Lenses for wildlife photography (1 Viewer)

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Natasha Balletta

New member

• Oct 5, 2013

• #1

I'm looking into investing in the Nikon 300mm F4 AF S lens and Nikon 1.4 teleconverter (I tried them for an afternoon the other week was happy with how the photos came out) or the Nikon 80-400mm VR lens (I'm torn between both lenses).

The lens I use for wildlife photography at the moment is the Nikon 70-300mm VR lens (it'd be nice to have a longer reach for photographing birds and other wildlife) |=)|

Any advice or tips is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

HokkaidoStu

occasional moderator

Staff member

Supporter

• Oct 7, 2013

• #2

Hi Natasha and welcome to birdforum. I've moved this thread to the Nikon subforum, hopefully someone can come along soon and answer your query.

I'm a Canon user and have no experience with those lenses but I have heard the newer 80-400 is a lot better than the old one (and also a lot more expensive!).

 

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BBandW

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2013

• #3

Hi Natasha,

Just a couple of points (probably rather obvious !), but;

If you find that virtually all you photos are taken at max zoom, then perhaps consider a prime 400mm. Primes are meant to give better results than zooms.

The last 2 long lenses I've bought have been secondhand (1 from Greys of Westminster and 1 privately advertised on this site). Clearly you should be able to get a better lens for you budget, or just save money for the same lens, that you can spend on other gadgets.

Let us know what you go for.

 

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Watts

Well-known member

• Oct 8, 2013

• #4

Natasha Balletta said:

I'm looking into investing in the Nikon 300mm F4 AF S lens and Nikon 1.4 teleconverter (I tried them for an afternoon the other week was happy with how the photos came out) or the Nikon 80-400mm VR lens (I'm torn between both lenses).

Click to expand...

The 300mm and 1.4 converter is a great combination. There are now two versions of the 80-400mm. The earlier (and less expensive) one is not AFS and cannot be autofocused on all Nikon bodies and, compared to the AFS lenses, I find it frustratingly slow to focus even on high end bodies. The newer 80-400 is AFS and there are some very good reports on this forum but it is expensive (about £2000). So your choice may be made for you depending on your Nikon body and your budget.

Bill

 

gandytron

Well-known member

• Oct 8, 2013

• #5

There is also a strong rumor going around that the 300mm f4 is about to be replaced by a new version which has VR, see http://nikonrumors.com/2013/08/21/n...ase-a-new-nikkor-af-s-300mm-f4g-vr-lens.aspx/

That said, the current lens is fantastic (very sharp, not too heavy to carry around all day, AF is excellent on my D7100).

 

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Neil

Well-known member

• Oct 11, 2013

• #6

If you are only interested in birds then go for the 300/4. It's light and very sharp. With the 1.4x tele you are only loosing about 5% of sharpness and it's still faster than the new 80-400/AFS VR G lens. If you also want to photograph animals then go for the zoom. It's also a very good lens.
Neil.