Zoo Photography

1963ADRIAN · Feb 2, 2011

I have just aquired a new Nikon D300S and will be visiting my local zoo very shortly
I have a couple of zoom lenses they are Tamron 70 - 300mm and a Nikon 18 - 55mm also a Nikon 55 - 200mm.
I will be shooting through glass & wires on this outing any good ideas or even any sujestions of better equipement as I do have funds to upgrade my equipement

Trever1t · Feb 2, 2011

You might have to focus manually because of the glass or screen in front of the lens but you will do fine with that equipment.

I took this through very thick (and dirty) glass.

Pride by Trever1t, on Flickr

dxqcanada · Feb 2, 2011

Yes, as Trever1t says ... manually focus.

Get physically close to glass or wires.

dnavarrojr · Feb 2, 2011

Manual focus... I was able to shoot through this chain link fence:

to get this shot:

Overread · Feb 2, 2011

1) How much in funds do you have/are thinking of spending? If you're keen on this kind (and similar work) there are some great options out there, if you've got the budget for it.

2) I don't think either of your current lenses have HSM (all the time manual focusing) focusing so backbutton auto focus control, whilst something I use all the time in those environments, is not going to help you (said it so you've a reference point to research further from later

)

3) I'd start the day in auto focus - middle (or at least only one single) point active and focus that on the subject. Then you need to get as close to the railings as you can; this not only helps remove them from the shot, but also reduces the chance of AF getting a lock on.
Problems occur though in that many places won't let you get right up to the wire and have a barrier before the wire as well as the wire itself. In those situations the AF can and will lock onto the wire by accident and then its into manual focusing only to get the shot.

djacobox372 · Feb 2, 2011

I use a nikkor 600mm f5.6 ais ed manual focus lens at the zoo. It's amazing. They cost around $1500 used, but are worth it. It would work perfectly on your D300s.

If that's too pricey, consider a 300mm f4.5 ais IF ed manual focus lens, it's extremely sharp wide open, and very light weight and silky smooth to focus. They sell for $275-$400 on ebay. I used one for years, and only recently sold it because I upgraded to a 300mm f2.8 af-s--a $3000 lens that isn't really any sharper at f4.5 then the other one was.

If manual focus isn't your bag, the 300mm f4 af ed can be had for $400-500.