A good lens for wildlife/bird photography?

Kukki3

Kukki3

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Rebecca
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Hi all!!

I've been looking at getting a decent lens for wildlife photography for a little while now but with the new lenses nikon have brought out I'm a bit undecided and quite frankly a little daunted by the choice/prices out there. Seeing as I've had some great advice around macro lenses from some lovely folk on here (and I'm happy with the results!) I'd thought I'd ask you guys again what sort of lens would be best with a budget of around £400?

Also wondering how much of a part autofocus plays with bird photography? I'm more then happy to just use manual focus with my D5100 as some (if not most) of the newer nikon lenses are way over my budget anyway ;)

Any help/tips would be greatly appreciated, looking at all the reviews on the internet this past week seem to have frazzled my poor head a bit!!
 
Tough with that budget to be honest as you will really want at least 300mm, and preferably more. As a starting point and on a tight budget I would look at the Sigma 120-400 or 150-500. Both a bit more than you mention, but both excellent value and not silly money.
 
Thanks for the reply :) I've been looking at the sigma 150-500 so I'm glad someone mentioned it on here, my budget is going to stretch come next payday so its not a huge deal, I just don't want to be spending mega bucks on a new lens just yet :lol:
 
The Sigma 150-500 is probably the best value wildlife lens out there. It has a superb IS system much better than the Canon 100-400 and IQ is comparable. This was shot with it attached to my old Canon 350D.

Img_5951c.jpg
 
Brilliant photos both of you! I seem to be leaning more towards the sigma every time I look it up on the internet... Just a bit more saving to do now :thumbs:
 
Kukki3 said:
Brilliant photos both of you! I seem to be leaning more towards the sigma every time I look it up on the internet... Just a bit more saving to do now :thumbs:
Click to expand...

well worth the price in my opinion :D

oh and thank you for the nice comment

Les :thumbs:
 
I know you've all recommended the sigma 150-500mm, and from what I've seen I'm rather happy with looking to buy that lens, but I've also seen the 50-500 sigma lens and wondered if anyone had any experience with that lens for wildlife/bird photography??
 
If you dont mind manual focus then look for a second hand Nikkor 300mm F4.5 ED IF, great lens for wild life.

I'm bed bound an use mine indoors shooting through dirty double glazing.

Here's an example .. JPG straight out of the camera bar a little contrast boost to compensate for shooting through glass and cropped (approx 50% crop on the second image)

CDx71_zps18db58b7.jpg


CDx71b_zps3513054e.jpg
 
Kukki3 said:
I know you've all recommended the sigma 150-500mm, and from what I've seen I'm rather happy with looking to buy that lens, but I've also seen the 50-500 sigma lens and wondered if anyone had any experience with that lens for wildlife/bird photography??
Click to expand...

Supposedly the 50-500 lens is also very good. Which one are you looking at. The older model lacks OS (which makes handholding possible even at longer FL, all my shots are hand held). The later version has OS but comes in at about £1000
 
If you care about technical quality, look for 300 f/4D on ebay. I don't think there is anything better for the price. Extra reach of Sigma 150-500 is handy, but it is slow, and the quality at 300mm doesn't quite match primes in contrast and sharpness. On the other hand 300mm plays the same league as super tele lenses and lacks just the one stop of aperture. In many cases you can crop a better picture from 300mm prime than sigma at long end.

Look preferably for AF-S version, but the older AF-D is fine as well (it can't get converters and doesn't focus as close as the AF-S).
 
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Seems I've been looking at the older 50-500 lens if the newer one is around £1000, and thats a bit too pricey for me!! Oh well, I do like to shoot handheld so I guess I'd have to go for the os version!

Lovely photos there iancandler, I'll have a nose at the lens you suggested and see what I can come up with, I'll also have a look at the 300 f/4D, I think I may have seen one of those on ebay whilst looking around the other day!
 
I was out today with my 5D3 and trusty Sigma 150-500 and got this. It was shot at f7.1 which is only just stopped down from its widest but I still got some good detail in there. This is SOOC and only cropped for composition.

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