What camera lens for a pheasant hunt?

[Sticks&Strings]

I am headed to Kimball, SD on a pheasant hunt. I have a Canon 7D and two lenses. One is a Sigma 17-70 f/ 2.8-4 and one is a 50mm f/2.8 but no IS on it.

Should I rent a lens for the trip or will these be sufficient? I am afraid a big lens will be too much to carry into the field. THoughts or suggestions?

[AtTheWall]

The Sigma at 70mm may do the trick but, it all depends on what you want to shoot? Flying and or flush shots.....that lens will give a decent view of the hunter and bird but....everything may be a bit out there on the final..requiring some crop work to frame things a bit tighter.

If I were you...renting a 70-200mm zoom lens with f/2.8 speed may be the ticket? It's a bit to carry and you may find that hunting and shooting pixels will require you to make a choice of gun and or camera. Impossible to do both if you want quality pixels and or hitting birds.

Go out in the yard and try the lens aiming at objects as if you are out there on the hunt. Find out how tight the birds are from those that are hunting there....hopefully than can mention most shots are 10 - 30 yards from the hunter meaning you will need to follow tightly behind someone to capture the scene. The 70-200 mm lens will be too tight and the Sigma will work that better. Shots where you are a bit away from the hunter, dog and bird....the 70-200 mm will work very well.

The 50mm lens will view the world very close to the human eye...just a big more zoom in this lens on a digital camera but, it's very close.

Better to have options there than to go without many options.

[Sticks&Strings]

They have a 28-135 and a 50-150 for rent as well.
Thoughts on those?

[Sticks&Strings]

or an 85 f/1.8

[Sticks&Strings]

and a 100mm f/2.8

Dang all the options.

[Shane]

70-200mm f/4 non-IS lens would be perfect. Good range, and a LOT lighter to carry than the f/2.8 version. Much cheaper too. It's the most affordable great Canon lens.

[AtTheWall]

The Sigma 50-150mm lens may be the one to go with. 50mm is about the same as the human eye in focal range but....you can zoom in pretty tightly on targets out to 30-40 yards with the 150mm end.

Shane...the IS may help cover the moving scene this type of shooting will need..thinking he will swing the camera to follow a bird and or hunter...in miliseconds. Without IS....a lot of blurry shots and or running ISO so high, cropping will be too grainy to cover range issues with shots that need cropping to bring it in closer for final?


I would recommend not worrying about lenses...get a lightweight backpack and make sure you have the lenses wrapped up and or protected from banging against each other inside. Better to have too many lenses there and adjust what you need after a bit of shooting, digging into the backpack to fine tune what you have. I can see you moving to two lenses..one wide angle and the other....on the 100 - 200mm range to cover tight shots on birds, dogs and hunters.

[Legdog]

70-200 2.8

[Winman]

I'd use a shotgun myself...12 ga with No.5's if I could find them....or 6's if not.....

[Sticks&Strings]

I'd use a shotgun myself...12 ga with No.5's if I could find them....or 6's if not.....

Ha ha! I expect to use that as well. I hope to limit early and pixel the slackers that can't shoot.

You guys are all leaning go big or go home on lenses. One other guy will haVe that 70-200 f2.8 so I may do something different. Thx for the tips.

[Sticks&Strings]

Ttt

[Kevin]

I rolled a 70-200 F2.8 in Argentina for Dove hunting and its too much zoom for the type of shooting I prefer. I liked the 17-50 much better. I've never used that sigma you have, so I can't speak to it, but the Canon 17-55 EF-S F2.8 IS is a GREAT lense. My other suggestion would be the Canon 24-105 F4 IS. If you were close, I would let you borrow mine.

[fletcherfor2]

Here's a couple from the LSBA pheasant hunt this year. I can't tell you what lens she was using. She got several really amazing sequential shots. You pretty much need a full-time photographer on a pheasant hunt to do it right.



left to right...me, Bisch, Chunky, Buff