Go beyond 200mm and the potential and inherent problems of using long lenses become more extreme. The flattened perspective of a 400mm lens is tantalising, I routinely take on my travels a 100-400mm. It doesn't get anything like as much use as the 70-200mm, but occasionally it's worth its weight in gold. Weight is the key factor here. No lens is of any use unless you have it when you need it, and these long toms are big and bulky. I owned a 300mm f2.8 lens for several years; it was a brilliant optic, perfect for Wimbledon or Old Trafford, but totally the wrong lens for me. It was just too big and cumbersome to come on my roving trips around the world, most of the time it was left back at base.

The trouble is that fast apertures have an increasingly dramatic effect on the bulk and cost of a lens as focal lengths increase. A 300mm f2.8 has an aperture and thus front element of ½.8 x 300; about 110mm, which is a serious piece of glass. So just dropping down one stop in maximum aperture has a huge effect on the girth of an optic, not to mention the cost.

Nowadays I have a 100-400mm f4-5.6 and it accompanies me on most journeys. Of course the variable and slow maximum apertures are not too enticing, I hate the push pull zoom action and overall its just not the sexy beast the 300/f2.8 was, but THE big difference is it fits neatly in my Lowepro, and so has made many flights without causing grief and angst at the check in desk. Size and weight wise it's virtually identical to the 70-200, and on the tripod with the distant scene of Castelluccio perched above the Piano Grande with the Sibilini Mountains rearing above the weedy maximum aperture available becomes irrelevant. A lens has to be portable to be useful. In Umbria, in the arid altiplano landscapes of Bolivia and on many other adventures to the far side of the world this lens has earned its keep.

The village of Castellucio perched high above the Piano Grande with the mountains of Monti Sibillini National Park beyond, Umbria, Italy. Canon 1Ds mkII, 100-400mm f4-5.6 IS L lens @400mm, 1/15 sec @ f11, ISO 100

Sports and wildlife shooters will have a different take on all this. For them portability is not such an issue. I have no idea of how they deal with the tyranny of airline restrictions but once on the job crouched by the athletics track at the Olympics or peering out of a hide at snoozing lions the size of the lens becomes irrelevant; performance is all. 200mm f2s, 300mm & 400mm f2.8s, 500mm & 600mm f4s, 800mm f5.6s; these are the optics of our dreams.

If you've never used one I feel sorry for you, they are wonderful precision tools and life hasn't been the same since I was parted from my 500mm f4 at Johannesburg airport. But with the price tag of a reasonably priced car or more they are the preserve of pros who have to be sure they'll earn their keep. Massive, heavy, hugely expensive, cumbersome, difficult to use; yes, but when a fast long tom locks focus on a leopards eyes the advantages of these high performance optics becomes apparent. With super fast auto focus, minimal depth of field, a bright viewfinder image, searing sharpness, image stabilisation and AF lock buttons arrayed way down the lens barrel; they are the tool for the job. They're also great for posing with; an important consideration.

Leopard, Kruger National Park, South Africa. Canon 1Ds mkIII, 500mm f4 IS L lens, 1/200 sec @ f4, ISO 200

My work as a predominantly landscape and travel photographer rarely requires such tools. But I believe it's crucial to keep tackling new challenges beyond my photographic comfort zone so we headed for South Africa with the express purpose of shooting wildlife. This was a leap of faith that turned into one of the most fun trips we've done. Clearly I needed the appropriate artillery so I rented a 500mm f4 lens. The combination of a monopod, fast f4 maximum aperture, Image Stabilisation and high ISO's when appropriate was a formidable combination. In the fading steely dusk light exposures of 1/100th sec @f4 with IS and an ISO of 1600 enabled me to make pictures that would have been impossible in the film era. Giving the lens back at the end of the trip was painful, but then if I owned one it probably wouldn't have been touched since then.

Lion yawning, Kruger National Park, South Africa. Canon 1Ds mkIII, 500mm f4 IS L lens, 1/200 sec @ f4, ISO 200

Are fast long lenses the Ferraris of the photographic world; expensive, beautifully crafted high performance extreme optics, or are they the gold wheeled boy racer Subarus with big wings on the back; flashy, showy, but impractical? Only you can decide; horses for courses. A decent telephoto zoom is a necessity; no doubt about it life without one would be futile. Beyond that if you go long and fast you'll need an understanding bank manager, strong arms and a team of sherpas. But sometimes you've just got to bite the bullet.

Biography

http://www.davidnoton.com

Born in England in 1957, David spent much of his youth travelling with his family between the UK, California and Canada. After leaving school David joined the Navy in search of further travels and adventures – and it was while sailing the seven seas that his interest in photography grew. After several years at sea he decided to pursue his passion for photography and returned to study in Gloucester, England.  After leaving college in 1985 he began work as a freelance photographer specialising in landscape and other travel subjects, which over the last 25 years, have taken him to almost every corner of the globe.

David is now established and recognised as one of the UK's leading landscape and travel photographers. His images sell all over the world – both as fine art photography and commercially in advertising and publishing. He has won international awards for: British Gas/ BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards in 1985,1989 & 1990 and also writes regularly about landscape and travel photography for a number of national and international magazines. David has worked for numerous clients including British Airways, Sainsbury's, Geo, Toyota, Qantas, Sunday Times and the Telegraph.  During the last twenty years he has also worked extensively for the National Trust covering much of the UK's landscape and coastline, which has featured in many high profile publications and several highly acclaimed photographic exhibitions. Most notably:

'New Vision' Contemporary Art Photography – AOP Gallery
'The Coast Exposed' – Maritime Museum Greenwich and the Lowry
'Climate Change – in Britain's Back Yard!' – London, Nottingham, Wales, Belfast, Bristol

“l'm still passionate about photography. All aspects fascinate me; from capturing the first light of day on a frosty landscape or making the most of a bustling market in Vietnam to portraying the dignity of a wrinkled face in China.”

David spends much of the year travelling with his wife Wendy. When not travelling they live in England, near Sherborne in Dorset.

All images in this article © David Noton

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