best lens for wildlife photography?

A great starter wildlife kit would be the Panasonic G9 first version and the Panasonic 100-300 lens. The micro four three sensor will give you double the reach which is 200-600 mm. The stabilization in this combo will be excellent for wildlife including small birds. The limitations of a smaller sensor in low light can be greatly improved by modern software such as DXO Photolab or Topez. This kit would be reasonably priced especially if buying new.

Kcleeton said:

A great starter wildlife kit would be the Panasonic G9 first version and the Panasonic 100-300 lens. The micro four three sensor will give you double the reach which is 200-600 mm. The stabilization in this combo will be excellent for wildlife including small birds. The limitations of a smaller sensor in low light can be greatly improved by modern software such as DXO Photolab or Topez. This kit would be reasonably priced especially if buying new.

Click to expand...

KC, no disrespect but a 300mm lens is way to short for wildlife. 400mm is too short but it's the affordable starting point.

If that body is a crop body it of course buys a little more reach.

Lets face it, shooting wildlife on a limited shoestring budged will always be an exercise in pure frustration. I've been there and done that! Though I was getting really good photographs they could not be printed because of the combination of low mp and lack of reach. My compositions were great but the IQ was dismal! I actually decided to quit until I got more appropriate(and more expensive) gear. Which is why I gave the advice I did. I will assume everybody giving advice shoots or did shoot wildlife!

John

It's a micro 4/3 body with a 2x crop, so 300 mm on the Panasonic G9 is equivalent to 600 mm on full frame, as was stated earlier. This is fine for wildlife, as are shorter lenses if that's what you have. It may be easier with more reach, but we've all seen (and many have taken) great animal and bird photos with less than 200 mm FF equivalent lenses.

John, no disrespect taken. You know that 300mm on a m43 sensor equals 600mm due to the crop sensor. My first real bird lens was the Panasonic 100-300 which is an inexpensive but decent lens out to about 250mm. It's a very good starter lens for wildlife including small birds. It is also very light with stabilization that works well with Panasonic camera body ibis. The equipment that I suggested to the op is lightweight, compact and relatively inexpensive. I will attach a photo I took today with my current m43 camera and lens.

Icee258 said:

It's a micro 4/3 body with a 2x crop, so 300 mm on the Panasonic G9 is equivalent to 600 mm on full frame, as was stated earlier. This is fine for wildlife, as are shorter lenses if that's what you have. It may be easier with more reach, but we've all seen (and many have taken) great animal and bird photos with less than 200 mm FF equivalent lenses.

Click to expand...

300mm on 20MP mft is closer to 400mm on 45MP FF, not 600. Of course, the computation depends on the MP count of each body. A 600mm on 45MP will get you far more pixels on your target than a 300mm on a 20mp mft.