Lens for indoor bird photography

[Iga]

Hello!

I run a small pigeon rescue. My rescue also has an adoption program which means we look for adopters for pigeons who can't be released. I need to take attractive photos of each of the birds (portrait and a full body photo). I made a mistake, followed a dog portrait photography tutorials and bought a Fujinon XF 56 mm lens. It indeed works great for taking photos of my dog (I can take a close up photo of her head) but it's not the case with such small animals like pigeons. I am able to only take a photo of their full body, when I try to get a bit closer to shoot just their head the lens doesn't focus.

I was able take portrait photos of the pigeons with my kit lens 18-55 mm. I could take close up photos of their heads. But obviously it's not the best lens for portraits (mediocre sharpness, bokeh, background). Also, as I take photos indoors this lens was too dark and I ended up with a lot of grain in the photos (high ISO) because of bad lighting condition. XF 56 mm is really bright and looks awesome but it doesn't work for small animals photography... 

To sum it up:

- I don't need a fast focusing lens as pigeons don't move that quickly.

- I shoot mostly indoors so I need a bright aperture.

- I want to take both shots of birds' heads (portraits) and their full bodies. 

The first photo below was taken with 18-55 kit lens. The second photo is 56 mm and it looks wonderful but I can't get any closer to my subject because it gets unfocused.

Honestly I'm LOST. I thought a macro lens would be good for such animals like hamsters or insects. Would a 60 mm or 80 mm Fujinon macro lens work for what I need? Or a zoom lens be better (it needs to have a bright aperture and can't be much more expensive than the 56 mm)?

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[erwiurewurwehu]

I don’t think lenses are your problem. I would get a one or more flash and a soft box and work on lighting. 

[Iga]

Yeah, actually a flash is a really good idea... But 56 mm lens is not a good lens for what I need. Do you think 60 mm or 80 mm macro would be good for birds photos?

[jerryy]

Can you rent a Fujifilm 90mm F2 lens from your local camera store? It is bright, has good background blur, etc. etc. and allows you to focus from 0.6m - ∞.

Samyang / Rokinon also has a manual focus 85mm f1.4 that gets good reviews and is less expensive to buy.

Before you go the new macro lens route, you might also try extension tubes for your current lens.

Edited October 27, 2020 by jerryy

[quincy]

The Fuji 90 mm f/2 has approximately 12.5 cm x 8.4 cm field of view (1:5 magnification) at the close focusing distance of 0.6 m. I'm not quite sure if that's enough for "head and shoulder" portraits of birds, but it might work.

The 80 mm f/2.8 macro will do 2.51 cm × 1.67 cm (1:1 magnification), which is definitely enough, while the 60 mm f/2.4 macro can reach 5 cm x 3,3 cm (1:2 magnification).

(The Zeiss 50 mm f/2.8 macro can also reach 2.51 cm x 1.67 cm, by the way.)

Your 18-55 has a maximum magnification of 1:6.6, so if that was enough for you, the 90/2 should work.

 

Right now, I don't think there is a native Fujinon lens with an aperture of f/2 or brighter that can focus closer than the 90/2 can. (Except for the 16/1.4 which will distort your birds badly).

 

I think any of the three (60, 80 or 90) could suit your needs, or you could really just add a flash or continuous light with softbox and stay with the 18-55.

 

If manual focus is an option, there are lots of third party lenses you could adapt or even get in FX mount.

[mdm]

You might be frustrated with hunting autofocus of 60mm macro while framing moving subjects though. It's good with stamps or coins, not sure about pigeons.

[Iga]

4 hours ago, quincy said:

The Fuji 90 mm f/2 has approximately 12.5 cm x 8.4 cm field of view (1:5 magnification) at the close focusing distance of 0.6 m. I'm not quite sure if that's enough for "head and shoulder" portraits of birds, but it might work.

The 80 mm f/2.8 macro will do 2.51 cm × 1.67 cm (1:1 magnification), which is definitely enough, while the 60 mm f/2.4 macro can reach 5 cm x 3,3 cm (1:2 magnification).

