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Lens choice for whale watching

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Jacobus2

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Oh goody, I get to go whale watching in Maui.

Decision, decision: I have a Bigma (Sigma 50-500) and I have the Pentax DA* 60-250.

The way I see the pros and cons:
  • Bigma: Wider zoom range, especially being able to zoom way past 250. That's a big plus, but will I really need it? Might be faster to auto focus. On the other hand, not terribly sharp at 500 unless stopped down to F8 or even F11. Also heavier.
  • DA* 60-250: Higher image quality. Obviously faster, and stays sharp at all apertures, though probably I'll have lots of sun. Weather-sealed.
Which would you choose?

--
Jacobus
 
.. you would definitely need the bigma. People in boats are not allowed to approach a whale any closer than 100 metres off the coast of New South Wales. Even a humpback is pretty small from 100 metres distance. There is no evidence that approaching closer is harmful to whales, by the way, just the usual extremists in National Parks and Fisheries flexing their ideological muscles.
--
Mike M. (emem)
http://www.veritasmea.com
 
I can not tell the individual pros and cons of the lenses, but, coming from a personal experience, you need anyway:

A sharp, versatile, fast focusing lens,

Fast reflexes, especially when you hear people going "wow!", "look at that!" from the other side of the boat,

A video feature may be of great assistance for some cases.

Good luck!

Nick
 
I went whale watching in Argentina last year. We often got close to the whales (my 300 was often useless), but seldom really close. I'd definitely say the 60-250, not just because it's sealed and has a nice range, but also because it's lighter and easier to manipulate hand-held. No tripod/monopod on the boat, and you'll be shifting around with a bunch of other people anyway. Honestly, I'd think a nice, weathersealed superzoom would work almost as well or better (DOF nice), and I'd bring one anyway to switch to if needed. I don't know if Hawaii is like Australia, but if you're concerned about not ever getting too close, I'd call the tour/travel company first and just ask.

Andrew
 
I would have replied the same.

IMHO the 60-250 is more important here if you must chose one. Even if you have a lot of light, there might be movements form you, from the whale8s9 and also from the boat, depending on its size. Combine that to heavy lens, F8-F11 apertures, you'll might get only good results at very high shutter speed/high ISO.

I'd say at least 1/2000th at 500mm but I'm not used to that focal length :)

The fact that you use a weather-sealed lens on the water is also a kind of wisdom ;)

Cheers
Elie
 
Agree with the others here - the 60-250 should be more than adequate for this.

I managed to get some pretty reasonable whale watching pictures in Nova Scotia using the (don't shout at me...) lowly 18-250. And most of them were not at full tele.

--
http://jonschick.smugmug.com/
 
Hi

I went last summer in a whale watching tour (on a very little, mobile boat) on St Lauren; I recommand you to use the WR lens; standing on the edge of the boat, I went out from the boat in the same appearance as if I had spend 5 mn under my shower

Regards
--
jpgoube
 
It may sound like a stupid question, but actually it is not.

Where I live we have a number of whales.

humpbacks are the most common variety and they allow you to get fairly close and are quite eager to show tail fins and occationally jump even.

fin whales are rare, much larger, much faster, will not let you get close and rarely if ever shows their tails.

The two above are save for the blue whales the two extremes up here.

For the former you will rarely need anything above 135mm on APS-C.
For the latter 250mm might be a tad on the short side...

Here is a sample at 250mm from the 60-250 btw I could have used a little longer lens at times.



My hope is that a few members from maui will chime in and give their local evaluation, as whale behaviour may be different in maui compared to here.

My choice would be a two body setup, DA*60-250 on one and a DA21 or DA*16-50 on the second, just in case you get an option to shoot them up close.

That said, have fun and bring back some great images.

--
Thomas

Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool
http://main.duplophotography.com/
 
emem said:
.. you would definitely need the bigma. People in boats are not allowed to approach a whale any closer than 100 metres off the coast of New South Wales. Even a humpback is pretty small from 100 metres distance. There is no evidence that approaching closer is harmful to whales, by the way, just the usual extremists in National Parks and Fisheries flexing their ideological muscles.
Click to expand...
Up here we often have the humpbacks as close as 10 meters from the boats, they really are very curious animals and they seem very good natured.

Cannot imagine why one would take so extreme precautions, but of course we do not have nearly the same amount of turists either.
--
Thomas

Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool
http://main.duplophotography.com/
 
I was reasonably successful capturing images of hump backs and orca with a Bigma mounted to a monopod near Valdez, AK a few summers ago. The Bigma is quite heavy as you know and I was never able to hand hold it - hence the monopod. The skys were heavily overcast, as is typical in Alaska, so I was always struggling with slow shutter speeds and slow focus - again the main reason for the monopod. In fact, I think I spent most of the time focusing manually.

A big problem for me was the vibration of the boat engine (this was not a small boat). Unless I set the monopod on my foot, the engine vibrations were transmitted right through to the camera/lens.

I didn't have any other lens option at the time. Today I do but it would be difficult for me to leave the long reach of the Bigma behind. I agree with who ever said take them both - especially if you have two cameras.

One other unsolicited piece of advice; don't just emphasize close-ups of the whales. I wish I had spent more time on "seascapes" that included whales such as this one (and the only one I got) which is one of my favorite images from the trip. This was taken with the 50mm end of Bigma



--
Frank Comisar

PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/frankcomisar
Blog: http://scenicaperture.com/
 
Hello,

4 years ago I went whale watching in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Back then I didn't have a DSLR and all I had was a little P&S with a 3x zoom range!
As surprising as it sounds, it wasn't too bad.

