Lens recommendation? (moose,grizzlies,etc..)

Brian Skibbe

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Feb 3, 2017
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Greetings, all!

I'm taking my Sony A6000 mirrorless camera when I go to Northwest Wyoming this spring. I have a wide variety of lenses and focal lengths, many of them being vintage manual-focus lenses that I use adapters with. (1960's-1980's primes) I will definitely have my sony 55-210mm zoom lens (82-315mm equivalent with the 1.5x crop factor) I'm certainly going to bring my sigma 19mm f2.8 (28mm w/1.5x crop factor), and maybe another, such as a sigma 60mm f2.8 (90mm equivalent), just because it's such a gem of a lens from a sharpness/bokeh standpoint. I think the 19mm(28mm) will suffice for landscape shots.

Does anyone any specific recommendations or input? I know that it would be nice to have something in the range of 400-500mm, but that's not in my arsenal....yet, so 315mm will have to do this trip as far as my reach goes. I'm hoping that it will be good enough to get a few decent moose and grizzly shots. (safely)

As always, many thanks!!

Brian
 
If you're already comfortable manual focusing I'll give a hearty recommendation for the Contax 100-300mm vario-sonnar. Unreal sharpness and microcontrast for a zoom and gorgeous rendering. Slight loss of sharpness at 300 but stiill much better than the new 70-300 and will be a lot better than the 55-210. Lots of discussion over at fredmiranda here http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/926319/0
Wow! What a lens! I looked at some examples on flickr.... You weren't kidding...pretty darn sharp!

I won't say I'm a master at manual focusing, but I have quite a few legacy primes and a few zooms, as I really enjoy the "character" that some of them have (the pentax 50mm super takumar f1.4 being one of my favorites!). So, I've gotten relatively good at using "focus peaking" on my A6000, and don't shy away from a good lens because it has to be focused manually. I'm going to give this lens very serious consideration. With the crop factor pushing the focal length to 450mm, this would certainly get me out there a ways.

Thank you for the recommendation!!
 
Wow! What a lens! I looked at some examples on flickr.... You weren't kidding...pretty darn sharp!

I won't say I'm a master at manual focusing, but I have quite a few legacy primes and a few zooms, as I really enjoy the "character" that some of them have (the pentax 50mm super takumar f1.4 being one of my favorites!). So, I've gotten relatively good at using "focus peaking" on my A6000, and don't shy away from a good lens because it has to be focused manually. I'm going to give this lens very serious consideration. With the crop factor pushing the focal length to 450mm, this would certainly get me out there a ways.

Thank you for the recommendation!!
No problem. I picked one up recently to use on my A7rii and it's just nuts how good it is for a zoom. So good I couldn't resist picking up it's little brother 35-70 f3.4 :D
 
No problem. Those folks can tell you where the latest wildlife locations are or have been. Which wolves are spotted from photographers row in the Lamar and Hayden, times, etc.... Some incredible photographers on the forum that specialize in wildlife in the GYE.
 
Younts Peak Snotel Today:

8,350'

193%; 69" Depth, 23.3" Snow-Water Equivalent.

Outlook for coming months says continued above average precipitation. Normalizing perhaps well into summer. When there's a cold surface mass and warm air hits it in the spring you can get epic thunder, rain, or even more snow. In other words, mud season. Do you have a ride to Brooks Lake if you're going out there? Northside just too far for me.

It could be wet. Cold. Frozen. Wet again. I am of course saying this in the hope the !@#$ing outlook/forecast which is historically very accurate is wrong. Please just watch those stream levels.

I of course wish you and your lenses well; looking forward to those pics too. Safe travels and buy you a beer if you come through Jackson.
 
Not familiar with Sony gear, but if they make a 1.5x or 2x teleconverter that's a cheap way to push that 315mm way, way out at the cost of a couple stops you won't care about outdoor anyway.
 
Not familiar with Sony gear, but if they make a 1.5x or 2x teleconverter that's a cheap way to push that 315mm way, way out at the cost of a couple stops you won't care about outdoor anyway.
Yes, I have found a couple of teleconverters. The Sony versions are not cheap, coming in at above $500....whew! Not a bad idea at all though. Good input!

Thank you!
 
Younts Peak Snotel Today:

8,350'

193%; 69" Depth, 23.3" Snow-Water Equivalent.

Outlook for coming months says continued above average precipitation. Normalizing perhaps well into summer. When there's a cold surface mass and warm air hits it in the spring you can get epic thunder, rain, or even more snow. In other words, mud season. Do you have a ride to Brooks Lake if you're going out there? Northside just too far for me.

It could be wet. Cold. Frozen. Wet again. I am of course saying this in the hope the !@#$ing outlook/forecast which is historically very accurate is wrong. Please just watch those stream levels.

I of course wish you and your lenses well; looking forward to those pics too. Safe travels and buy you a beer if you come through Jackson.
Thank you very much for the forecast update! This information is incredibly valuable!
 
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