Essentially all of the material on my galleries was shot with the Fuji S602. All the zoo shots tend to be at roughly 200mm equivalent and back - the lens has a range of 35 to 210mm equivalent. A number of them were done with the TCON-17 telephoto aux lens which is a 1.7x extender which extends the reach to about 350mm which should be pretty much the same as your 200mm with the 1.6 factor on the Canon. There are some limits, the extender can't be used on the full zoom range without vignetting. That won't impact the lenses you have.
I usually work in some of the automatic modes, usually programmed auto because I like the results but will swap to aperture or shutter priority modes at times. I do use a monopod at the Wild Animal Park if speeds begin to drop below say the 1/350 level or so. I'll fastn it down with bungee cords if needed to add more stability. The Zoo or Wild Animal Park will take wide-angle up to pretty much anything you are willing to carry. Most of the shots are summer day time so high shutter speeds were easy to achieve. Many were taken handheld from the tram so I was kind of hoping for it to stop for a second for some added steadiness. Since the lowest iso is the only one I can use (with good results) with this camera, I'd think your 17-40 and 70-200 would do fine, maybe needing to go up a step on iso to get fast speeds for holding when needed. Too much gear weights you down and gets tiring with the walking needed. We get memberships to the Zoo Association so the results are from a number of trips we made over time. That way it's easy to not worry about shots because there will be other visits.
In Las Vegas, I used several different modes and a lot of bracketing. The night scene mode, is biased towards longer exposures (like with the moving autos seen at lower right here) and gets more ambient light on the scene, if flash enabled, it acts like rear curtain sync. Some of the interior shots were handheld but the exterior nights were bracketed and usually with tripod or monopod. Using self-timer is handy for interior shots, leaning up against walls, or other supports too, because it gets you away from the shutter push movement. I pretty much went with the camera's exposures, checked results and adjusted as seemed maybe needed.
I don't do a lot of post-processing, usually just the "auto" sharpen for shots I'm going to view on screen. I use Qimage if I do prints (not too often) so it handles sharpening a little different from Photoshop, and find settings vary a little with different shots so adjust on the fly.
Tony
25-Dec-2004 04:17
I really like your work and I wanted to ask you some questions. I live in the Los Angeles area, and I will be going to Las Vegas, and the San Diego Zoo soon. I was wondering what size lens (type) do you find works best for most of your photos at the zoo, and the most difficult Las Vegas Lights? Do you use a Tripod, Flash, average F-stop, etc. Can you give me any advice? I own the Canon 20D, lens EF-17-40mm L f/4, Tamaron 28-75mm f/2.8 DI, EF-50mm f/1.8, EF S 18-55mm Kit Lens, Canon EF-70-200mm L f/4, and Canon EF-200mm f/2.8 L Prime lens (Canon EF-100-400mm IS L on the way). Speedlite 580EZ. Also how do you determine which USM settings that you are going to use. Can recorded actions be emailed, etc.
Thank You for all of your time, I am trying to learn and this board helps.
