Primed for wildlife

Learn the benefits of using a pro-super-telephoto 500mm prime lens to take better photos of small and wary wildlife subjects with Peter Travers

- Peter Travers

USED OR HIRE

Professional super-telephoto primes come at a professional price. A new Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM is priced around an eye-watering £9559. However, you can get an ‘excellent’ condition used version for less than half that on sites like mpb.com. Or hire a lens to try out for a week before you remortgage and buy one!

There is a special joy when photographing wildlife with a massive super-telephoto 500mm prime lens. You really feel like you have a big, powerful optic that will help you capture frame-filling shots of the smallest subjects.

There are both pros and cons, though, to super-telephoto prime lenses. Prime lenses generally offer superior image quality, due to fewer moving elements compared with zoom lenses. There’s also the wider apertures such as f/4 on the Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM we’ve used. The faster maximum aperture blurs backgrounds for a dreamy bokeh look, so subjects stand out from their surroundings, plus these ‘fast’ apertures also produce faster shutter speeds for sharper shots at the longer focal lengths by over-riding camera shake shooting handheld, as well as freezing fast-moving nature.

Furthermore, with huge 146mm diameter glass (as on our EF 500mm) letting lots of light in, it will enable your Canon EOS camera’s AF to perform at its best and lock on to subjects rapidly.