Long Distance Wildlife

Guys,

I have a Pentax K10D and need a good lens for taking wildlife pictures.

Mainly they are dolphins - so shots of fast moving animals taken from a moving ship at a distance of 800m to 2km, at sea (so some glare)

I've narrowed it down to either:

- Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 DG HSM

or

- 2nd hand Sigma 100-300mm f/4 EX DG IF HSM APO with Sigma 1.4x EX DG Tele Converter

I'm guessing a good quality CPL filter would be a good idea too.

I've already tried shots with a Tamron 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro but the results arn't great, often grainy or not sharp.

Any recommendations?

Cheers.

I can recommend the Sigma 100-300 EX as I use one on my canother manufacture camera outfit. The image quality with the dedicated 1.4x EX converter is also good.
The trouble with using a polariser, is that it takes 2 stops of light from your exposure, and means that you have to increase the ISO to freeze action. I suppose that with the glare from the water a polariser may be essential. Increased ISO means increased picture noise. A noise reduction program may then also be required.

I wouldn't choose 500mm for fast-moving subjects taken from a moving surface.

I have shot dolphins using a 50mm. They do come quite close. If a 70-210 doesn't do it, you're on the wrong boat.

G

Thanx,

George - if I could get closer believe me I would

The vessel is a cruiseferry and the deck is 34 metres above sea level, so you can see my problem!

Ah! That's where the "wrong boat" advice comes in!

G

I would take the 100-300mm f4 and converter but that's just a personal preference. I have the 50-500mm which is excellent but there are varying reports of quality regarding the 150-500mm, if you get a good one then great but more often than not you don't it seems.

If you are looking at buying the used 100-300 at SRS then please hurry up as it has been tempting me for weeks and I really don't need another big lens.

I'm sorry to say you will never be able to get consistently sharp shots with a super-telephoto from a moving ship of a fast moving object and a tri or monopod will just conduct the vibration from the ship's deck. As has been said, a polariser will actually worsen your situation.

George is right about the choice of boat, have you thought about the wildlife on board? The bar and disco are usually fertile ground.

Unfortunately long lenses don't magnify anything like as much as one would think. A 500mm gives about 14 times the magnification of a standard 35mm lens.

At 1km it will be roughly the same as image size as a 35mm standard lens at 1000/14 = roughly 70 metres. A dolphin at this range will be will be tiny.

As gartmore says, you are attempting the impossible. Fun to try but you will need to be much, much closer to get anything worthwhile in image size, let alone sharp.