articles/Nature/walk-on-wild-side-page1

Tom Lee's Walk on the Wild Side - part 1 of 1 2 3 4

by Tom Lee Published 01/08/2015

Furthering my quest for a decent telephoto lens suitable for travelling without compromising the weight restrictions of hand luggage for most airlines, I recently took the Sigma 150-500mm APO f5-6.3 to capture my safari holiday in South Africa.

It's widely assumed that for this type of photography, a 600mm lens is more suited, particularly when paired with a 1.4 or 2x teleconverter. A problem arises when carrying a dedicated 600mm lens - the weight! The dedicated Nikon 600mm f4 weighs in at a whopping 5kg and measures 17.5" in length. At around £6,000, it's a little beyond my budget for a lens that would only be used in a limited number of situations.

Having been impressed with Sigma lenses in the past (I still use a 14mm f2.8 regularly), a lighter alternative would be the Sigma 150-600mm APO, at just over half the weight, 11.5" in length and only £1,300. Currently, however, this lens is as rare as hen's teeth. Waiting lists of around three months have been quoted, so I chose the older but still quality optic of a 150-500mm f5-6.3 APO, weighing a more reasonable 1.7kg, 10" in length (at 150mm) and costing a mere £600.

So how does a £600 Sigma compare with a £6,000 Nikkor - the answer is 'it doesn't'. Lenses at this focal length have a severely restricted use and are rarely used in portrait photography (unless you are in the 'paparazzi' line of work). Shelling out £6,000 for a lens which isn't going to give much financial return is an expensive toy indeed, regardless of its quality. I was looking from a purely practical viewpoint and deciding if it was fit for purpose at a reasonable cost.

My shortlist of requirements was not extensive, but I believe would be important to anyone looking to stretch the budget for an occasional lens: Low in weight. Not excessively large.

Reasonable price (By this I don't mean cheap!). Good build quality. Good performance.

Weight and Size
One of the biggest problems with air travel is what to do with your camera gear - do you take a chance and pack it in the hold baggage and pray the Neanderthals chucking it on the plane don't damage it? Or do you pack it in the hand luggage and pray it will fit into the minuscule baggage they allow you in the overhead locker or break the 10kg allowance, and hope they don't weigh it during check-in? Most professional landscape and nature photographers such as Thomas Mangelsen (www.mangelsen.com) will double pack their gear that has to go in the hold, and still hope it arrives when they do, or is not held in customs because they think the passenger has stolen it.

Even attached to my Nikon D4, the weight is just over 3kg allowing for a further 7kg of other essential lenses, flash, batteries, etc. I would normally travel with my CSC Fuji XT1 Pro and three lenses which total this amount exactly - perfect! I decided to mix and match on this trip and only took the XT1 and short 18-55mm lens (24-70 full-frame equivalent), leaving plenty of space for my infrared camera and two GoPros. All this gear fitted neatly into my Lowepro backpack and within (just) the 10kg limit for overhead baggage.

The one concession I made was for the tripod to go in the hold baggage, as it's a little more robust and can take some rough handling.

• Tom Lee's Walk on the Wild Side page 1
  
• Tom Lee's Walk on the Wild Side page 2
  
• Tom Lee's Walk on the Wild Side page 3
  
• Tom Lee's Walk on the Wild Side page 4
  

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