I have a big trip planned, worthy of a big lens.

Sharing

Later this year I’ll be in Kruger National Park in South Africa, where there be many animals. Of course I’m struggling with what lenses to bring, and I want to share what I’ve learned so far, a bunch of photos, and why I won’t actually be taking this lens.

In the past I’ve rented a massive Sigma zoom and an ultra-wide Tokina lens and haven’t been particularly impressed, so I wanted to stick with Nikkor this time around. I wanted a long lens (obviously) but wanted the superior quality of a fixed focal length, rather than a zoom lens. I looked around – mostly at Nikon’s website – and settled on the 300mm f/4, which is the equivalent of 450mm on my Nikon D80′s DX sensor.

Why this lens? For starters, anything less than 300mm wouldn’t really be worth it, since I already have a lens with decent range. The sister lens – 300mm f/2.8 – is a massive beast that requires a monopod and wouldn’t travel easily. Anything longer than 300mm suffers from the same problem, even if it’s f/4. Also, the 300mm f/4 is fairly inexpensive, so I’d be able to rent it for a month without too much worry. So, I headed over to Bel Air Camera and picked it up for the weekend.

It’s worth noting that I got an older version of the lens compared to what’s pictured on Nikon’s website, but I’m guessing the weight and optics are pretty comparable.

Photos

Here are some neighborhood and zoo photos along with my comments. For more zoo photos, click on Los Angeles Zoo. Although a tripod would have been handy for some of these shots, everything you see here is handheld.

Dove on Old TV Antenna

A lens for good bird shots! My 18-200mm just doesn’t cut it for birds, unless they are very large and you are very close. Of course, I was still relatively close to this dove, but the main point is that I wasn’t close enough to scare it away.

Cool Plant

The the long reach of the 300mm combined with the wide f/4 aperture makes for some pretty extreme bokeh effects. In this photo, I was standing about 5 feet away (that’s the closest this lens can focus) and the background is only about 1 foot away from the part that’s in focus.

Four Beachgoers and an Oil Rig

Here’s a shot from Huntington Beach that shows how background elements that wouldn’t normally be part of the scene are suddenly right there with you. In other words, the telephoto lens compresses the scene. In this photo, the height of the four people is about the same as the oil rig, which is miles away and probably at least 100 feet out of the water. With a shorter lens, the rig would appear much smaller and probably just be an annoyance, rather than a compositional element.

The Moon

This is an uncropped photo of the moon, which just goes to show you that normal camera equipment sucks for astrophotography. Sure, it’s a lot better than my 18-200mm lens could do, but not exactly impressive. When I’m a retired super-rich person (fingers crossed) maybe I’ll get a telescope with a camera attachment to take really good moon photos.

OK, now time for some animals -

Greater Flamingo

I think the quality of the lens really shows in this photo. I was amazed at the details of this bird when zoomed at 100% – every feather, every wrinkle showed up in perfect sharpness. Plus, the plant behind it is barely recognizable because it’s so out of focus – the bird really pops out of the scene.

Tiger Yawning

I got lucky with this shot – the reach of the 300mm lens was perfect for framing this lounging tiger. I did purposely wait around for him to yawn, though – that wasn’t luck.

Hippopotamus

As great as the reach of the long lens is, sometimes it’s too close. Like many of the zoo visitors around me, I was excited to see the hippo walking around and then ease back into the water. With a zoom lens, I would have tried to get a wider shot of the hippo that included more than just its eyes and ears. It’s not all bad – I was forced to focus on the eyes and ears in this photo and I like how that turned out, and the fixed lens is probably better quality than any zoom could give.

Sleepy Koala

This was my photo of the day for 6/12/11 because it’s just so cute!!! Technically, I like how sharply in focus the koala is, especially because I was doing this handheld. With f/4 I was able to get really decent shutter speeds, although for this shot I was leaning against a sign for extra stability. Even at the corners, the image is still sharp.

Meerkat

Let’s end it with another adorable animal, shall we? This is another example of the awesome background blurring that you get with this lens. The background is almost completely black, which was simply a recessed part of the enclosure in the shade – the meerkat was closer to it than the camera was to the meerkat.

Final Thoughts

This lens is great! I really like it. But will I take it to Africa? No.

It was simply too heavy, and the case that came with it would take up way too much space in a suitcase. Instead, I have my sights set on the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6, which is obviously a zoom lens, not a prime lens. After seeing that it weighs half of what the 300mm f/4 does, I think I’m willing to deal with needing an extra stop of light (f/5.6 requires twice as much light as f/4 with all other settings the same). I’ve read numerous reviews online, and people seem to think it’s a great travel lens, so I think I’ll rent one and give it a try before the trip.

Stay tuned for that.