Longer lens or extension?

[danieljamesphoto]

Hi,

Currently I have a 70-200 2.8 Sigma (nice little lens!) but I was shooting a damsel fly on the pond, see here:-

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150226078514248.339640.61940264247

but all of these shots are quite massively cropped and as such have lost a lot of quality.

My question is, would it be wiser to get an extender to give all my lenses a boost but sacrifice the f/stops (which I think is 2 stops with a 2.0 extender?) or save up for a 70-300 or something like that? (also if it's the latter option, recommendations? i'm trying to not spend too much so sort of sigma or tamron rather than canon I think)

thanks

 

[squishy]

To be honest, with small damsels like those the longer tele-photos wont focus close enough to get you shots that close. A 2x extender would certainly get you closer, but IMO the drastic loss of quality means it just isn't worth while.

Maybe a long lens like a 150-500 plus some extension tubes would work.

To be honest though, you're better off just learning how to get closer. There will always be wildlife that's out of your reach, no matter how long your lens is.

 

[aeronic]

I think that a 1.4x tc would give you a significant reach advantage, and only takes your lens up to f/4. Might be worth considering?

 

[Mike Jackson]

With damsels you want to be getting closer not further away. Look at lenses with closer focussing distances and practice getting closer. Really you're moving into the realms of macro photography.

I took this with my 50D a couple of years ago. I was using the canon 100 macro and less than a foot away from the damsel.


Common Blue Damsel Fly by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr

The closer you can get to stuff the better. Good lenses don't compensate for bad fieldcraft.

 

[garryknight]

I agere with Adam. I have a Kenko 2x extender that I sometimes use with my Canon 70-300mm and 50mm lenses. With the 70-300mm I have to use a tripod or a solid wall with the remote shutter release cable and the mirror locked up or there's too much blur in the centre of the picture. And you not only lose 2 stops of light, the result can be very soft around the edges, plus you can get more chromatic fringing.