Choosing a lens is a highly personal choice, and that’s especially true for wildlife photography. This is in the realm of the telephoto lens after all. While almost any focal length lens works for landscapes and other types of photography, in general, when it comes to photographing animals in the wild, you'll want to have the longest reach you can. In this guide, we’re going to discuss the factors one should consider when purchasing a lens for wildlife photography.
Focal Length
The first and most straightforward factor to consider is focal length. This determines how close we can make our distant subject appear. While it is possible to get close enough to wildlife to use a shorter focal length lens, it’s much easier (and safer!) to keep your distance and use a super telephoto lens. This generally refers to any lens with a focal length longer than 300mm.
General consensus among wildlife shooters across the board is as follows: If you’re photographing larger wildlife or big game, you should be equipped with a 300-400mm lens. Birds or smaller subject matter require 500-600mm at least. No matter the subject, there will always come a time when you’ll need more reach. There are helpful accessories we can equip to aid us in these moments, and we’ll touch upon these later, but there will also come a time when you just can’t get the shot. If you’re already bored of the standard wildlife portrait, fret not. There are more unconventional options to use as well.
Prime vs. Zoom Lenses
There are real-world advantages for wildlife photographers who can change focal length instantly with a zoom lens. In all types of photography, but especially in wildlife photos, you cannot always get to the vantage point you desire and, frustratingly, the wild animal you are trying to photograph might not be standing exactly where you want them to. Having a zoom lens allows the photographer to zoom in or out and more easily compose their images.
On the other hand, prime lenses generally offer greater light-gathering capabilities (large maximum apertures) and sometimes offer optical advantages. Discussions of light-gathering often revolve around low-light and nighttime shooting, but, for long focal-length wildlife photography, having a lens that allows more light into the camera means you can photograph at faster shutter speeds. This is an advantage that helps take some pressure off your IS systems and reduce camera shake leading to sharper photos.
Current zoom lenses are spectacularly sharp compared to their predecessors and can often compete with primes in most well-lit shooting scenarios. Even in overcast conditions, some of the higher end zooms can hold their own. While primes do deliver better overall image quality, the differences become slimmer and slimmer every generation.
While modern zoom lenses can be spectacularly sharp, prime lenses can be just a hair sharper—not to mention background rendering and focusing speed. For maximum image quality, wildlife photographers may have to forego the convenience and flexibility of the zoom lens.
Aperture
Photography is all about light, so a lens with exceptional light-gathering capabilities is a must. Luckily, most telephoto lenses today can accomplish this goal. A telephoto lens achieves this via its maximum aperture. Aperture factors into many aspects of wildlife photography, from light gathering and depth of field to size and weight. What is a large maximum aperture? Well, for a long telephoto lens, apertures wider than f/5.6—f/4, f/2.8, f/2—are relatively huge. The longer the lens, the less wide an aperture needs to be to be considered large. For example, an f/5.6 aperture on a super-telephoto lens is considered very large.
In the prime vs. zoom section, we discussed light gathering and that is probably the Number One advantage of lenses with larger maximum apertures, the ability to photograph at faster shutters speeds for any given lighting condition. Faster shutter speed means less blur from camera shake and can let you freeze fast action.
Another factor of larger maximum apertures is the ability to photograph at shallower depth of field—helping to isolate your subject from the background. The combination of long focal lengths and wide apertures delivers very shallow depth-of-field capabilities. This has creative implications that, when properly harnessed, can better isolate your subject from the background. Alternatively, it can be closed down to achieve a greater depth of field for larger subjects or multiple subjects.
The last factor to consider with large maximum aperture lenses is weight. We will dive further into this later in the guide, but larger maximum apertures = larger optical elements = a heavier lens. For wildlife photographers, this is an important consideration, especially when looking at used options.
Size and Weight
Luckily, newer tech has made primes significantly lighter than their predecessors. For reference, 600mm f/4 prime lenses have seen their weight cut nearly in half since the early days of the DSLR. Does that mean the lenses are light as a feather? No, not exactly.
Next time you’re at the gym, try holding even a 5 lb weight out in front of you for a minute. Now imagine doing so for hours. Telephoto lenses, even the smaller zooms, are quite heavy. Of course, you can mount any setup on a tripod, but that’s just adding more weight to lug around.
Know your limits and think ahead. If you’re planning on pulling up to a spot and setting up right outside your car, a heavier rig with a tripod is easy to get around. If you’re going to be hiking and covering many miles in tough terrain, a smaller lens that fits in a backpack with other gear is the ideal choice.
The size and weight of our lens can be a direct result of the camera we choose to use as well. This makes lens selection part of the greater system selection as well. It all depends on how much we want to carry with us.
Crop Factor
The photography world is filled with a wide assortment of digital sensor sizes. The most common in interchangeable lens mirrorless or DSLR cameras are full-frame, APS-C, and micro four thirds. Full frame gets all the press and if often regarded as the best option, but wildlife shooters can get real world benefits by using smaller sensors and as a result, smaller lenses.