As Thomas mentioned earlier, the whales were rather curious and we would approach them very close (as close as 2-3 meters!). They would dive and come back up on the other side of the boat. It was just amazing! Most whales we saw were humpback whales and there were a few mikey ones.

If I had the opportunity to go back again with a DSLR, I would pick neither the Bigma nor the 60-250, because even 50mm would be too close for certain situations.

I would probably get a Pentax 18-250 for the versatility to be sure not to miss an opportunity.

If I had to choose between the 60-250 and the Bigma, I would choose the former because of weather sealing and weight. You don't want to carry something super heavy and the risk of splashes is pretty high.

--
Florent

http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/florentgluck
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thxbb12/
 
Duplo said:
emem said:
.. you would definitely need the bigma. People in boats are not allowed to approach a whale any closer than 100 metres off the coast of New South Wales. Even a humpback is pretty small from 100 metres distance. There is no evidence that approaching closer is harmful to whales, by the way, just the usual extremists in National Parks and Fisheries flexing their ideological muscles.
Click to expand...
Up here we often have the humpbacks as close as 10 meters from the boats, they really are very curious animals and they seem very good natured.

Cannot imagine why one would take so extreme precautions, but of course we do not have nearly the same amount of turists either.
Click to expand...
The key here is who (or what) approaches who. I've been on whale watching tours run out of the NSW south coast a few times now, and the boats are indeed not allowed to approach closer than 100 metres. So what happens? the skipper cuts the engine ahead of, and to the side of the whales path, and the whale then chooses whether it approaches the boat or not. The law says nothing about whales approaching boats -- the legality is about boats approaching whales.
--
http://geoffcole.smugmug.com/
 
FWIW I recently spoke with a good friend who just got back from a similar outing in Monterrey just a week or so ago. Everything he mentioned about the trip would support other comments already posted about the 60-250 (as opposed to the Bigma) - 1. the sea was less then calm, so just keeping footing with his P&S was a challenge 2. he had to "compete" in a friendly way with the others on the boat to get a good shot, and 3. He definitely got wet.

If you're going to have to deal any of these issues (which sounds likely), looks like the smaller/lighter and weather-sealed option would be best.

My two cents

Pete
 
A very good point. I actually ended up with way too many shots of right whales surfacing to breath. Not much contrast with the water, and not visually very interesting in retrospect (much more interesting "live").

--
Andrew
 
Frankly, unless you get very close to them, in which case the 60-250 would do just fine, don't bother taking photographs and just enjoy the moment. All you're likely to get are motion blurred small black patches on a wide blue expanse hardly worth the picture. Whales are nice to see, but most of the time, unless they breach, make for pretty boring images IMO. So my recommendation, don't stay glued to your viewfinder, smell the fresh air, and enjoy the moment.

--
Roger
 
I do not know for Maui. I took a whale watching tour in Hermanus, South Africa. The guide told us not to take too long lenses because of sea sickness (and on that day, the sea was not so calm). I took the Tokina 80-400.

On a moving boat in the waves, I needed to quite increase the iso when using the longer end of the Tokina as it got difficult to hand hold. The Bigma will certainly not make an exception here.

One year after that trip, I had to send the Tokina 80-400 in because of "pepper mill like zooming and focusing". This could well be related with this whale watching tour.

I would strongly advice for the DA*60-250 not only for the better IQ, but also for the weather sealing.

Here a few shots I took in Hermanus with the K10D and Tokina 80-400:

f/7.1, 300mm, 800iso



f/7.1, 190mm, 800iso



f/7.1, 330mm, 800iso



--
Dominique

http://www.pbase.com/tcom
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dschreckling/
 
Actually Roger is right: there are very good chances you'll miss most of the enjoyment by being glued to your viewfinder.

It happened to me in NZ when I went on the dolpin watching trip. I missed out on the real experience for, almost entirely, boring photos to look at!

So, after thinking about it, I'd recommend leaving your camera at home (so there won't be any temptation) so you can truly enjoy the experience.

--
Florent

http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/florentgluck
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thxbb12/
 
Jacobus2 said:
Oh goody, I get to go whale watching in Maui.

Decision, decision: I have a Bigma (Sigma 50-500) and I have the Pentax DA* 60-250.

The way I see the pros and cons:
  • Bigma: Wider zoom range, especially being able to zoom way past 250. That's a big plus, but will I really need it? Might be faster to auto focus. On the other hand, not terribly sharp at 500 unless stopped down to F8 or even F11. Also heavier.
  • DA* 60-250: Higher image quality. Obviously faster, and stays sharp at all apertures, though probably I'll have lots of sun. Weather-sealed.
Which would you choose?

--
Jacobus
Click to expand...
60-250 defo - weight, size, f-no, IQ all win imho. Handling a large lens liek the bigma on a boat within a crowd of other excited people around is not what I would call fun. It's easier if you can find a nice vantage spot and stake it out.

trickiest part in my experience is getting the whales in the pic ! they're underwater for ages and it's tricky to predict exactly where they'll surface, once they do there's not much time to shoot.

I used a DA*200 when I had the opportunity of whale watching (humpbacks) and really would have appreciated the 60-250 to be able to locate at 60mm and zoom in to shoot. I got used to spotting with left eye whilst keeping camera glued to right eye in anticipation. Managed to get some with the blowhole visible like that

enjoy :-)

--
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