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Post by davidwilson on Mar 4, 2018 12:03:21 GMT
Please move if in wrong place!
I am quite interested in learning about all the different types of birds that I see in my garden and elsewhere. There are several good Facebook groups that help and people are putting quite stunning photos on. Do any of you have any knowledge of a suitable camera? My wife uses her iPhone for most of our photos these days but that is not good enough for what I want! I have looked up what a couple of people have used for their bird photos and their cameras cost thousands of pounds. Is that really what I need to spend?
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Post by widge on Mar 4, 2018 13:01:07 GMT
Hi I am no expert but you can get something reasonable for £100-£150, look for something that has a good optical zoom. We recently bought a Refurbished Nikon coolpix S9600 on eBay for £90 and very pleased with it. it has a 22 times optical zoom. This is a picture I took of a Bullfinch, it was about 10 meters away and the picture was taken through a dirty window. Dave  |
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aleman
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Post by aleman on Mar 4, 2018 13:54:52 GMT
My advice would be to go down the SLR Route. Something like the Nikon D750/850 with a 300mm lens as a minimum you may even be looking at 500mm with the biggest aperture you can get - Probably f4 affordably, f2.8 expensively and f1.8 for the price of a second hand car.
Another option would be the canon range, but they have never appealed to me ... I have a huge investment in Minolta glass so for me it has to be Sony Alpha 7 ... Just can't justify the upgrade though.
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Post by Hoovie on Mar 4, 2018 14:26:55 GMT
Something with a tripod and a remote shutter control if focussing in on one specific spot and waiting for birds
Something which will take bursts of images to capture the ideal shot
that would be my thinking. Exactly what the "something" is and what is costs ... pass
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Post by davidwilson on Mar 4, 2018 14:40:40 GMT
Hi I am no expert but you can get something reasonable for £100-£150, look for something that has a good optical zoom. We recently bought a Refurbished Nikon coolpix S9600 on eBay for £90 and very pleased with it. it has a 22 times optical zoom. This is a picture I took of a Bullfinch, it was about 10 meters away and the picture was taken through a dirty window. Dave Thanks. That's a fine Bullfinch! |
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Post by davidwilson on Mar 4, 2018 14:53:56 GMT
My advice would be to go down the SLR Route. Something like the Nikon D750/850 with a 300mm lens as a minimum you may even be looking at 500mm with the biggest aperture you can get - Probably f4 affordably, f2.8 expensively and f1.8 for the price of a second hand car. Another option would be the canon range, but they have never appealed to me ... I have a huge investment in Minolta glass so for me it has to be Sony Alpha 7 ... Just can't justify the upgrade though. Thank you. I did have a SLR camera back in the days of film - looks like I am going to have to spend a lot to be able to take good photos of birds! |
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johnd
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Post by johnd on Mar 4, 2018 15:54:35 GMT
I do a lot of bird photography and I find that the bridge camera is all you need unless you want to publish pictures. I have used the Panasonic FZ series for many years. It's certainly a lot lighter to carry than the equiv DSLR.
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Post by davrav on Mar 4, 2018 16:16:11 GMT
Depending on what you go for, have a look at the used market David - lots of bargains around but buy from a reputable dealer with a warranty.
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Post by davidwilson on Mar 4, 2018 17:06:06 GMT
I do a lot of bird photography and I find that the bridge camera is all you need unless you want to publish pictures. I have used the Panasonic FZ series for many years. It's certainly a lot lighter to carry than the equiv DSLR. Thank you - I think my youngest son has a bridge camera. Not an expensive one and quite old but he is going to find it for me to try - it will give me an idea of what is possible! I have been looking back at Amazon orders and I am quite surprised to see how much I have spent on compact cameras with optical zoom over the years! |
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Post by davidwilson on Mar 4, 2018 17:08:54 GMT
Depending on what you go for, have a look at the used market David - lots of bargains around but buy from a reputable dealer with a warranty. Good idea, there must be a lot of cameras that people have traded in for later models. But I would need the reassurance of a warranty! |
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johnd
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Post by johnd on Mar 4, 2018 17:15:32 GMT
I do a lot of bird photography and I find that the bridge camera is all you need unless you want to publish pictures. I have used the Panasonic FZ series for many years. It's certainly a lot lighter to carry than the equiv DSLR. Thank you - I think my youngest son has a bridge camera. Not an expensive one and quite old but he is going to find it for me to try - it will give me an idea of what is possible! I have been looking back at Amazon orders and I am quite surprised to see how much I have spent on compact cameras with optical zoom over the years! If you do go for a compact instead of a bridge I think you would need a viewfinder for birds rather than the rear screen. As you have said don't ever use digital zoom . |
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Post by philip42h on Mar 4, 2018 17:20:12 GMT
I am a Canon fan having an EOS 10 film camera with 35-105 and 70-300mm lenses (now as defunct as all film cameras are), a PowerShot S2 IS which served as a replacement and first digital camera and now, most recently an EOS 80D with an 18-135mm lens. The attached blue tit was taken just now with the 80D at a range of about 10m again through a dirty window: 
I used the maximum focal length / magnification available (135mm) - click to see the full size image (and notice how I managed better focus on the feeder than the bird - I must learn how to use my new toy!) While this is a really great camera and the range of the zoom lens is perfect for everyday stuff it really doesn't cut it for wildlife photography (as aleady indicated by Aleman above). And, while I'd really quite like a comparable 300, 400 or 500mm lens I'm not going to spend the necessary £thousands right now. Looking at current bridge cameras online, one could get a NIKON COOLPIX P900 for around £500 with an 83x optical zoom and a 35mm equivalent zoom range of 24-2000 mm. As johnd says above, a good bridge camera seems a very attractive option and a lot lighter to lug around. Personally, I'm quite tempted by the idea of a weatherproof 'nature' camera that can live outside, trained on a particular area with a motion sensor so that the wildlife can photograph itself. I did just now try to photograph what I thought was a blackcap but it snuck around behind the feeder as a took the shot and flew off before I'd chance to take another ...  |
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Post by widge on Mar 4, 2018 17:30:21 GMT
Something with a tripod and a remote shutter control if focussing in on one specific spot and waiting for birds Something which will take bursts of images to capture the ideal shot that would be my thinking. Exactly what the "something" is and what is costs ... pass Quite a few digital cameras (that have WiFi or bluetooth) have app's that you can run on your phone/tablet to use as a remote viewfinder, very handy as it allows you to setup your camera fairly close to a feeder etc, and control it from a distance. |
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Post by davidwilson on Mar 4, 2018 17:41:41 GMT
That would be great, Thanks, I hadn’t thought of that. Technology moves on at a real pace these days and I do like to use gadgets - it’s just knowing about them!
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Post by anchorman on Mar 4, 2018 18:23:45 GMT
Some of the bridge cameras are fantastic. They are lighter and have very long focal length lenses. I’ll have some bird photos somewhere.
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