What is a 55 300mm lens used for?
All-in-one zoom for superb super-telephoto shooting
A practical, versatile lens, the AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR is ideal for those who want a single lens that can handle just about any shooting opportunity.
A lightweight telephoto zoom, Canon 300 mm lenses are ideal for photographing sports, portraiture and wildlife. Capturing distant subjects in sharp detail with elegant background blur, a Canon lens with a 300 mm focal length will be able to fill the frame with a postcard that's 1.5 meters away.
The bottom line – on a crop frame camera a 70-300mm zoom (Canon, Nikon, Sony) will get you pretty good coverage from 15 yards to 56 yards away, the 'sweet spot' for outdoor sports. If you're shooting a full frame camera – the Canon 100-400mm gives similar coverage.
It's hard to get close to most wild subjects, so wildlife photographers generally use long lenses: at least 300mm for an APS-C DSLR, or 400mm for a full-frame DSLR or 35mm SLR. If you can get fairly close to larger animals, a 70-200mm zoom can work.
To get a shot of the moon like the one below, you'll need a telephoto lens. An option with a focal length between 100 to 300mm is enough to get the moon look as big as this.
The 55mm end makes for a short telephoto lens, ideal for compressing perspective when taking portraits or closing in on small details. That doesn't mean you can't use the middle focal lengths, and there are times when you can't avoid them.
For a head and shoulders shot (I'm giving 2 feet for the subject size which will be a looser framing) you would be about 5 ft from the subject with a 55mm lens. That's probably far enough not to worry about any perpsective distortion (if you do a tight headshot at 55mm there would likely be some distortion).
If you're interested in portrait photography, the best lenses are between 45mm and 85mm. At these focal lengths, the proportions of the face and body are true to life and flattering. In most cases, wildlife and nature photography requires long focal lengths in the 300mm to 600mm range.
The Canon 55-250mm f4-5.6 IS with a length of 108mm is 14mm shorter. Besides being longer, the Canon 75-300mm f4. 0-5.6 III also has a larger diameter of 71mm compared to Canon 55-250mm f4-5.6 IS's 70mm diameter.
The most “traditional” prime lenses for wildlife photography are the 500mm f/4 and 600mm f/4 lenses. There are also wider 300mm and 400mm options from almost every manufacturer. Nikon recently released the Z 400 f/2.8 with a built in 1.4x teleconverter making this prized focal length even more versatile.
What size lens is best for nature photography?
Wide angle and ultra-wide angle lenses are the most popular lenses for landscape photography. Their focal lengths usually range from 14-35mm, though some can be as wide as 10 or 12mm.
Look for a magnification between 8x–12x. Higher than 12x, you can induce hand movement, which will make viewing through the binoculars uncomfortable (unless you use a tripod). If you're mostly viewing wildlife in forested areas, 8x – 10x should work well, while 8x – 12x are ideal for lakes and tidelands.
At 300mm the lens will have the equivalence of a 450mm lens on a 35mm film camera or Nikon FX (Full Frame) digital camera. Many P&S cameras will say they have a 8x or 12x zoom, that just means that the longest focal length is 8x or 12x longer than the widest focal length.
| Focal Length | 75 to 300mm |
|---|---|
| Minimum Focus Distance | 4.92' / 1.5 m |
| Maximum Magnification | 0.25x |
| Optical Design | 13 Elements in 9 Groups |
| Diaphragm Blades | 7 |
This is typically the zoom range of a lens. For example, a Canon 100-400mm lens would have a 4X zoom range (400mm divided by 100mm) and a magnification of 2X at 100m and 8X at 400mm.
On a full-frame camera, at focal length 200mm, the diagonal angle-of-view is about 12 degrees. At 300mm, it is about 8 degrees. In other words, at 300mm, the image captures a narrower part of the scene compared to at 200mm.
