What basic lens is best for wildlife etc (28mm-90mm)?

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TangoFiver

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Joe
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Hi, first post so be nice! :help:

Basically, I'm going to Tanzania in September and want a half decent DSLR to shoot the big cats etc (not with a gun of course :bonk: ).

Firstly, I'm looking at getting the Canon 450d...

My bro has an old Canon EOS SLR with a lens that has '28mm-90mm' on it, doesnt mean much to me :thinking: (I've read the scientific explanations on here and wikipedia but i'm not quite realising the 'real' outcome of different lenses - that is, which sets-of-numbers-lenses are best for which situation??

i.e, will it be better for me to buy the 450d as a body and use my bro's old lens, or buy the body with the kit lens (18mm-55mm) or perhaps buy the kit on play.com (comes with kit lens and 55mm-250mm) but would be stretching the bugdet a bit!

Or any other suggestions??

Many thanks,

Joe :)
 
You can get nice close-up pictures of the big cats with a 28-90mm, but probably not many, and you'll need someone to retrieve the camera from your mauled carcass.

Alternatively I suggest a longer lens, as long as you can afford. Oh and I'd want the kit lens as it'll be more useful for general photography than the 28-90mm.
 
From what I remember a human eye has roughly the field of view of a 50mm lens so a 90mm would make everything nearly twice as big.

For Safari type shots you'd need in the order of 300mm to avoid being eaten :D



*ignoring crop factors to avoid confusion ;)
 
I would go for the 55-250 mm. or find a ? - 300mm. lens. ;)
If you use the 28-90 for the big cats I think you will never return from Tanzania :shrug:

Kjeld
 
but the cats would be v v pleased to see you! :nuts:
 
the kit lens is roughly equivalent on the crop sensor to the 28-90 on full frame.
 
At least a 300mm lens. Canon-wise, I believe there is a Canon 70-300m IS, or you can go for the Sigma 70-300mm APO.

It's not the body you should be concerned with (a 350D and decent lens would be better than a 450D and crappy lens) Get some good 300mm-ish glass is my advice.

I notice it's your first post - welcome to TP! (You're not trying to pimp your book are you? Been a bit of that going on round these parts recently!!!)
 
At LensesForHire we have a load of customers who are going on wildlife/safari holidays. The most popular lens *by far* is the Canon 100-400mm L IS. It's got the length you need, it's a zoom so it's flexible, the autofocus is fast, image quality is very high, and the IS means you can use it at the ends of the day when the light is poor.

The only downside is that it costs around £1000, which I guess is why a lot of people hire them. Even if they can afford £1000, it can be difficult to justify buying something they're not sure they'll use much after the holiday. (I speak from experience here. I wanted a 100-400L, I couldn't justify buying one... And that's why I now run a lens hire shop!)
 
try to find a 2nd hand 300mm f4 sigma or something

i could be persauded to sell mine.
 
If you don't propose to shoot a lot of wildlife on your return, I personally would go for your 'play.com' option with the 55-250mm lens as this will be more portable (much smaller) and possibly more useful than a specialist lens on your return
 
I would also recommend the 55-250 (as I have one). It's not the longest lens, but has Image Stabilization (IS) and is therefore as near a fool-proof lens (at the price point) as you're likely to get with that reach, which I think will come in very handy until you've learned the limitations of it (which will take a while).

This is exactly my situation, and I couldn't recommend the 55-250 enough. Okay, so it'd be great to have the extra 50mm, but it's much lighter than the 70-300 (as an example), has later generation IS and is significantly cheaper.

I'm hawking this image round this forum a bit, but caught this at the full 250mm the other night, with zero set-up time. I would hesitate to say you can't go wrong with this lens, but you'd have to try pretty damned hard IMO!

2625399267_fe24cb1792.jpg
 
Well thanks for all the replies! :thumbs:

From what i've read on here, the 55mm-200mm lens does get some good reviews.

I should have said that weight will be a bit of an issue (15kg for two weeks) as well as the budget (unfortunately £1000 for a lens is well over! :( ).

