I really enjoy going out with the camera again and last year after I got myself the Fujifilm X-T4 camera I also switched up my lenses a bit. But I found that I was still missing a good bit of reach (I sold a 18-135, but that wasn’t really that was also already missing a bit at the long end). My most tele distance was 90mm on APS-C (which corresponds with about 135mm on a full frame camera). The great thing about that lens is that it’s largest aperture is f2.0 but the moment you want to photograph something that’s far away, 90mm just doesn’t cut it.
I was reminded of that again on our hike int ‘ T Roegwold last weekend and decided to do something about it there and then and ordered the 70-300mm. I’ve been looking into three lens-options: the 55-200, the 70-300 and the 100-400. The first one I scratched off immediately as 200 is of course. much more than 90mm, it’s not a huge improvement given the other options and it’s the older and lowest in quality of the three options if I’m not mistaken.
So then it was between 70-300 and 100-400. The reasons for choosing the 70-300mm were in the first place that it’s much smaller and lighter, less then half the weight of the 100-400mm. And secondly the price, also half of the 100-400mm. From what I’d seen in reviews and in images on the Flickr website made with the 70-300mm I had no concerns about the quality. The smaller size and the light weight make it ideal to take along on a hike as the heavy 100-400mm would be more a a purpose only lens.
The lens arrived yesterday and after work I immediately took it out on walk with me to get some test-photos in for myself. Also good to get a bit of exercise going 😀
What I love about the lens is its ability to focus at a minimum distance of about 83cm, which at 300mm zoom makes it almost like a macro lens. Very much like my 16mm wide-angle that focusses from 15cm. Two lenses that in theory have nothing to do with Marco-photography and still you can get really good results.
In the hike yesterday I got some great results to give me an initial idea of the capabilities and I hope to soon make better use of the lens. I was able to try mu luck at a heron in flight (better luck next time), some sunflowers, butterflies, a bee and some sparrows. At 300mm I do feel I have a good bit of reach and if it really comes down to getting more, I can always add a tele-converter to increase it a bit more. For now I’m really quite fine though.
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