Question about my new camera and telephoto lens.

vanillakirsty · Jan 14, 2015

Hello everyone. I am kind of new at photography. For the past few years I have used a tiny Canon PowerShot just as a fun hobby to get photos of wildlife. I never really cared too much about the quality at first. I took many art classes in college including ones that taught photoshop and photo editing. I learned all about balance and how to adjust photos to have better lighting. Before I got my PowerShot camera I never thought much of photography. I used to concentrate more on drawing, but then I found out how fun it was to take photos of animals and wildlife.
Here is a picture I got of a fox with my little camera:

A couple months ago I decided that I wanted to get better at photography and that I needed a professional camera, so I bought a Canon Rebel T5. It came with one telephoto lens (an EF 75-300mm f/4-6.6 III). Since I take photos of wildlife I wanted a lens that could get really good detail from far away. I'm still a beginner, so I don't know anything about lenses. The first day I tried my new camera and telephoto lens I was able to get this picture of a hummingbird:

There is so much more detail in this photo than all of my other photos, just like I wanted, but the zoom on my lens didn't seem nearly good as I expected. I was only about four or five feet away from that hummingbird. I thought I'd be able to get photos like this of things much further away, but my lens doesn't zoom like I expected. I thought telephoto lenses were supposed to have better zoom. It barely zooms in at all... Like I said, I know nothing about professional cameras, so I decided to ask people who can help me. Am I doing something wrong or is there an even more powerful lens someone could recommend? I am so new to all of this. That hummingbird waited there while I got closer and took several pictures, but most animals don't wait. That fox ran away right after I took that picture because he saw me. I would like to learn how to get pictures of animals as detailed as the one of the hummingbird, but without disturbing them.

Something I also learned recently is that I should probably get a monopod or tripod to use with my telephoto lens to prevent my camera from shaking. I prefer a monopod because I think it would be easier. If anyone has one of those to recommend I'd really like that too!

Thank you! I appreciate any help!

Here is a link to my blog where I have been posting the pictures I took with my Canon Powershot. They're all so grainy, but now I would like to learn how to take these kind of pictures with my new camera. Kirsty's Art Trail

tirediron · Jan 14, 2015

Welcome to TPF! One of the reasons that P&S cameras are so popular is because of their "superzoom" capabilites; they can often cover huge focal ranges from very wide to super-tele, BUT... like all things with too many functions, they don't do any of them really well (Think, "Swiss Army Knife"). Your new DSLR does a MUCH better job, but it's limited in range. That's the trade off... you can think of the 300mm as being [very] roughly analogus to a 6x pair of binoculars. If you want more "reach" it will cost you more money; high-end professional telephoto lenses can cost upwards of $12,000!
As for monopod Vs. tripod, both will do the job; a monopod will be cheaper and easier to transport. A tripod will be more expensive and much sturdier. Like all things, it's a trade-off.

Jay Vee · Jan 14, 2015

A step above the P&S that usually has a zoom range of less than 10x are those superzoom bridge cameras that can get up to 65x (~1200mm). Impressive but it's small sensor and slow lens isn't going to yield great IQ. Drop the available light and it gets even worse. If you need the long reach and can live with the IQ then those cameras might be a valid option.

If you want to keep your dslr you can try researching teleconverters. These attach between your lens and the camera to give you a little more reach. A 2x teleconverter can turn your lenses at the telephoto end to 600mm.
The Pros and Cons of Using Teleconverters (Extenders) on your DSLR - Digital Photography School

KmH · Jan 14, 2015

I'll be gentle.
Your Canon T5 is not a professional camera.
It is a very basic, entry-level, consumer grade DSLR.
But your T5 does allow changing lenses which is a big plus.
Canon currently makes just 1 professional grade DSLR, the $6800 EOS 1D X.

Your Canon T5 has a much larger image sensor than a Powershot has, regardless which of the many (18 currently offered) Powershot cameras you have/had.
That means each pixel the T5 has is larger and captures more light and detail.
The bigger (physical size, not megapixels) the image sensor the better.

Professional and advanced amateur wildlife shooters often use 600 mm prime lenses that cost over $10,000 new - for just the lens.

wfooshee · Jan 14, 2015

To address the "how much zoom" question, the smaller sensors in point&shoots makes "short" focal lengths into telephoto lenses, and lenses can be made that have 10x and even 20x zoom ratios. The amount of glass needed to cover the smaller sensors isn't so large, so a lens with a great deal of reach won't need a truck to carry it around.

You get to the big sensors in SLRs, you have to have bigger lenses to get the same image perspective. When the lenses get that big, they get expensive. Zoom lenses are especially expensive to make, even if they only have a 3x or 4x zoom ratio. A high zoom ratio does NOT mean it's a better lens. It just means it goes further from its minimum zoom to its maximum.

I think that's where you're coming from when you say the lens hardly zooms at all.

That's why we have cameras where the lens comes off, so you can change to one that gets where you want to go. To cover the larger image size, it's just no practical to build a lens that goes from wide enough to cover a small room in one image to long enough to get feather detail at 500 yards.

And again, a lens that gets that feather detail at 500 yards has to be a pretty big lens relative to the sensor size. When you get a bigger sensor you HAVE to get bigger glass. That's why those very long zoom lenses have commas in the prices.