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higgy50

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Hello All,

New to the forum and still very much a novice, I have also posted this question on the 'equipment' forum but not had much response so trying here as I am new to this and could do with the advice!?

I have a Fuji Finepix S1 Pro with a Nikon AF NIKKOR 35-70mm f2.8 & Nikon AF NIKKOR 70-200mm f2.8 lenses. I bought the whole package a couple of years ago for £280. Not knowing too much about it I thought this was an ok price but have since realised I did pretty well!

Now the problem I have is that I have really got into the wildlife and in particular bird photography recently. Obviously I use the 70-200 lens 98% of the time for this type of photography. I am finding that as it is difficult to get close to your subject I end up having to crop my pictures when I get home, which with my current set-up means I lose lots of quality and detail in the finished picture.

The S1 Pro is only 6.1 megapixel (or 3mp X 2 something like that!) so should I...

1/ keep the lenses I have and buy a Nikon body with bigger mp count?

2/ Keep the S1 Pro and buy a bigger lens 300/400mm?

3/ Trade in the lot for new body & lens?

Unfortunately I have a few hundred £ rather than thousands £ so would probably have to look second hand whatever I do...

Any advice on what to buy and where to buy it or what kit full fills my need would be very much appreciated???

Lots of thanks in advance!
 
well depends how much money you wanna spend, you could buy a 1.4x tc for the 70-200mm, but maybe that still wont give the reach you want, maybe sell the 70-200mm and that should give you £500/800 depending on condition, then buy maybe a 300mm f4 with a 1.4x tc, or go for a sigma 150-500mm os for about £700 new, then sell the s1 and buy maybe a d90 or d300 seond hand(more mp)
 
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The trouble with bird photography is that your lens is never long enough! Most people settle on 400mm as their preference as the prices rise exponentially above that.

Back to your question - I'd keep your lenses (you may want to take the odd non-bird photo now and again) - and go for a new body initially and then later a longer range lens. I'm a Canon shooter so can't offer advice on specific NOTON equipment ;-)
 
Get a longer lens, unless you can afford to upgrade the camera as well.

Cropping is the last option you should consider. Don't believe all the meg-pixel hype - double the pixels is nothing like doubling the focal length, if that was what you were thinking. The most important consideration when it comes to image quality is the physical area of the sensor, and that obviously gets reduced dramatically when you start cropping, and the lens starts to run out of resolution at the same time. The number of pixels cannot compensate for that.
 
Thanks guys that is appreciated.

I'm happy to take all the advice I can get on this one. if I'm going to spend a good wedge then I want to make the correct choice and therefore all views will be considered.

The idea that I could get between £500-£700 for the 70-200mm f2.8 lens is very interesting. The whole kit is in very good condition as it was used by a professional organisation who looked after it and only got rid of it as they received funding to buy new gear!....My £280 investment now looks very good!

Anybody know how much the 35-70mm f2.8 and the S1 Pro body would be worth?

My only concern with selling the big lens is that I would probably never be able to afford to buy a fast lens like this again?

If anyone else has a opinion please do throw it into the mix...

Many thanks
 
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I'd really discourage selling the 70-200. You got that at a rediculous price, and someone in the organisation should be fired for letting it get sold so cheap. As you say, if you sell it, you'll probably never afford one again. I sold mine and wish everyday I didnt.

If you did sell it, I think you'd be looking closer to £7-900 if its in good order. Ive never seen one sell below £650
 
Wow - £7-900!...Thanks Tom

I do actually really like this lens and despite it being quite heavy it balances with the current camera quite nicely. This is actually really important as most of the shooting I have been doing recently is birds in flight which I generally use the camera hand held....

Someone mentioned fitting a 1.4X teleconverter to this existing lens, how much would I gain with this and how will it effect the balance and weight of my current set up?....Would it be more beneficial to go with a 2X converter?

Sorry guys just trying to get my head around this and work out the most sensible and effective combination!
 
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higgy50 said:
Apologies actually a 80-200mm! (As said new to all this!)

Exact Model is:

AF Zoom-Nikkor ED 80-200mm f/2.8D
Click to expand...
you should sell for bettween what i said, it not the fastest of focusing lenses so if you want a bird lens might be worth moving it on and buying a siggy 150-500mm which is about £750
 
higgy50 said:
Apologies actually a 80-200mm! (As said new to all this!)

Exact Model is:

AF Zoom-Nikkor ED 80-200mm f/2.8D
Click to expand...


Assuming it's the older one-ring version of that lens it's probably still worth what you paid for the whole bundle, so :thumbs:
 
Still a great lens, just not worth quite as much, still more than £250 though!
 
Hello All,

Firstly many thanks to all who had an input on this thread, all your views were appreciated and carefully considered....

Here is the what I have decided to do...

Just ordered a Nikon D90! Couldn't afford a D300 as suggested and to keep the price down I've gone for a D90 which has been 'refurbished' by Nikon. I hope this will be ok but at about £200 cheaper than brand new it was the only way I could upgrade to something like this. I will get a 1yr manufacturers warranty with it so with lots of shooting over the next few months it should hopefully show up any problems?....this should help a bit with the resolution problems and of course it is obviously a lot quicker than the S1 Pro so should work well with f2.8 lens (I hope!)

Obviously keeping the 80-200 f2.8 lens and I am currently 'negotiating' on on a second hand tele-convertor.

I think that this is a good starting point and the D90 upgrades the 'weak link' in my set up.

Once I get used to the D90 and have messed about with the 200 lens and TC I can look at a longer lens in the future after I've saved up a bit more of my hard earned money!

As stated above many thanks for all your inputs it did help me to formulate some form of plan and get me heading in the right direction I think!

Cheers
 
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