5 minute read
Choosing a telephoto
Just when I thought there couldn’t possibly be any more revolutionary breakthroughs in photography, Canon announced new telephoto lenses that change wildlife and bird photography significantly.
In the past, when I was asked by clients or subscribers to this eMagazine to recommend a long lens, it was very difficult. The typical Canon or Nikon 500mm or 600mm lenses with an f/4 maximum aperture were very expensive, very heavy, and very large. Many people can’t afford a lens in the $10,000 to $13,000 range. For wildlife and birds, these expensive lenses produced the best results in terms of sharpness, speed of autofocus, and contrast. Even if money was not the inhibiting factor, the weight and volume of these monster lenses prevented many people from buying them.
At the other end of the spectrum, inexpensive telephotos were not as sharp as the expensive glass, especially at the edges, and they were typically quite slow. At full extension, a low-priced long lens would be in the f/6.3 or f/7.1 range. When we were all shooting film and 400 ISO was considered ‘fast film’, the small maximum
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apertures were problematic, especially in low light situations. We couldn’t use a shutter speed fast enough to freeze fast moving animals and birds in flight.
With the first serious digital cameras, the problem was noise. I remember my first expensive Canon digital, the 1Ds Mark II, was a revolutionary (in 2005) 16.7 megapixels, but it was terribly noisy above 1000 ISO. 3200 ISO was completely unusable.
A few years ago Sigma and Tamron brought to the market zoom lenses in the 500mm and 600mm range for a very reasonable price, but at their full length they weren’t as sharp as one would hope for. At least these lenses gave photographers an option without breaking the bank. They weren’t as heavy as the f/4 glass, but they were still heavy when you consider handhold-
ing the lens as you track a flying bird across the sky. The Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 is 4 1/2 pounds.
Today, thanks to remarkable improvements in post-processing software like Topaz DeNoise as well as incredible refinement of digital cameras, high ISO settings unthinkable in years past have enabled manufacturers like Canon to introduce a new line of low-cost, relatively small, and relatively lightweight telephoto lenses.
A new generation of telephotos
The lens shown at right is the new Canon 600mm made specifically for mirrorless cameras. It is priced, remarkably, at $699 at B & H. It weighs in at 2 pounds and it’s about 10 1/2 inches long. Anyone can hand hold this lens with ease. By comparison, the expensive 600mm f/4 telephoto that costs $13,000 weighs 6.71 pounds, and this new version is lighter than its predecessor.
How can this new lens be so inexpensive and light? The answer is what’s happened to the maximum lens aperture. It is f/11. Not only that, but it’s a fixed aperture -- meaning the aperture can’t change at all. Every picture you take with this lens will be at f/11.
The lens below is Canon’s new 800mm super telephoto. It lists at B &H for an astonishing $899, and it weighs 2.77 pounds. The expensive version of this lens, also $13,000, weighs in at 10 pounds -- roughly 4 times heavier. The maximum, fixed lens aperture on the inexpensive version is also f/11.
How significant is such a small aperture for photographing wildlife and birds? Here are the pros and cons:
1. Pro -- Enables manufacturer to pro-
duce lenses exceptionally light in weight. For women, people with shoulder, neck, and back pain, and older photographers who can’t manage a heavy lens, this is an incredible development.
3. Pro -- Enables manufacturer to make the lens small in volume so it can easily be carried in a photo backpack.
4. Pro -- Being challenged at airports with the weight of your carryon is much less of an issue now.
5. Con -- Forces the ISO to be high because of the reduction in light reaching the sensor.
6. Con -- Makes using a teleconverter virtually impossible due to the loss of more light. 7. Con -- Makes it impossible to create out of focus bokeh backgrounds typical of large apertures like f/4 and f/5.6.
In my opinion, the Pros out weight the Cons by far. With the ability to mitigate noise in postprocessing, the biggest concern most photographers have regarding high ISO settings can be dealt with.
Tests I’ve seen indicated these lenses are sharp, too. Although we can’t manipulate depth of field due to the fixed aperture, I’m planning on buying one of these the next time I travel to Africa.
Other camera companies like Nikon (if they survive their financial problems), Sony, Olympus, and Fuji have or will have similar lens designs to enable so many more people to capture beautiful pictures of wildlife and birds. §
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