BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Camera Lenses

Photography Question 

Shaju
 

Choosing Lenses for Nature Photography


Hi,
I recently bought a Nikon D70 with 18-70mm lens. I am quite interested in nature photography as well as wildlife photography. There are a lot of lenses advertised on various Web sites like the 650-1300mm and the 1300-2000mm opteka lenses for nature photography. What would your recommendation on a lens for nature photography be? Thank you.


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November 19, 2005

 

Stan Lubach
  My opinion is that there is no single ideal nature photography lens. It all depends on what aspects of nature photography you want to do and pick a lens appropriate for that style. For example, for close-ups on flowers, insects, and such, you'd probably want a macro lens, and Nikon's macro lenses are all very good (they make three in 60mm, 105mm, and 200mm focal lengths). For landscapes, you might want an ultra-wide angle lens; I have the Sigma 10-20mm and like it very much. Then, of course, you'll probably want a long telephoto. I'm not familiar with the lenses you mention, but they seem a lot longer than you should need. The Nikon 80-400mm gets good reviews and can get you in pretty close to a subject. These are just a few suggestions; there's a whole world of good lenses out there. Whatever you decide, always remember to try to get the best quality you can fit in your budget.


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November 20, 2005

 

Shaju
  Hi Stan
Thank you for your input. I do have a 70-300mm nikkor lens too. Unfortunately at 300mm the pictures appear blury with very soft edges. I have loaded couple of my photos in my gallery. I do like the sigma 10-20mm. I have read the reviews on it. Some complain of the photo quality at 20mm. Does the sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens fit the nikon d70. Thanks again Stan!


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November 22, 2005

 

Aaron Reyes
  @1300mm you would have to shoot around 1/2000 sec so that your pictures aren't blurry. those kinds of lenses are usually pretty bad on the aperture size wide open. those kinds of lenses are cheap and not worth the money. get either nikon, tokina, tamron, sigma. nothing but brands you have heard good things about.
you could always add a tele converter to your 70-300mm. you'll lose max ap even more, but will increase your max zoom range. make sure you shoot at about a little faster than the inverse of what your zoom is set to. (1/250th sec for 200mm) or try using a tripod with cable release...


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November 22, 2005

 

Stan Lubach
  Shaju, Sigma does make the 10-20mm with a Nikon mount. In fact, I have a D70s and it works just fine. I haven't really spent much time at 20mm but there is a little distortion at 10mm. It would be noticable if you were shooting architectural images but I don't really notice it with landscapes. The very last shot in my gallery, the one titled 'Lake Galena', was shot with the Sigma at 11mm. It should give you some idea of how wide this lens can get.


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November 22, 2005

 

Shaju
  Thanks Stan & Aaron

By the the pic of the lake Galena is stunning. I also looked at couple of other pics taken with the sigma 10-20mm. It does go pretty wide like you said.

Aaron: I'm pretty new to photography. I saw the opteka on amazon and so assumed it was a good brand. I have done some research on opteka and can not much data supporting its use and like stan was saying I don't really need such a large zoom especially starting out.

Thanks again for all your input guys.


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November 23, 2005

 

Shaju
  Thanks Stan & Aaron

By the the pic of the lake Galena is stunning. I also looked at couple of other pics taken with the sigma 10-20mm. It does go pretty wide like you said.

Aaron: I'm pretty new to photography. I saw the opteka on amazon and so assumed it was a good brand. I have done some research on opteka and can not much data supporting its use and like stan was saying I don't really need such a large zoom especially starting out.

Thanks again for all your input guys.


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November 23, 2005

 

Shaju
  sorry....i don't know why it came up with that.


By the way the pic of the lake Galena is stunning. I also looked at couple of other pics taken with the sigma 10-20mm. It does go pretty wide like you said.

Aaron: I'm pretty new to photography. I saw the opteka on amazon and so assumed it was a good brand. I have done some research on opteka and can not much data supporting its use and like stan was saying I don't really need such a large zoom especially starting out.

Thanks again for all your input guys.


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November 23, 2005

 

Shaju
  Hi Stan

i got the sigma 10-20mm lens. Can't wait to use it. The weather in the UK is such that i'm finding it hard to use it outside. Thanks for your advice!


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December 02, 2005

 

Stan Lubach
  Congratulations, Shaju! I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with it. Regarding the weather, the first planned outdoor shoot I did when I got my D70s ended up being a dreary, drizzly ( on-and-off ), overcast day, but I went out anyway. Nothing was going to stop me from trying out that camera ;)

Good luck with your new lens!


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December 02, 2005

 

David Innes
  Hi

I recently bought one of the Opteka 1300-2600 lenses. Although the magnification is very good the quality of the photos is very poor and makes it unsuitable for Nature or Sports photography. It is also very heavy and with manual focus that becomes cumbersome even with a tripod.

I'm now looking at something on the lines of a sigma 400 or 500 lense, which I've seen some excellent results for and are still considerably under the major brand names.

Hope this is of some help.

Dave


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December 05, 2005

 

Tim Howland
  David I - could you please provide some sampls of pictures taken with the Opteka 600-1300 ? I cannot find any anywhere. You can email them to TheHowlands@comcast.net. Thank you!

-Tim Howland


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February 19, 2006

 
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