[Gchumway]

Hello;
I am new to the forums. I was wondering if somebody could recommend a telephoto lense and wide angle lense for an upcoming trip to Yellowstone. We will be going for a week at Christmas. I hoping to get some good wildlife pictures. Thank you.

I have a Pentax K-7

[GaryH]

That is a rather broad question. Do you have any lenses now? How much is your budget. If you can give those things, We can offer suggestions.
regards

[Ahab]

15 Limited and DA*300 should do just fine.

[Gchumway]

I have a couple of lenses that came with the camera. A Quantray 70-300mm and Pentax 50mm. My budget is not open ended. But I willing to make the investment for something of good quality and suitable for an amateur and relatively new photographer.

[calculator01]

DA*16-50 and DA*300

[jatrax]

Went this past September.
For wide I took the da 12-24 f/4 and it was needed at most of the hot springs. Even wider would have been useful.
For long take as long as you possibly can 400mm was mostly too short. I had the Sigma 50-500 along and most shots with it were at 500 and still not close enough.
I used the da*60-250 a lot for the mid range.

[alcstudios]

I travel with a Tamron 17-50 and a Sigma 50-500

[jatrax]

I have a couple of lenses that came with the camera. A Quantray 70-300mm and Pentax 50mm. My budget is not open ended. But I willing to make the investment for something of good quality and suitable for an amateur and relatively new photographer.

You should think about what you want to shoot.
The hot springs/geysers/thermal areas are mostly accessible only from fixed boardwalks. So you cannot 'zoom with your feet', you are stuck at the perspective you get from the boardwalk and in most cases wide is what you need.


For wildlife to do a good job you need 500mm or greater and that is very expensive. You have your 70-300 and realistically you will need to spend a lot to greatly improve on it. So I would go with that for the long end and try to improve your wide angle. Pentax da 12-24 or the Sigma 10-20 or the Tamron 10-24. Or if only one lens is in the budget take a look at the 18-135mm, not wide enough but it will cover a lot of focal lengths you do not have covered at the moment.

[TenZ.NL]

The real "problem" is the tele-side of things. WA options are plentiful and it all depends on your wants and needs. If you want WR then 16mm (DA*16-50) is the widest you can get. But remember, you can allways stitch 2 or more images together to fit in the wider picture. Landscapes aren`t going anywhere

But the telelenses are another matter...since you`ll be going in winter there probably won`t be a lot of light.
That means you either need to bump the ISO (not a good idea with the K20d/K7 sensor) or faster long lenses. And that`s gonna hurt your wallet, exactly like Jatrax says.

[jatrax]

The real "problem" is the tele-side of things.

Agree. Had I known before what I know now I would have bought (or rented) the Sigma 500 f/4.5 even if I had to sell a car or child to do it. I had many opportunities for really great shots that I just did not have the equipment to handle. Here is a grizzly bear with the Sigma 50-500 @500. Yeah it's a bear, I promise.

[TenZ.NL]

Capturing a grizzly framefilling with a 300mm is probably not a good idea...

[calculator01]

Capturing a grizzly framefilling with a 300mm is probably not a good idea...

Once in a life(time) photograpgh

[interested_observer]

I have a couple of lenses that came with the camera. A Quantray 70-300mm and Pentax 50mm. My budget is not open ended. But I willing to make the investment for something of good quality and suitable for an amateur and relatively new photographer.

I am going to assume that like most of us, budget is a concern. To supplement your current lenses - hopefully at a reasonable price I would suggest a couple of approaches.

• Pentax DA 16-45 - This has been discontinued, but still available as new (if you really look) or used. You can also find them in the marketplace here on the forum. You can pick one up for about $200-$250. That should help a great deal with your wide angle adventures. You can go wider - but the costs increase quickly. The image quality is as good as you are going to get until you go much more expensive.
• Stitching - You can stitch at any focal length - with any lens. Let's say you go with the 16-45. To go wider, take overlapping images, even hand held, overlapping by about 25%. In post processing down load Microsoft ICE (its free). Practice at home to get the hand of it. It uses JPG or TIFF. You can convert your RAW into TIFF and it will stitch just fine. Its just drag and drop.
• For longer - your Quantray is ok. You can get a 2x or 1.4x teleconverter for about $50 or so. It will require a lot of light, but it will extend your reach. Anything more than 300mm is going to run in to large dollars, and you are going to need to work on keeping it still.

[woodywesty]

Capturing a grizzly framefilling with a 300mm is probably not a good idea...

Ha! Take old "death wish" Normhead along... he'll get ya that bar with a 300mm

[SpecialK]

I always recommend the 12-24 (or similar) for traveling. As mentioned it is useful at the geyser/springs area. I had the luxury of having a large kit with me and was using the 15 and 21 a lot, but the 12-24 covers the same range and has excellent IQ. Although I had a 150-500 with me, most of the animals were on vacation it seems :-( And I always take the fisheye on vacations.

Here are some examples...

21mm.


15mm.


10mm fisheye.


70mm.


500mm.


10mm fisheye.


200mm.


310mm.


10mm fisheye.