300 mm lens

[Morthin]

I have been given a 70 - 300 mm lens as a gift, what are the settings e.g. apeture and speed settings should i be using when using the lens... y aim is to take picture of birds and wild animals.
Many thanks

[OldBoy]

There is no right or wrong answer to that question. It should be marked on the lens what aperture it has, like F4-5.6 so, at the 70mm end it's F4 whilst at the 300mm end it will be F5.6. What aperture you use depends on the sharpness of the lens throughout the zoom range. Shutter speed depends on how steady you can hold the camera with the lens attached, but as a general rule it should match the zoom. So, at 300mm it should be 300/s.

[Morthin]

Thanks for that ... so basicaly if it` s hand held you can not really go lower than 300 per /sec

[cosmicma]

what oldboy is saying is 300/s at 300mm is a guide line it's not really set in stone it all depends on how steady your hand is
you don't mention if the lens has any image stabilization or not that would allow lower shutter speeds if it has

[Morthin]

The lens has image stability on it

[chris-p]

Image stabilisers often give a stop or 2 of extra shutter speed.

The settings you use are really dependant on your ambient light conditions. My suggestion is to put the camera into shutter priority mode (S or Tv depending on your camera manufacturer) and let the camera work out the appropriate shutter speed.

Start with a shutter speed of between 1/200 and 1/300 and see if you're getting sharp shots. If you're not, try a faster shutter speed. Keep adjusting until the shots are sharp. If you hit the maximum aperture of your lens during this process, increase the ISO to compensate.

The picture below was taken with a Nikon 70-300mm lens at f/16 with a shutter speed of 1/400.

[Morthin]

Excellent thank you

[beatnik69]

Originally Posted by OldBoy

There is no right or wrong answer to that question. It should be marked on the lens what aperture it has, like F4-5.6 so, at the 70mm end it's F4 whilst at the 300mm end it will be F5.6. What aperture you use depends on the sharpness of the lens throughout the zoom range. Shutter speed depends on how steady you can hold the camera with the lens attached, but as a general rule it should match the zoom. So, at 300mm it should be 300/s.

I read somewhere recently that you should take the crop factor into effect if you are using an APS-C camera, so that if you were using a 300mm lens on, fro example, a Nikon D40 your shutter speed should be at least 1/450sec. Is that correct?

[rbarry]

The rule of thumb is a guidline. A 1.6x crop factor makes quite a difference and you should take that into consideration. So at 300mm you should be aiming at a shutter speed of 1/300th of a second on a full frame camera body and 1/480th of a second if using a camera body with an aps-c 1.6x crop factor.

Camera bodies are different, some may only offer one full f-stop of manipulation whereas others may split an f-stop into thirds or less. Erring on the side of caution, you should try to set a shutter speed equal to or greater (not less) than the rule of thumb.
On a full frame body and at whole f-stop rounded up increments, the figures should look like this:
35mm = 1/60
100mm = 1/125
200mm = 1/250
300mm = 1/500
600mm = 1/1000

As you can see, this is not an exact science, and the rule only refers to hand held photography, and not including image stabilisation. Some may be able to handhold better than others, and there are many good guidelines here and elsewhere on the net to help you in your hand held technique. But it should be noted that this isn't a competition to see who can get the best image at the slowest shutter speed, more who can capture the best image using all the variables available to you. Why put yourself in the position of possible failure at slow shutter speeds when you can achieve great results without trying too hard.

This is my take on the rule of thumb for setting shutter speed v focal length. Some techniques may buck the trend, but remember that the rule of thumb is a rule of thumb!

[DigiDiva]

I hjave found this very interesting and helpfull, and I hope Morthin has too. I really struggle to understandand remember all of this, and also struggle to achieve pin sharp shots when hand held.