use 70-200 f/2.8, 300mm f/4, 200-500 f/5.6 and other lenses. By using the lens, you will be able to make a better evaluation.

Buy a lens

After evaluating and trying on the lenses, you can buy them. Usually, there is no discount for high-quality lenses. In addition, you'd better buy a new lens, because it will take you a long time (maybe more than ten years). After purchasing the lens, please make sure that all functions work properly.