Building The Ultimate Lens Kit

There are so many top-notch, high-tech, affordable lenses available for nature photography, it’s easy to assemble a collection that will give you the right tool for what you love to do

By Mike Stensvold

Labels: Lenses

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Outdoor photography encompasses a lot of territory—from landscapes, wildlife and macro to tripod-mounted shots of static scenes and handheld shots of quick action. So the “best” lens(es) depend in large part on what you photograph outdoors and how you see the outdoor world. A basic three-lens kit is a good starting point, and it gives you a solid foundation from which to build. Expanding from the basic three is like constructing the structure on that foundation.

The Basic Three-Lens Set
A wide zoom, a midrange zoom and a tele-zoom will get you going. They’ll cover a wide range of outdoor shooting situations. Why zooms rather than prime lenses? Three main reasons: 1) You get a whole range of focal lengths in a single package for simpler travel; 2) When you can’t easily move closer or farther from a scene, you can control the angle of view by zooming (remember that zooming changes the cropping, but not the perspective; moving closer or farther away changes perspective); 3) A zoom means fewer lens changes, and that means less dust on the filter that covers your D-SLR’s image sensor—and that means fewer dust spots to clone out when you edit your images.

Olympus 18-180mm

Sigma 18-250mm

Wide Zoom: You’ll need a wide-angle zoom to capture those epic vistas and magnificent skies. You also can move close to a main subject with a wide lens to increase its size relative to background elements—the classic shot of a big foreground flower with the whole flower field beyond. If an animal will let you get that close, this technique is very effective with wildlife.

Medium Zoom: A medium zoom includes the format’s “normal” focal length, plus wider and narrower focal lengths, making it a good general-purpose outdoor lens. This focal-length range is good for images that look “normal” rather than providing a wider-than-the-eye-sees or compressed viewpoint.

Long Zoom: A long zoom—one that goes from beyond the format’s “normal” focal length into “telephoto” territory—has an obvious advantage for wildlife photography. These lenses let you get frame-filling shots of shy wildlife you can’t approach closely. But long zooms can be very effective landscape lenses, allowing you to zero in on interesting portions of a scene and to “flatten” perspective in distant vistas. Long zooms also offer compositional flexibility. Let’s look at the lenses you might want to add to your basic kit.

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Photography MASTERS makes this comment

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

This is one of the best articles! I plan to add some of those lenses to my collection! Thanks
Corker2 makes this comment

Wednesday, 08 July 2009

A very good article to read! However, some of these Lens are quite expensive, and really are not for the average Amateur Photographer. I know for sure that I can't afford buying a $1 - 4,000 Lens! Just to much money. I like taking pictures of what-ever will interest me, mostly Landscapes, Flowers, and places of History will always attract my attention. I shoot a Pentax K100D DSLR with a variety of different Lens that are not real expensive, but take a pretty good Image. I use the Pentax 18-55mm Lens, a Tamron 28-80mm Lens, a 70-300mm Lens, a Phoenix 28-210mm Wide Angle Lens. I can also add my Pentax 2X Doubler, which doubles everything. I also have a "Add On" Wide Angle Lens to add to my Tamron 28-80mm Lens to give me Wide Angles. I would think that I have more than enough to take some good Images.
Karl Hokanson makes this comment

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

I shoot Nikon D200 (D80) back up. Prime subject is sports (all three bike racing, sports cars and motorcycles. What three Nikon lenses would you recommend for my basics. I've tried other lenses and found only the Nikon's focus fast enoguh. I've also found I need faster lenses to achieve the shallow depth of field. Yes, I know these cost more. I'm also thinking whether I should be purchasing for full frame now. Thanks
ForestWander Nature Photography makes this comment

Monday, 15 June 2009

I am working on this a little at a time. So far the most versatile lens I have purchase is the 150-500mm Sigma. I use this combined with a 24-105mm Canon so in two lenses I cover a wide range 24-500mm IS f4-f6.3 I also use a quantaray 70-300mm for macro shots And a Sigma 28mm Fixed lens. I would like to add two lenses to my arsenal... a Good Macro lens such as 70-200mm IS and a nice prime 300 or 400mm telephoto. At that point I think I will be done lens shopping but then again is one ever done...
John Schickler makes this comment

Sunday, 14 June 2009

To Bob Johnson. If you simply click and drag over the desired data, right click and copy, then paste into Word and do this for each "page", you can edit out the icons, etc. and keep a copy saved. I save my print copy but use this method for reference. These articles are great.
Wayne makes this comment

Sunday, 24 May 2009

When I saw your article, I went to the table to see the lenses you recommend for a Canon full-frame camera. I was surprised to see your choice of the MP-E 65mm macro lens. I say this because the 'experts' that I read e.g., John Gerlach recommends a 200 or 100 mm macro as they give more flexibility. I then looked up the MP-E and saw that it is a specialty lens, so I was wondering on the rationale for the MP-E 65 rather than, say, the 100.
Bob Johnston makes this comment

Saturday, 16 May 2009

This was a great article! Too bad it is not in copy mode so those, like me, can have for future purchasing aides. i just got a subscription to your magazine and I love it.

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Building The Ultimate Lens Kit

There are so many top-notch, high-tech, affordable lenses available for nature photography, it’s easy to assemble a collection that will give you the right tool for what you love to do

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