Whale watching - what sort of lens?

[ACIPhotos]

Can anyone help? I'm oof to Nova Scotia in a few weeks and one plan is to go whale watching - humpbacks hopefully. What would be the best lens to take? I have a 16-80mm Carl Ziess and a Sigma 150-500mm. I know it sounds like a daft question but I am led to believe that sometimes the whales come quite close, and I dont want to miss a shot for too close or too far. Has anyone had experience of this? Thanks in anticipation.

[Andy B]

When I went on two whale-watching quests in Alaska back in 2008, I used both my Sony 18-250 and my Minolta 100-400 APO with my a700. On the first quest in Resurrection Bay, south of Sewell, the humpbacks and orcas (sometimes in pairs) would often swim right next to our boat one minute and then suddenly emerge 100 yards away the next. The 18-250 was perfect for this situation. Didn't have my CZ 16-80 at that time, but I think it also would have worked pretty well, although not quite as versatile.

A few days later in Stephens Passage, the whales tended to stay farther away from our catamaran (the boats are supposed to keep their distance!), making the 100-400 APO a better choice, especially with eagles flying repeatedly over our boat as they searched for food. I think most of my whale shots ranged from 100-300mm on this trip.

We did not see very many whales from the deck of our Holland-American cruise ship, from which I mainly used the 100-400 except for landscape and glacier shots. Along with the whales, you can probably expect to see a lot of sea lions, seals, and maybe some sea otters, along with various birds. My wife used her Canon SD850IS subcompact and also got some nice whale shots. Most of our fellow passengers on the whalewatching quests used point & shoots with only a handful using SLRs or DSLRs.

Have a great trip!

Andy

[ACIPhotos]

Thanks. Maybe I'll wear two cameras like a gun belt - one on each side!

[KevinBarrett]

For a trip like that, I'd invest in a second body--even an inexpensive one--so as to fit and have ready both lenses at once. For a one-lens solution, however, I'd go with the longer lens. There's a lot more water farther away from the boat than right next to it.

(You're not going to leave one of these lenses at home are you?)

[Andy B]

I've never been to Nova Scotia, but on the whalewatching boats I rode in Alaska using two cameras would have been a chore for me. Crowded railings with people running back and forth from one side of the boat to another as the boat turned in the water and as the whales would swim from one spot to another. The catamaran had an upper viewing deck that you could only use when the boat stopped to view whales, so there was a lot of stair climbing and descending. When the boat sped up, I found myself leaning on walls, posts and stairways for support. With the boats bouncing around in the water, a tripod or monopod would have been useless and nobody used either. If I were to carry a second camera in those conditions, it probably would be something like a Canon G11 for when the whales swam close to the boat. But I really didn't have any trouble switching lenses as needed between my 18-250 and my 100-400, and my wife used her Canon subcompact. (I should add that I bought my A700 and these lenses only a couple weeks before our trip, so I had very little experience using them beforehand.)

On our first quest in Kenai Fjords (Resurrection Bay), we twice found our boat stopped very close to schools of orcas and humpbacks. Most of my photos were shot at focal lengths of 35-50mm, with a couple at 70-80mm. Later on the same trip, I shot a handful of whale shots at 135mm and a bunch more at 200-250mm.

On our second quest in Stephens Passage off of Juneau, the captain kept our catamaran a fair distance away from the whales (as they are instructed to do). I snapped a couple shots at 135mm, a few more at 250-280mm, and the vast majority at 300-400mm.

My sea lion shots ranged from 100-400mm--mostly 300-400mm, while my flying eagle shots were all taken at 350-400mm. Most landscape shots of rocks, islands, and distant mountains were shot at 125-250mm. The Sony 18-250 is not as sharp as the CZ 16-80 but its focal range was almost perfect for shooting both portraits and landscapes from the deck of the boats.

[ACIPhotos]

For a trip like that, I'd invest in a second body--even an inexpensive one--so as to fit and have ready both lenses at once. For a one-lens solution, however, I'd go with the longer lens. There's a lot more water farther away from the boat than right next to it.

(You're not going to leave one of these lenses at home are you?)

Certainly not! Will be taking three lenses - these two and a macro. Good idea about two bodies.

[ACIPhotos]

On the other hand with all that toing and froing I might whack something on the boat.....