Hello all.

I am new to photography and now the proud owner of a Nikon D5600 which came with a basic lens. I have taken some decent pictures (or at least I think they are) using this lens but feel I need more scope with subjects in the distance so I am about to purchase a zoom lens, a Nikon AF-P 70-300mm F/4.5 6G Ed VR. I have two questions, 1. do you think this is a suitable lens for getting a decent photos of wildlife which persist in staying out of reach of my present lens and 2. there seems to be two types of lens hoods, a petal form hood and a solid ring, why the different types and are they necessary for all photographic conditions, light / distance etc.

Thank you in anticipation of any answers.

Hello all.

I am new to photography and now the proud owner of a Nikon D5600 which came with a basic lens. I have taken some decent pictures (or at least I think they are) using this lens but feel I need more scope with subjects in the distance so I am about to purchase a zoom lens, a Nikon AF-P 70-300mm F/4.5 6G Ed VR. I have two questions, 1. do you think this is a suitable lens for getting a decent photos of wildlife which persist in staying out of reach of my present lens and 2. there seems to be two types of lens hoods, a petal form hood and a solid ring, why the different types and are they necessary for all photographic conditions, light / distance etc.

Thank you in anticipation of any answers.

Your experience is very similar to mine about four years ago, except that I went with a Canon camera. When I bought the 70-300 the cost difference between the time between a Canon lens decided me to go with the (new and just introduced) Tamron. I like the lens but think it is a bit limited reach for wildlife photography. At near the full 300 mm extension, even back yard song birds have to be in perfect focus at over +/- 70 feet when trying to make a 11" x 14" print. At the time my main interest was getting better prints of sailboat & hydroplane boat races. Most of those come out fine, but the shutter speed really has to be pushed to the 1/1500 and higher.

You might want to try using continuous shots in the faster mode, you may get better results with several shots to chose with a one second or so burst.

A petal-form lens hood, if properly designed and properly oriented when attached, will reduce vignetting at wide apertures. The corners and sides of the rectangular sensor are farther away from the center of the circular image provided by the lens, while the top and bottom of that rectangular sensor are closer to the center of the image circle. The portions of the sensor which are closer to the center of the image circle are less affected by any fall-off in the quantity of light which may occur near the edge of the image circle at wide apertures.

The shallow or short parts of the wavy-shaped petal hood are intended to increase the amount of light reaching the sides and corners of the rectangular sensor, resulting in a more evenly balanced distribution of light across the entire sensor. The deepest indentations of the petal-form hood coincide with the corners of the sensor, and the shorter side petals are oriented to match the sides of the sensor. The petal-form hood, particularly with zoom lenses, is a carefully considered compromise: shallow side petals and deep corner indentations do somewhat reduce the anti-flare effectiveness of the petal-form hood.