Effectiveness of 300mm lens for wildlife

[wyogirl]

The longer your focal length the more magnified are small movements. So where you hand hold at 50mm and notice no shake... At 500mm that shake is magnified. Faster shutter compensates for that

 

[spiralout462]

The larger sensor of a DSLR coupled with a decent lens will resolve details such as the individual feathers of the Cedar Waxwing. Not simple and not cheap but the potential for better quality is significant.

 

[Peeb]

Owner of a D5500 with 55-300 lens here. Was actually wondering about adding a super-long p/s camera for the extra reach. Honestly, I think I'd be money ahead to just save for the 150-600.

I like this post. Will make me feel less crazy should I decide to dual-wield cameras

You like the d5500 with the 55-300 otherwise though?

I do! The consumer-quality lens can be a bit slow to catch focus sometimes, but for stationary subjects it's marvelous.

 

[Overread]

Because you are 'magnifying (narrowing the FOV) the causes a magnifying of any movement as well. In other words your shake is amplified proportionate to the focal length. remember the old adage.saw. rule of thumb about shutter speed should be at least 1/focal length? Well that;s Why you can shoot a 50mm at about 1/40 of a sec with no movement blur. Now apply that to 600mm...you get 1/600. And on a crop frame camera your better off with 1/1000. My experience has been that even with the better lens image stabilization is not as effective above about the 500mm range. Maybe me, but that is what I have found.

Personally I think that the rule of thumb works between around 50mm and 100-200mm ish. Beyond those limits things change a bit. Shorter focal lengths magnify the image much less thus you can often handhold wide angle shots at much slower shutter speeds than the rule would suggest possible. Similarly, for many people, the opposite is true with longer telephoto lenses. Partly its an issue of strength, fatigue and weight as those bigger lenses are a lot heavier; but also the magnification increases and thus the potential handholding speeds go up.

Of course experience and practice can change these values too so they are only ever a guide-line to give you a starting point.

 

[Peeb]

Dove taking off this AM with 300mm lens, cropped. Crop factor for each of the 3 is independent of the other, so the scale might not be prefect.

It's 70MB of data compressed down to 2, so hopefully it holds up.

 

[Didereaux]

Dove taking off this AM with 300mm lens, cropped. Crop factor for each of the 3 is independent of the other, so the scale might not be prefect.

It's 70MB of data compressed down to 2, so hopefully it holds up.View attachment 115587

Excellent example of what can be done with a 300! Nice follow through....that's the part that trips me up more often than not.

 

[Didereaux]

Because you are 'magnifying (narrowing the FOV) the causes a magnifying of any movement as well. In other words your shake is amplified proportionate to the focal length. remember the old adage.saw. rule of thumb about shutter speed should be at least 1/focal length? Well that;s Why you can shoot a 50mm at about 1/40 of a sec with no movement blur. Now apply that to 600mm...you get 1/600. And on a crop frame camera your better off with 1/1000. My experience has been that even with the better lens image stabilization is not as effective above about the 500mm range. Maybe me, but that is what I have found.

Personally I think that the rule of thumb works between around 50mm and 100-200mm ish. Beyond those limits things change a bit. Shorter focal lengths magnify the image much less thus you can often handhold wide angle shots at much slower shutter speeds than the rule would suggest possible. Similarly, for many people, the opposite is true with longer telephoto lenses. Partly its an issue of strength, fatigue and weight as those bigger lenses are a lot heavier; but also the magnification increases and thus the potential handholding speeds go up.

Of course experience and practice can change these values too so they are only ever a guide-line to give you a starting point.

Well, for me there are very definitely 'peculiarities' at the 500+ point.