Inevitably, many wildlife photographers will discover themselves tempted by the attract of quick, unique, super-telephoto lenses. These lenses supply unmatched optical capabilities, so long as you pay the value and carry the load. However, pretty much as good as they’re, most of those lenses have a hidden weak point: a disappointing shut focus distance.
In the event you’re primarily photographing massive mammals or greater birds, this in all probability received’t be a difficulty. But when your topics are hummingbirds, small reptiles, and even bugs, you’ll rapidly change into conscious of simply how limiting that minimal focusing distance will be.
The inspiration for this text got here from my latest expertise photographing one of many world’s smallest hummingbirds, the Gorgeted Woodstar (Chaetocercus heliodor). This chicken measures nearly 60mm in size. Its physique, barely tipping the size at two grams, is carried aloft by wings with a span underneath 35mm. A real miniature even amongst hummingbirds.
In some sense, photographing this chicken isn’t particularly tough as a result of it’s often not very shy. Its flight resembles that of a bumblebee, which strikes between flowers in a seemingly clumsy and pretty predictable manner. However with a big, fastened telephoto lens, the inadequate minimal focusing distance could make it nearly unimaginable to fill the body with this fascinating chicken.
To grasp the problem, let’s take a better take a look at the specs of a few of as we speak’s quick supertelephoto lenses. The important thing components listed below are focal size and minimal focusing distance, which is able to end in a specific most magnification.
Nikon Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S
- Minimal focusing distance: 2.5m
- Most magnification: 0.17×
Nikon Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S
- Minimal focusing distance: 4.3m
- Most magnification: 0.14×
Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS
- Minimal focusing distance: 2.7m
- Most magnification: 0.16×
Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS
- Minimal focusing distance: 4.5m
- Most magnification: 0.14×
Canon RF 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM
- Minimal focusing distance: 2.5m
- Most magnification: 0.17×
Canon RF 600mm f/4 L IS USM
- Minimal focusing distance: 4.2m
- Most magnification: 0.15×
Taking a look at these numbers, it might sound that you’re higher off with a 400mm lens that has a shorter minimal focus distance. However most magnification is the actually essential statistic, and that hovers across the identical (disappointing) worth of about 0.14× to 0.17× whatever the lens. This implies, on a full-frame digital camera, we’re solely filling the body with a topic that’s about 24 cm or 9.4 inches in measurement.
This drawback is just not common in telephoto lenses – it’s solely frequent within the unique and really costly ones, for some purpose. Some telephoto lenses have nice shut focus capabilities, particularly quite a lot of zoom lenses. The Nikon Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 has a fairly good 0.25× magnification. The Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.-7.1L has a powerful 0.33× magnification.
That is typically a real profit for the inexpensive telephotos. With a small topic, it’s photographers with the pricey 400mm f/2.8 or 600mm f/4 lenses who will probably be jealous of their associates with a 100-400mm or 200-600mm lens.
So, what do I do when taking pictures with my Nikon AF-S 500mm f/4E, a lens whose most magnification is a paltry 0.15×? The primary possibility is to make use of a teleconverter. The second possibility is to crop the picture – both by cropping in post-processing or by utilizing a crop-sensor digital camera (or each).
To calculate how small of a scene you possibly can seize together with your tools, merely divide the width of your digital camera sensor by the magnification present in your lens’s specs. For instance, utilizing a 36 millimeter large full-frame digital camera sensor, a lens with (say) a magnification of 0.2× can fill the body with one thing that’s 36/0.2 millimeters throughout. This calculates to 180 millimeters (or 7.1 inches). In case your topic, just like the Gorgeted Woodstar hummingbird, is about 60 millimeters throughout, meaning it might fill roughly one third of the body with such a lens.
In the event you use a smaller digital camera sensor, the maths is a bit more in your favor. With an APS-C sensor of twenty-two millimeters large, the identical lens might fill the body with one thing 110 millimeters large (4.3 inches), a lot better than the 180 millimeters you possibly can obtain on full-frame. Nonetheless, you additionally must take the digital camera’s decision under consideration. A 20-megapixel APS-C digital camera, like Nikon’s Z50 II, places the identical variety of pixels on a distant topic as a forty five megapixel full-frame digital camera. However one thing like Canon’s 32.5-megapixel EOS R7 might solely be matched by a (nonexistent) 85 megapixel full-frame digital camera, so it has an actual benefit in these conditions.
A teleconverter helps, too. It doesn’t simply improve a lens’s focal size but in addition its magnification. For instance, a magnification of 0.2× on the naked lens turns into a extra respectable 0.28× with a 1.4× teleconverter, and a really spectacular 0.4× with a 2× teleconverter. I’ve stated it earlier than, however I actually loved utilizing the built-in teleconverter on Nikon’s 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S and hope that this characteristic makes its manner into inexpensive lenses sooner or later.
So, does it make sense to make use of unique super-telephotos on APS-C our bodies for small topics? Truthfully, with Nikon in the mean time, the profit is just not actually there, since their highest-resolution APS-C digital camera is 20 megapixels. I might moderately shoot with the 45-megapixel Nikon Z8 or Z9 and crop afterwards. It’s simpler to maintain the topic within the body, and also you’ll have extra room for composition changes in publish. Most significantly, the picture high quality and variety of pixels in your topic will probably be nearly the identical. The story could be totally different in the event you shoot with one of many higher-resolution APS-C cameras out there from Fuji or Canon.
And I want to carry up one different level, one thing else you are able to do when the shut focusing distance in your lens is just not enough: be extra cautious and artistic together with your composition. Contemplate together with extra destructive house round a smaller topic. Or, discover different components within the atmosphere to fill the remainder of the body with one thing attention-grabbing.
So, let’s circle again to the central query of this text: does it make sense to {photograph} very small topics with huge lenses? It’s one thing I discover myself pondering within the discipline very often. And at any time when I do, I’m reminded of a scene from a (sometimes) Czech stage play referred to as Blaník. In it, two knights face off in a duel – one sentenced to execution, the opposite tasked with delivering it. The executioner is given nearly comically quick sword. The condemned will get a two-meter-long monster of a blade. I received’t spoil how that duel ends, however the play’s recording is out there right here in the event you’re curious.
What sticks with me is what the smaller-sworded knight says mid-fight as he evaluates his weapon: “You understand what? I’m really glad I’ve obtained this quick one. It’s nimbler. Simpler to deal with.” And that, actually, is the way it goes with lenses too.
Generally the perfect repair isn’t the most costly one. In the event you’re aiming to {photograph} small topics, it may be completed with an unique supertelephoto, however solely with some compromises. As a substitute, the most suitable choice is a zoom like a 100-400mm or 200-600mm lens, and it’ll even be simpler in your pockets.
So personally, I like to recommend photographing small creatures with a small lens. The advantages of a quick supertelephoto prime are outweighed for these topics. You might be much less more likely to want the quick aperture (notice f/13 within the picture above), it would be best to be extra nimble to place the digital camera correctly, and most of all, you’ll admire the shorter minimal focusing distance.
If all you will have is a 400mm f/2.8 or 600mm f/4 lens, go forward and use a teleconverter and crop, and you’ll probably get affordable outcomes. However there are occasions when the inexpensive lens pays off (in additional methods than one), and that is the right instance.