I have got a bit of bonus coming in a couple of months, and I want to buy a digital SLR camera with it. I’ll have about £400 to spend on it, but I was rather hoping to get a longer zoom lens as well, as I want to take pictures of birds.
To complicate matters, I also have a spotting scope (it’s the AW65 on this page, I think) that has a screw thread at the top for screwing cameras onto, but I’m going to go ahead and assume that I can get adapters to go between them if they don’t fit directly. And that may well be better than any long lens I can get for the camera for that kind of money.
Any ideas and suggestions of the sort of thing to look for? I am, if it wasn’t obvious from the reference to £s above, in the UK.
With that budget, I think you’re better off just getting the camera with a kit lens for now, along with an adapter for your spotting scope, and then saving your pennies for a good long telephoto lens later. (If you want to photograph birds, you’ll want the telephoto lens to be fast as well as long, and that’s pricey!)
The two big leaders in DSLRs are Canon and Nikon. I’d check out models from each manufacturer at a local shop, and see which has the best ergonomics for you. You want a camera which feels comfortable in your hand and which has a control layout that seems logical to you.
Google digiscoping for info on using spotting scopes for photography. Its a no free lunch situation, but you might decide its worth trying.
Might be worth buying a non canon-nikon brand for this, to get a camera that has image stabilisation on it.
A lowend 250mm lens is doable for some kinds of bird photography, it really depends on what standards you’re aiming for output wise, and your stalking skills. Theres no end to how much you can spend though.
The earlier ones of this friend of mine were done with a 250mm on a crop camera, so give some kind of comparison point. The latest ones are done with a Sigma 150-500mm which is a ‘bargain’ longer lens, at ‘only’ around 800 pounds or so.
I have a 500mm fixed for my 35mm rig -even with an APS-C body (which telescopes the focal length vis-a-vis 35mm image), birding is still iffy - it’s great at zoos, but trying to pick off a fully-laden-swallow at 500 meters isn’t going to work.
There is a back-door way do go digital SLR on a budget - the Sony Alpha - Sony already made the sensors, and decided to buy the Minolta Alpha mount (known as Maxxum in North America, Dynax in Europe) and build their cameras around them.
They are struggling, so I’m not certain I’d advise them (they really lost support with their LED viewfinder - you have to pick up a camera, look into the viewfinder and see nothing to really appreciate how insane this is - there is no image until a few seconds after you turn on the camera.
Anyway, they do accept all that glass made for the Minolta cameras starting in 1985.
Yes, I have a ton of Maxxum gear - I loved photography, but could not focus a camera to save my live. Until the Maxxum brought out auto focus,
Traditional camera stores never picked up the Sony, Fry’s Electronics dropped the high-end.
I have had two canon bodies and I just bought myself a new Nikon and like the Nikon much better. You will also need a tripod. Good luck and happy birding.
Normally I’m not one to insist that a new DSLR shooter consider only Canon and Nikon, but in this case I think that would be the wisest move. If the OP is serious about shooting birds, he’s going to eventually want access to long, fast glass, which is not available in all systems and is ungodly expensive to buy even when it is available. Lens rental options are simply better if you’re shooting Canon or Nikon. (And as an Olympus shooter, I know firsthand how much fun it is to see the manufacturer abandon your system - NOT! While I’ve enjoyed my Olympus DSLRs, if I had a time machine I’d tell my past newbie self to buy the Nikon D80 I was also considering instead of the Olympus e510 I ended up with.)
It’s become obvious, with a bit of hunting around, that getting a reasonable camera is going to take most if not all of the budget, to saving any further lens purchases for another time is probably going to be best.
Thanks for the digiscoping hint, Otara, I’ve looked into that and it’s something that looks at least worth trying for now.
If you want to try to stretch your budget, don’t be afraid of purchasing a gently used recent model camera. Many photography enthusiasts trade their camera bodies in every 2-3 years because they only want the latest and greatest gear; an older model can still give perfectly good images in most cases, and some shops will even supply a limited warranty on used equipment.