On a 1.5x APS-C sensor, a 300mm f/4 lens effectively becomes 450mm f/4 lens. And, that same focal length optic on a 2x Micro Four Thirds sensor becomes an equivalent 600mm f/4 lens. Advancements in micro four thirds have made it more popular than ever with a variety of exceptional, lightweight lens options available for the format.
Full-frame shooters reading this might make the argument that you can just crop your full-frame image later to get the same field of view, and to that we say sure. Newer full frame cameras have higher megapixel counts than their predecessors, and if you crop them to the same size of an APS-C counterpart and have the same if not more resolution. That said, there is a definite advantage for composition and general "seeing" with crop sensor cameras since their viewfinders (electronic or optical) show you the true field of view of the camera/sensor combination.
Image Stabilization
An unfortunate drawback of longer focal lengths is that you not only magnify the image, but you also magnify camera shake. Camera shake leads to less-than-sharp images and no one likes an unintentionally blurry photo of a beautiful animal in the wild (or anywhere else for that matter). Thanks to modern camera and lens technology, image stabilization systems, or IS, can help combat that camera shake. There are two basic methods of image stabilization. Lens based optical stabilization and camera based in-body stabilization (IBIS). IBIS opens up the opportunity to not only increase the level of stabilization by working in tandem with a lens’s optical system, but it also can stabilize older lenses without IS.
As amazing as IS technology is, it is not infallible—with a long telephoto lens and a lot of movement, you might not get a razor-sharp image. Also, knowing the basics about how your IS systems work is important. Some IS systems have different modes to help compensate for general shake or to allow the camera to accept some panning movement if you are tracking a moving subject. Also, some IS systems react poorly when placed on a tripod. For that reason, it’s always best practice to deactivate IS when using a tripod.
Teleconverters
Teleconverters effectively increase the focal length of your lens by adding magnifying optics into the light path. These tools can be a boon to wildlife photographers because you can effectively multiply your focal length by 1.4x or 2x, or another multiplication factor without adding too much weight to your rig or necessitating another huge lens.
The downside of the teleconverter is the unfortunate side effect of reducing your maximum aperture while you increase your focal length. With a 1.4x teleconverter, you lose sacrifice a stop of light and with a 2x you lose 2 stops. For example, a 300mm f/4 lens with a 2x teleconverter is transformed into a 600mm f/8 lens.
Not all lenses can benefit from the benefits of a teleconverter. They’re generally designed to best suit fast apertured telephoto zooms like a 70-200mm f/2.8 and super telephoto primes. Adding any additional glass can degrade image quality, but to notice this difference, you’d need to really start pixel peeping
Does a teleconverter replace the versatility of a zoom lens? Absolutely not, a zoom has a greater range of focal lengths at its disposal. Plus, you can change those focal lengths without removing the lens. Though, some lenses have solved this conundrum with teleconverters.
A few new lenses feature built-in teleconverters which are designed as part of the individual lenses’ optical formula. The results are nearly indistinguishable from the bare lens. If you’re planning on sticking a teleconverter on your lens at all times, it may be worth going for a longer native focal length.
Tripods
As good as today's IS systems are, you cannot beat a good tripod for ultimate stability. Hiking into the wild with a heavy tripod is not always feasible, but, when shooting at extreme telephoto focal lengths, having a tripod might make the difference between getting the shot and getting nothing—especially in less-than-ideal lighting conditions.
Many telephoto lenses, even those around 200mm, often come with a tripod collar installed as standard equipment. These collars allow you to mount your lens, not your camera, on the tripod to keep the center of gravity of your camera and lens over the tripod head—very important for long focal length lenses since you do not want to hang a large amount of unsupported weight from the front of a camera.
As an additional mention, while a tripod ball head is great for almost every kind of photography, some long telephoto lenses can benefit from using a gimbal head or even a fluid head with your tripod. Alternatively, don't forget monopods and sandbags for stability.
Weather Sealing
Inclement weather is a part of all outdoor photography and there’s no reason to not brave the elements for the shot. Some of the most interesting moments can occur in these conditions, so it’s important to keep your gear protected. Modern electronics are remarkably robust, but many of today's cameras and lenses feature seals designed specifically to keep contaminants out. When it comes to lenses and harsh environments, zoom lenses with "internal zoom" keep components from being exposed to nature while changing focal length and some lenses feature specialized coatings, such as fluorine, to help combat moisture on the front elements.
Save on Used Gear
Buying used is a great way to save some money on top level glass. Long-established brands have a wide selection of super telephoto primes available, though the market is ever changing. One lens Take a look at the selection of gear currently available at the B&H Used Department for great deals.
We hope this guide has given you the tips you need to find a lens. Wildlife photography has become more accessible over the years and is a great way to enjoy nature while sharing it with others. Looking to learn more about wildlife photography? Read all about the gear, tips, and techniques in our guides on the B&H Explora site!