So at the moment i'm leaning towards the kit on play.com, I'll also be on the lookout for any 5% off offers they have going etc!

Thanks once again for the advice,

Joe :)

P.S. reddeathdrinker - I have no idea what 'pimping my book' means :thinking: :shrug:
 
Personally I'd be wanting something a bit longer than 400mm, but if weight and cost are an issue and it was a once-in-a-lifetime holiday I think I'd be paying LensesForHire a visit.

I have no connection with StewartR, but I had a look at the prices on his website and I thought they were quite expensive until I realised the prices were for a week's rental incl. vat and insurance- I thought the price was for a day's hire! The 100-400 mentioned is only £52/week, and I'd rather have 2 weeks use of a top lens than buy a piece of cheap junk
 
Hmm well thats a thinker :thinking:

If I went for the hire option, it would cost me £80 for the 100-400mm (although it would need to be for around 16 days), it would weigh about 280g more than the 55-200mm but would enable me to take much better snaps, which brings me neatly onto my photographic ability...

....which isn't great!

So I'm more leaning towards the idea of the 55-200mm as it would give me a couple of months to go out and practice before I go on my holls.

If I got the hire one then I wouldn't have any time for any practising, or at least not as much as I would like!

neil_kman - How much does the 300mm f4 Sigma weigh?

Ta!

Joe :)
 
The one you want is the 55-250, not the 55-200 which is a different lens - not so good.
 
I would go for a 500 mm personally-those animals are deadly-wanna be at least that far away and then also will get smaller animals aswell in good frame.

It did make me laugh when you first posted your suggested focal length-youll be on a hell of a learning curve first time doing wildlife-good luck
 
TangoFiver said:
Hmm well thats a thinker :thinking:

If I went for the hire option, it would cost me £80 for the 100-400mm (although it would need to be for around 16 days), it would weigh about 280g more than the 55-200mm but would enable me to take much better snaps, which brings me neatly onto my photographic ability...

....which isn't great!

So I'm more leaning towards the idea of the 55-200mm as it would give me a couple of months to go out and practice before I go on my holls.

If I got the hire one then I wouldn't have any time for any practising, or at least not as much as I would like!

neil_kman - How much does the 300mm f4 Sigma weigh?

Ta!

Joe :)
Click to expand...


Not sure about the 300mm but the bigma weighs about as much as the animal lol-youll need a support of some kind really for long periods. Sorry the Bigma is the 500mm incase you didnt know
 
He may be a master of disguise.

Either that or get a lens of at least 300mm as the others have said.
 
Well thanks for the continuing feedback/advice, tis much appreciated :D

I maybe should have said (I could have made a more informative introduction really :|) that i'm taking my first step into the world of DSLR.

I want to take pictures of said animals etc, but I just want to improve on the capabilites of my 3x optical zoom compact digi cam. Then anything more is a bonus!

From reading peoples' opinions on the 55-250mm, I get the impression it is easy on novices like myself, and can also produce half-decent pics!

Going up to 300mm would be nice, but I don't really have the funds and once again the weight issue is an important one :(


Thanks again,

Joe :)
 
I must admit it's daunting to get your first DSLR and take it to Africa for a first trip, I did that I bought on the Saturday and flew to J'berg on the Sunday, for work. I had a 18 -125 as the only lens and went to a game park the following Saturday followed by the trip to a J'berg mall to buy a longer lens on he Sunday before the trip back to the game park.

The 55 - 250 will give you a reasonable reach and you should be able to get some good shots.

My current lens of choice for such trips is the 100 - 400 but I have had the opertunity to safari on a number of occasions so the investment has been worthwhile.
 
Jamougha said:
You can get nice close-up pictures of the big cats with a 28-90mm, but probably not many, and you'll need someone to retrieve the camera from your mauled carcass.
Click to expand...

What you do is send your guide in first, they begin to eat him and you can get in nice and close to shoot the action... :nuts:
 
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