(The Zeiss 50 mm f/2.8 macro can also reach 2.51 cm x 1.67 cm, by the way.)

Your 18-55 has a maximum magnification of 1:6.6, so if that was enough for you, the 90/2 should work.

 

Right now, I don't think there is a native Fujinon lens with an aperture of f/2 or brighter that can focus closer than the 90/2 can. (Except for the 16/1.4 which will distort your birds badly).

 

I think any of the three (60, 80 or 90) could suit your needs, or you could really just add a flash or continuous light with softbox and stay with the 18-55.

 

If manual focus is an option, there are lots of third party lenses you could adapt or even get in FX mount.

Thank you for your reply. I just tried it out how close I can get to the bird with my XF 18-55mm at 55 and this is the result (the photo below). Would I be able to get closer or further to the bird's head with XF 90mm (I don't mean the minimum focusing distance but how big the head of the bird would be in the frame with XF 90mm)? 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[Iga]

15 hours ago, jerryy said:

Can you rent a Fujifilm 90mm F2 lens from your local camera store? It is bright, has good background blur, etc. etc. and allows you to focus from 0.6m - ∞.

Samyang / Rokinon also has a manual focus 85mm f1.4 that gets good reviews and is less expensive to buy.

Before you go the new macro lens route, you might also try extension tubes for your current lens.

My local camera store offers rental of XF 56mm but it doesn't have 50/60/80/90 which is really unfortunate.

I can return the XF 56mm I just bought so I'd rather get another lens than buy extension tubes for 56. 

[jerryy]

1 hour ago, Iga said:

My local camera store offers rental of XF 56mm but it doesn't have 50/60/80/90 which is really unfortunate.

I can return the XF 56mm I just bought so I'd rather get another lens than buy extension tubes for 56. 

If you are in the US, there is a place:  https://www.lensrentals.com

that can help you through the mail. They have the variety discussed here that can help you decide. Just jump into the Fuji mount section and go from there, after quincy discusses with you some options.

[Iga]

4 minutes ago, jerryy said:

If you are in the US, there is a place:  https://www.lensrentals.com

that can help you through the mail. They have the variety discussed here that can help you decide. Just jump into the Fuji mount section and go from there, after quincy discusses with you some options.

Forgot to mention I'm not in the US. Poland.

[quincy]

3 hours ago, Iga said:

Thank you for your reply. I just tried it out how close I can get to the bird with my XF 18-55mm at 55 and this is the result (the photo below). Would I be able to get closer or further to the bird's head with XF 90mm (I don't mean the minimum focusing distance but how big the head of the bird would be in the frame with XF 90mm)?

 

According to Fujifilm, the XF 18-55 at 55 mm has a maximum magnification of 1:6.67, while the XF 90 has a maximum magnification of 1:5. This means, when both lenses are at their close focus distance, the XF 90 should see a slightly tighter crop. The image area in the plane of focus of the XF 18-55 at 55 mm should be around 16.7 cm x 11.1 cm, while the image area of the XF 90 should be ~ 12.5 cm x 8.4 cm. I've added those frame lines to your image:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

But please also consider that your depth of field gets smaller as your magnification increases. So even if you buy a lens with better magnification and brighter aperture, you might still end up closing the aperture down to get the whole head in focus. I've added some pictures I took with the XF 80 f/2.8 wide open at f/2.8: (the last bird might even be a pigeon, but you'll know better than me)

You can see that at f/2.8, the feathers at the back of the heads as well as the beaks are already very unsharp and out of focus in the portrait images while the eye is sharp. Even with less magnification as seen in the last picture, you can run into those problems.

[jerryy]

quincy is showing you why the studio folks earlier were suggesting to improve the lighting so that you can use more dof (higher f stop) to get more of the bird in focus without the image turning dark or needing to push the ISO. If you do go the lighting route, you have more options in lens choices -- though that 90mm is pretty good, a lot of portrait photographers like it. But one thought about that, try to get constantly on lighting instead of flashes. If you start strobing the units to get several good shots, the birds may panic, that sudden burst of intense light is startling.