Lenses for wildlife

Anyone getting started in wildlife photography is likely to get the best results from a long telephoto lens, which will allow them to fill the frame with a relatively distant subject. Most such lenses are zooms, which tend to be much more affordable as well as more versatile.

All of the long telephoto zooms in the Sigma line-up have very fast AF that is compatible with the latest subject tracking technology, and image quality is exceptional for maximum detail capture. Fully zoomed in, they have a maximum aperture of F6.3 for fast shutter speeds and blurry backgrounds, and all have an Optical Stabilizer for keeping the lens still when working hand-held low light.

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used types of lenses for landscape photography. More specifically, ultra-wide-angle optics, with focal lengths ranging from around 12mm to 20mm, tend to be the most popular. Shooting in this way tends to exaggerate foreground objects, so a strong foreground element in a scene tends to favour wider-angle optics.

The longer the focal length, the closer together objects at differing distances appear to be, a phenomenon often termed a ‘compressed perspective’. An advantage of shooting in this way is that it places greater visual importance on background elements, which can suit a certain type of scene. Longer lenses also allow photographers to pick out very small vignettes within the landscape.