44 13 April 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
SHELLING out over £10k on a lens isn’t
realistic for a lot of people. However, that
doesn’t mean you can’t get your hands on a
costly lens for a one-off trip or special
shooting opportunity. Hireacamera (www.
hireacamera.com) rents out lenses and
other gear. A two-week rental of the Canon
EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM costs £627,
including VAT. The newer Canon EF 600mm
f/4 IS III can be hired too for around £264 a
day/weekend or £443 for a week.
Hiring a
costly lens
lens, but hard work with this 4kg monster.
The newer, recently launched Canon EF
600mm f/4L IS III USM, costing £12,999,
has reduced the weight to 3.05kg, so I’m
keen to get my hands on it in the future to see
how it compares. The heavy lifting took its toll;
on some evenings and mornings, it was painful
to move my neck, shoulders and back – until
the next unmissable photo opportunity
presented itself.
Occasionally, I missed the fl exibility and
freedom I have with my 100-400mm lens.
Some of my favourite pictures from the trip
were of Ruaha’s birds: a lilac-breasted roller
at sunset, or an eastern chanting goshawk
perched on a treetop with a glint in its eye. But
most of those shots were of stationary birds.
With the hefty 600mm, following a Ruaha
hornbill fl itting from tree to tree or an African
fi sh eagle in fl ight, while managing to hold and
move the massive lens without any support,
and then trying to fi nd the subject and focus on
it, was challenging. At such times, I wanted to
switch to a different camera, but it’s not easy to
fi nd a secure spot to rest an £11,000 piece of
glass quickly, especially in a moving vehicle. I
often ended up with the cumbersome, costly
lens in my lap, hindering my movement with
other cameras. The lens needed ‘babysitting’.Final thoughts
The 600mm lens dominated my attention in
other ways, too. So remarkable were the new
possibilities that I tended to over-use it, when
another lens may have been a better choice.
After a few days in Ruaha, I looked back at my
pictures, which were mainly those where I’d
been trying to get as close as possible to the
wildlife. There were far fewer of the wider
photos I liked, with the whole of an animal in
the frame or an animal set within its natural
environment. The landscapes of Ruaha are
as diverse as the inhabitants, from twisted
baobabs and candelabras to open savannah
and rocky outcrops, and the winding blue-
green of the Ruaha river. But I’d been taking
few landscape photos, distracted by the
600mm’s novel potential. One morning, I
chose to go out without it, which felt a bit like
spending £89 million on Pogba and leaving
him on the bench, but I wanted to free myself
to photograph the park in different ways.
I’d also arranged to explore the remote
eastern section of the park on foot. There, too,
I decided to leave the big lens safely back at
camp. There was a chance I might miss a few
photographic opportunities, but walking for
15km each day, carrying the heavy 600mm,
in temperatures up to the mid-30s would haveHiring a lens is a great way to get
your hands on expensive kit for less