Which lens?

Missy1981

Missy1981

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Sarah
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Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a great Christmas.

My husband bought me a Canon 50mm 1.4 lens so I'm having great fun at the moment messing around with it :-)

Anyway, my husband breeds reptiles (snakes) and wants me to take some photos of some of the babies he has bred to put on his site.

I only have my 18-55mm kit lens and my new 50mm which won't be any good as need to be a good distance from the snakes as they regularly bite out. But obviously need to be able to zoom right in to get some really good close up shots of the head and eyes.

Can anyone recommend a good lens for this? I'm very new to all this and am a bit overwhelmed by all the different lenses that are available. Is it a macro lens I would need?

Thanks in advance for your help as always

Sarah
 
Guess it depends on what distance you want to be at :P My 100mm 2.8L macro lens on my crop body gives me a fair amount of distance considering but I'm not sure it would be long enough for snakes that like to jump at you! hah Only problem with the macro lens would be the very shallow DOF so a lot of the snake wouldn't be in focus.

Alternatively you could setup the camera on a tripod and take the pics remotely if you can get the snake near enough?
 
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Baby snakes don't strike that far so as long as you're a couple of feet away from them, you shouldn't disturb or scare them too much and be able to take the shots you need.

As for a lens to do this, something like an 18-105mm I would have thought would be adequate as you'd be able to zoom in and get some good tight shots.

Out of interest from a fellow herpetologist, what snakes does he breed?
 
Thanks for your replies :-)

Will have to have a look on Amazon and read some reviews.

He breeds reticulated pythons. I currently share my home with about 40 of them lol!!
 
I hate snakes so I'd suggest a telescope! ;)

Seriously though, if you've got a bit of room and want to keep your distance for more natural shots and to avoid being bitten, either a Sigma 150mm 2.8 macro or 180mm 3.5 macro would be superb. A flash would also be very useful.
 
It depends on how much detail you want of the snake - do you need a Macro lens for very detailed shots? The Canon 55-250IS or 70-300IS are certainly worth a look at if you don't need a Macro lens...
 
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