What lens for shooting at Zoo?

anonymouscuban

Hello everyone. Hope you all are well.

My wife and I will be taking a trip to the zoo this coming weekend. There is a photography event at the LA Zoo, which we may go to, although we are leaning towards a trip to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego since we haven't been in over 10 years.

My questions is which lens should I take with me?

I currently own a D300 with a Sigma 17-70mm and Sigma 30mm f/1.4 prime lens. I will take both of these with me for the short shots. However, I don't own a long lens so I will be renting one.

I have a Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 on reserve right now. I wanted to take this lens with me because it may be the next lens I purchase and I wanted to test it out. Will it be long enough?

I can also rent an AF 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED VR. Will that be a better lens to rent for this trip?

Thanks for the help guys.

- Alex

dlplumer

I find a 70-200 is perfect for the zoo, and my 300 is a bit too much.

anonymouscuban

dlplumer wrote:

I find a 70-200 is perfect for the zoo, and my 300 is a bit too much.

Thanks. That's good to hear. I was hoping to be able to use this lens since I am looking at purchasing it. I've read nothing but good things about the lens but I need to perform due dilegence before I shell out the $1700 bucks on it. My wife appreciates that.

Do you guys recommend I bring my tripod along? I guess I should check the Wild Animal Park site to make sure it's even OK to do so.