Wildlife on a budget


Left Image
Minolta Maxxum 9, 200mm f-2.8 APO lens, Fuji Provia 100, Bogen tripod and ball head.
Spot meter, 1/60 sec at f-5.8, aperture priority and manual focus.

Advertising today suggest that you need to own a fast pro camera and lens in order to take good wildlife photos. It is true that fast lenses make shooting much easier in low light and allow you to use slower finer grain films, but quality wildlife photos can be taken with any camera and lens as long as you use good technique. The camera you use is not as important as the lens. It is the lens that gives sharp contrasty images if used correctly, not the camera. Any 35mm SLR will work fine. You need some tools to work with. If your camera has 1-1/1000 sec shutter speed or more, exposure compensation, aperture priority and manual mode, and manual ISO setting, then you are all set. Some very useful additions are built-in or accessory winders with at least 3 frames film advance, spot metering, AE-lock, autofocus, and viewfinder that shows shutter speeds and f-stop or more. Everything else is just luxury that can make photography easier but not really required. Most currently made beginner and amateur models include most of the features I mentioned plus more. If you are reading this, you most likely own a camera. Whatever model it is, it will be fine for wildlife photography. What you really need is one or more telephoto lenses to get you started in the field.

Canon EOS 75-300mm IS Zoom

The 300mm lenses are the first choice for many wildlife photographers. It covers large mammals and birds at a safe distance. A 75-300mm f-5.6 is low priced and good ones are available by most manufacturers. This is how I covered my long shots when I started wildlife photography. The main problem with this lens is its speed. F-5.6 is fine under normal light even with finer grain ISO 50 films. When working under low light or fast moving wildlife, f-5.6 is slow and requires faster films which are grainy and less sharp than slow ISO films. As long as you stay with ISO 100 or 200 films, you shouldn't have any problems. Currently made ISO 100 and 200 films are very sharp and grain is well controlled. You will begin to notice grain with ISO 400 or faster films.

Image Below: Tokina 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 AT-X 840-II


Another lens option is the newer 100-400mm f-5.6 zooms. You get an additional 100mm focal length which lets you shoot smaller birds and smaller mammals. Since we are talking about wildlife photography on a budget, we can skip the more expensive Canon EOS 100-400mm f-5.6 Image Stabilizer and Nikon's 80-400mm f-5.6 Vibration Reduction zooms. You can go for the less expensive Tamron 200-400mm f-5.6, Tokina 80-400mm f-5.6, or the Sigma 135-400mm f-4.5-5.6. I've worked with all three and can tell you that you can't go wrong with any of them. You can't expect to get the same quality as a fixed 400mm f-2.8 with these zooms, but as long as you are not going to make larger than 8X10 prints, you'll be all right with one of these zooms.

A better way to go for those of you who want to do a lot of wildlife photography without spending too much money, is a 300mm f-4 lens. These are sharp optics and very light. Excellent ones are made by camera and lens manufacturers. This lens is sharper and one stop faster than 75-300mm f-5.6 zooms. Prices start at around $600 to over $1000. You have another option. Affordable 400mm f-5.6 lenses which are made by Sigma and Tokina. For under $500 you can own a sharp fixed focal length telephoto that lets you shoot a wide variety of wildlife. Fixed focal length 400mm lenses are also sharper than most zooms especially at corners when shot wide open. There are other models to choose from, but be prepared to pay much more.

Image Below: 200mm f-2.8 Lens
Another affordable very sharp lens is my favorite 200mm f-2.8 with teleconverters. Among all the lenses I mentioned here, only the 200mm f-2.8 and 300mm f-4 models work well with teleconverters. Zooms generally don't produce good results with teleconverters. Sharpness suffers both in center and corners. F-5.6 wide open aperture is too slow for teleconverters. With a 1.4X converter you end up with f-8 or f-11 with a 2X version. F-8 and f-11 are very slow for wildlife photography. 200mm f-2.8 with 1.4X converter becomes 280mm f-4 and 400mm f-5.6 with 2X converter. You can shoot many types of wildlife with a 200mm f-2.8 and teleconverters with excellent quality.


Accessories to look for are extension tubes, tripod, and flash. Extension tubes are mostly used for close-up photography, but I regularly use them with telephoto lenses for wildlife photography. Some animals allow very close approach, even closer than your lens' close focusing capability. You can quickly attach one or more tubes to any lens to gain more focusing distance for frame filling shots or to bring out details. Extension tubes are very inexpensive and small to carry. Some manufacturers do not make extension tubes for their autofocus cameras. Kenko makes two kinds of affordable tubes for autofocus cameras. One model works in autofocus mode while the other works in manual focus mode only. A solid tripod should be one of your first purchases. You can own an inexpensive tripod for $30. Spend an extra $50 and buy a well made more solid tripod. I guarantee you that if you are serious about wildlife photography, you will upgrade your 30 dollar tripod soon. It is better to buy a better tripod now which will last you for a long time. Add a medium size flash to your system for low light photography or when you need fill-in flash.

Don't believe that you have to own expensive cameras or fast telephotos to take good wildlife shots. True that faster lenses make shooting easier in low light or when you need to freeze action. Faster lenses and teleconverters work much better than slower lenses, but wildlife photography is not limited to those who can afford expensive cameras and lenses. If you get to know your subjects and equipment, you can take great wildlife shots with minimum of equipment. I watched this old man on a nature channel who loved photographing snow leopards in the wild. He did this with an obsolete old camera and a 50mm lens! He knew his subject and how to approach them. This man proved to me that with dedication and better understanding of wildlife, I can take good pictures with any camera or lens.