Camera, lens Alaska

[Watson's aunt]

Hi

 

I have a Canon rebel (Two) one of my lens is a EF Zoom Canon 70-300 IS

while it took very nice pictures of Glaciers and such It did not take very good pictires of whales and other sea critters. I am asking for advice on other lens or maybe a smaller camera. I cannot afford those huge lens plus they are too heavy. I really want some nice photo's of whales. LAst Alaskain cruise I was talking to someone taking photo's and he was surprised that my lens would not shoot the distance. He even tried it on his camera. So anyone who might have bought a smaller camera that will give me the distance I would really appriciate it .

 

 

Thanks

 

Mary

[E-500]

Hi

 

I have a Canon rebel (Two) one of my lens is a EF Zoom Canon 70-300 IS

while it took very nice pictures of Glaciers and such It did not take very good pictires of whales and other sea critters. I am asking for advice on other lens or maybe a smaller camera. I cannot afford those huge lens plus they are too heavy. I really want some nice photo's of whales. LAst Alaskain cruise I was talking to someone taking photo's and he was surprised that my lens would not shoot the distance. He even tried it on his camera. So anyone who might have bought a smaller camera that will give me the distance I would really appriciate it .

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Mary

 

The Canon DSLR you have is great camera. If you want a better zoom without the weight,cost and hassle of a more powerful lens, suggest you go with one of the Canon point and shoot cameras with 12-16x optical zoom. NOT digital zoom.

 

The lens you have now is aprox. 6+ zoom at 300 and it works well for most situations. Assume you know about aperature and shutter speed and can apply this knowledge to a simple point and shoot camera, you should be good to go.

Edited February 23, 2014 by E-500

[jtl513]

Are you aware that there is a forum dedicated to photo/camera discussions where you can benefit from the experience of cruisers from many lines? :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=118

.

Edited February 23, 2014 by jtl513

[MVPinBoynton]

When we were in Alaska 7 years ago, I was using a Rebel XT with a 70-300 is. It took great photos of whales. For glaciers, I used a shorter lens. Didn't need 300, since we were close to the glaciers.

 

I now have a 7D, but the lens does very well; and will be going with me to Alaska again in June. Yours might be defective or you could be using some wrong settings. You probably should go to the photo forum to get more specific advice.

[shrimpboat123]

Hi

 

I have a Canon rebel (Two) one of my lens is a EF Zoom Canon 70-300 IS

while it took very nice pictures of Glaciers and such It did not take very good pictires of whales and other sea critters. I am asking for advice on other lens or maybe a smaller camera. I cannot afford those huge lens plus they are too heavy. I really want some nice photo's of whales. LAst Alaskain cruise I was talking to someone taking photo's and he was surprised that my lens would not shoot the distance. He even tried it on his camera. So anyone who might have bought a smaller camera that will give me the distance I would really appriciate it .

 

 

Thanks

 

Mary

 

 

I just got back from an Alaskan CruisTour this past July. I have a Canon DSLR and I wanted to get a long lens for those distant shot. So I went looking for a 100-500mm lens. I found one that was going to cost $1200 and weighed 5 lbs. When I left the camera store the purchased a Panasonic Point and Shoot DMC-FZ200 for half the price.

 

There is a whole thread on this camera at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1694983

 

You can also see the photos I took in the trip report I did which is in my signature below. I was very impressed with this camera.

[janmcn]

You should have gotten the shots fine…

What "speed" are you shooting with that lens…you need to be shooting at more than 1/600th of a second (I would shoot 1/1500 for wildlife). If you don't do that you will always have fuzzy photos. Also, put it in multiple shot mode and rattle them off. The 300 mm lens is almost the equivalent on your camera of 450 mm, so you should get wildlife fine. I would always recommend shooting from the walk-around lower verandah decks. People who shoot from "up top" forget they are many stories above the water, so they are much further away from the animals.

You've got a great camera and lens…the smaller cameras will not perform as well. Learn how to use it well and you'll love it.

 

PS: you can always rent a longer lens from lensrentals dot com. I've rented the 100-400 lens with good success. Cheaper than owning one I won't use much.

 

PPS: We have the Panasonic FZ200 which is a great camera for a small camera, but no way does it focus fast enough on wildlife…it's our "backup camera" to our Canon 5DMark3

Edited February 23, 2014 by janmcn

[fionan]

That lens should be absolutely fine for Alaska wildlife, I've also got the Canon Rebel (EOS in Europe) and have used a similar lens with great success. Some tips:

 

If your problem with ealier shots was that you could not zoom in enough then make sure you are shooting at the highest resolution(Large photos on the menu). That will mean that for whales far away you can crop the picture on your computer and will still have fine detail.

 

If your problem was a blurred image, make sure that the whale is in focus by putting it dead centre in the frame so that the centre red dot is on the whale's head. - although you can change the focus point within the frame, only the centre focus point sends all the information to the Rebel camera's processor. The other points will focus but not as well. You can then compose the shot by cropping on your computer.

 

The main cause of blurriness is that the whale is of course moving while the picture is being taken - so speed up the shot. If the light levels are low you will need to move the ISO to 400 or even 800 so that you can still get a 1/500 or 1/600 second shot. The higher the ISO the grainier the image, so it is a trade off. But it is easy to switch ISO while shooting so it is worth trying different settings for the same scene (depending on how long the whale stays around)

 

If you are not comfortable setting the shutter speed and or aperture size yourself and the whale is far away, try using the landscape setting so that you have a better chance of the whale being in focus, but you will have to combine that with a high ISO to keep the shutter speed fast.

 

Finally, there are several versions of the lens you are using and some of them are considered to be not so good. If the lens came bundled with the camera when you bought it it might be one of the less good versions. The problems with those lenses tend to be at the far end of their length, so you are likely to get very much crisper photos by using the lens at around 250mm and then cropping even more aggressively on your PC. You could try that at home to see what the limit is on your lens.

 

Did I get better bear and whale and dall sheep photos with my 150 - 500mm Sigma lens? - undoubtedly. Was it worth the price and the weight of carrying it around? - probably not.

[Host Walt]

Are you aware that there is a forum dedicated to photo/camera discussions where you can benefit from the experience of cruisers from many lines? :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=118

.

 

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