Gull in Flight

[SCraig]

I thought about that as well. That's true with adjustable zoom that a least you can back off where fixed your stuck or running backwards. I am still trying to command them to come closer then slown down but it's not working.:mrgreen:

If you figure out how to make it work please let me know! I've never managed it either and I've been trying for a LONG time

I used to shoot birds with a 300 prime back in my 35mm days because I couldn't afford a long zoom. Short zooms were expensive back then and long zooms, when they were available, were astronomical. A 300 wasn't bad because even with large birds I was never close enough for it to be a real problem on a 35mm body. Today, using a crop-sensor camera and a 500mm lens it would certainly be an issue from time to time.

 

[grafxman]

I thought about that as well. That's true with adjustable zoom that a least you can back off where fixed your stuck or running backwards. I am still trying to command them to come closer then slown down but it's not working.:mrgreen:

Sometimes you really don't want the wildlife to get closer:

IMG_0099 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
IMG_0101a | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
IMG_0102 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
IMG_0103 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
IMG_0105 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Other times you can just be hiking through the woods along a trail on a nice day and suddenly get waaaaay too close to something nasty:

eastern diamondback rattler | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[DarkShadow]

Yes in this case distance is a great thing. Wow that's scary.

 

[coastalconn]

I don't know, when I shot my Tamron 200-500 out of all the thousands of pictures I took, at least 99.9999% were at 500mm and I never remember thinking oh the bird is too close. The few times I did I never remembered to zoom out anyways. The teleconverter thing can be debated for sure, but if you have a good sharp lens to start with, image degradation isn't really that bad.. Yesterday I shot the Kingfisher and the Osprey in flight with the tamron 1.4x and the other 3 with my promaster 1.7x TC... I'm pretty sure if I shot Canon I would have the 400 F5.6 personally. Dave, you need to ride up here soon before the Ospreys are gone...

 

[Gavjenks]

Yes. When was the last time you actually found yourself saying a bird was too close? That is the 64000 dollar question in terms of zooms and primes

 

[SCraig]

Yes. When was the last time you actually found yourself saying a bird was too close? That is the 64000 dollar question in terms of zooms and primes

The last time? June 1 when I shot this from 1.68 meters. My 150-500 won't focus that close.

I have others taken from inside my living room shooting out the window at a feeder on the front porch but it's not worth the effort to dig them up.

 

[grafxman]

If the only wildlife you ever shoot is birds then it's unlikely they will too close very often. On the other hand you may run into something like this:

IMG_1184 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

There are wild birds such as the Florida scrub jay that will come right up to you out in the wild. They're simply curious. Note that the photo was shot at under 250 mm. I've had some birds, admittedly not many, in Wildlife Management Areas approach walk right up to my car window. Sometimes they get this close:

IMG_9940 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

IMG_7087 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Those are both large birds. I would have had to zoom back from 500mm if I had wanted to get some of their body in the photo. As for too close, it doesn't happen often but it does happen if you spend a lot time photographing wildlife.

Other large wildlife can cause problems if you don't have a zoom lens. Here's an example:

IMG_1696 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

IMG_1693 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The first photo is at 500mm and the second is at 150mm of the same animal.

For photographing wildlife you need a zoom lens. You'll miss shots you would like to have taken but couldn't because of distance issues. Granted if you have a powerful, top quality fixed length lens you may occasionally get some great shots then do some cropping. Still, I always like to say that my 50-500mm Sigma is probably better at at 50mm than your 300mm or 400mm lens is at 50mm and it's probably better at 500mm than your 300mm to 400mm lens is at 500mm. In any event it will be a lot less work getting the photo I want with a zoom lens on my camera.

 

[Gavjenks]

Yes. When was the last time you actually found yourself saying a bird was too close? That is the 64000 dollar question in terms of zooms and primes

The last time? June 1 when I shot this from 1.68 meters. My 150-500 won't focus that close.

I have others taken from inside my living room shooting out the window at a feeder on the front porch but it's not worth the effort to dig them up.

Haha that's an awesome photo, though! Looks like some sort of squid alien. Way more likely to want to hang that on my wall than 90% of other bird photos.