Shooting wildlife

Sue and I are wanting to have a more serious go at nature photography and I just wondered what lenses everyone was using for this?

At the moment our longest focal length is 300mm (450mm-equivalent) which is great for close ups of flowers and small animals, but not so good for long distance work.

Any thoughts?

I have a SMCP-M 400mm 1:5.6 and a Sigma 135-400mm APO Zoom which I mainly use for birds etc. Occasionally I bolt on the Takumar (non SMC) 2x TC as well. Whilst I have the Pentax 135-600mm zoom, I haven't used it much in anger yet. I'm expecting it to be awesome, if a bit (read a lot) unwieldy.

I'm hoping to get some shots of wild flamingoes, bea-eaters, and rollers this summer. I'll post any decent results.

John

I am really happy with the sigma 50-500 digital. with my DS

It can be used hand held with a little practice. However with a tripod or monopod it is brilliant.
I have used it in the garden on blue tits and wrens, at an RSPB reserve for ducks etc. and hand held on riverside walks for birds such as herons and the shyer birds such as goosander. It handles lower light levels well.


Impotent spider has one and so does Gwynn in Holland perhaps they cn give you a more eloquent and technical report than I can.

Dave
see the photo below of a teal

This was taken using a Sigma APO 75-300 mm set on 300mm. I quite like it - no "Photoshopping" just a bit of cropping.




However I must confess that I've often coveted some of the big lenses that I've seen round bird hides in Local Nature Reserves.

Hope that helps.

Howard

PS Comments accepted.

I saw your wife's (SueRiley1) ? image of the "Singing Swan" on the ePhoto Pentax gallery - brilliant. What did she use for that? It does not seem as if you need any further lenses or is there a lot of work been done on the computer. After seeing that I almost withdrew my earlier posting.

Howard

I have a Tamron 300mm f/2.8, which is nice, but heavy (I suspect it's all brass ). Has the obvious advantage of still only being f/5.6 with a 2x convertor (600mm), and works well with the 1.7x AF covertor.

But too heavy to pop in the bag 'just in case' - you've got to make the decision that that's the lens you're taking with you.

Dan

sueriley is indeed my wife. She used the SMC Pentax-DA 50-200mm on her K10D. The picture is full frame with no cropping, but there has been attenetion to levels and sharpening.

And just one little edit where the left wing has been flipped to create the pose required.....(That's a secret, don't tell anyone...)

Sue's picture:

"Little edit"??? Reflection needs attention!

Almost looks like a dust spot top right, but I realise it can't be in a Riley camera...

Nice shot though, good colours and timing.

Dan

The Sigma 135-400 APO is a great lens which I use all the time.

In a past life I used a Lanber 12 gauge over 'n under for shooting wildlife. I'm better now though, I just use a camera and binoculars nowadays.

I don't feel too badly about it, even Peter Scott (remember him) started out as a wildfowler before he turned conservationist.

That joke was waiting to be made!

I tend to specialize myself in nature photography, both distant and macro.
For the distance work I have 2 main lenses I use. The first is the Sigma 500mm APO f4.5 which for some reason that I haven't yet figured out (may be me!) seems to produce better results when coupled to my *istds than my new K10D? It works fine with the K10D but the images (at least IMHO) seem not up to the *istds quality. I need to do further tests and it is early days.
I also use, sometimes, a Sigma EX 1.4x converter to get me up to an effective 1050mm on the DSLR and with all that weight I naturally use a tripod and cable release.

My 'other' lens is the Pentax SMC (EF ID) FA* 300mm f2.8, which coupled with the K10D is absolutely stunning !! Naturally I use this for the more close work and on the K10D with the Shake Reduction activated I can often get pin sharp images when hand held in good light, even stopped down to f5.6 or f6.3. The bokeh on these lenses is superb.

I also have a manual focus Sigma 400mm f5.6, that tends not to get used so often, but is a fine lens in it's own right and served me very well until I got the other 2 in the last 2-3 years.

I would like a Sigma 800mm f5.6, or 300-800mm f5.6 and am hoping that Sigma will indeed extend such lenses to Pentax fitting sometime soon, although quite where I would get the money from to purchase is another matter!! Better still would be Pentax re-introducing & making easily available an updated 600mm f4 !!!! drool...........

Philip