Before selecting gear you have to consider the subject. The whale's
appearance is unpredictable and it will be visible for a fleeting
moment. You have to find, compose, focus and shoot fast.
<snip>
Mike
Whale watching is quite popular here in the Bay of Fundy in the summer time.
I was out just once with a fisherman friend from Grand Manan Island, not a
whale watching tour per se. We saw plenty that were far far away, mostly all
you see are the tails going up when they are diving, or water blowing. I
don't think any long lens could get a decent pic of them, and there would be
certainly very little time to compose or focus. You'd have to spend the trip
looking through the viewfinder, and then luck out, imho, to get a photo. But
we did get into one bunch of four that were "playing", that seemed to ignore
our boat. The skipper got nervous when they started disappearing just under
the boat. For those four a nice wide angle would be necessary. And you could
have run through 2 or 3 films easy even without a winder. If it were me, I'd
forget trying to capture any more than just a "prove I was there" picture or
2, unless you get close to them. In that case, you wouldn't need any more
than 135mm at most, and might need about 24mm. YMMV
Wayne
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