Help, please!!

[davidtucker]

Completely confused, I have a budget of £1800-2000p. Saved very hard and can not affort to waste my cash! I need an outfit to use for bird photograpy. A large UK internet company have advisedme on a Nikon 200d and sigma 50-500mm lens with a TC1.5. I currently own a Nikon d50 as supplied with the usual kit len's, which to be fair was never purchased with bird photograpy in mind (good camara though). I appreciate this is an "old chesnut" of a question but would appreciate any advice, an option prehaps is a Nikon d80 rather than a Nikon d200 (is there a great deal of difference, between the two camaras, both 10 mp??).. I had almost set my mind on the Sigma 300mm f2.8 lens with a 2 x TC. But was advised that this lens on a nikon d50 was not a good choice. Enougth of my rambling can you help/advise.

Dave
P.s I am considering all makes of camaras, and lens, leave for the Scilly Isles in 8 days hope to take the new rig with me.....

[Michael Hogan]

I was in the same position (almost as you). I Have a D80 - great camera but there are quite a lot of differences between it and the D200. I am thinking myself of looking for a secondhand D200. These should be dropping in price when the D300 is released. Now the lens (or lenses). I have just invested in the Nikon 300 f4. I find it brilliant. Would have loved to go for the 300 f2.8 but the cost is so high. I have a Kenko 1.4 and on the 300 there is no drop in IQ. The 300 is great for hand holding and taking shots of near subjects. But even with the 1.4x on it, it is still too low magnification. I am looking for a 500. I would love to get a Nikon 500 f4 secondhand but even that is outside your bugdet. I had a Tamron 200-500. It was good when closed down but quite soft above f8. I found this very limiting for shooting birds as they were often in dark places and trying to keep it below f5.6 was quite difficult. But it was a good lens - not a brilliant lens but a good lens. I understand that the Sigma is about the same as the Tamron. My advise probably would be - new or secondhand camera and set a secondhand Tamron or Sigma and play with them. If they suit you great. If not then you have not spent too much money, sell it and save for a Nikon prime or even the Sigma 500 prime which I hear is quite good.

[Tim Taylor]

Just a thought - you could concentrate on the best lens you can afford. People seldom change good lenses but often upgrade the cameral bodies that attach to them. To illustrate the point, if you search the galleries here for pictures taken with the Sigma 500mm prime, you'll see great pictures all taken with different camera bodies. Do a search on a poorer lens and again you'll see poorer shots whatever the spec of the attached camera.

Good advice from Michael Hogan above too.

[pe'rigin]

Dave,

I do agree with the guys, if you can purchase a lens with VR, IS or OS then all the better. The bigger the lens you buy the more stable platform you'll require. So it's not just about buying a camera and lens.

Value for money, is difficult if you intend to buy new, as I think that we are paying premium prices for average cameras. There should be deals on Canon's 30D soon, and maybe on Nikon's D200 or Canon's MkII, I wouldn't rush into this but take your time and go and play with the kit, take along your own card and shoot some example exposures. I wouldn't dismiss looking at the Pentax and Fuji pro 5 either.

[David Smith]

After much deliberation I went for Cannon.

I was leaning towards the Sony Alpha but it had bad press for the 'noise' at anything more than 400ISO.

HOWEVER, if you look on the Sony thread someone just posted, they have released the latest version which has apparently got over that problem.
It seems to be a lot of camera for the money AND it has in-built anti-shake which will allow you to go for Sigma lenses. Definitely worth checking out.