Hello, I'm a 15 year old photographer from Bellevue, Washington, I am a landscape and street photographer, but in the past when I had a Canon system I used to go birding. I miss it and I'm just about to buy myself my first good telephoto lens. I really love the nikon 600mm f5.6 (manual focus). I know it's not an ideal lens for birds in flight, but I have heard that it produces amazing images that are almost as good as the vr version worth 6x+ the price. Unfortunately at my age I cannot afford an auto focusing version. I shoot using a d800, and would love to hear your opinion on what lens I should get. I did consider a 300mm f2.8 mf as well which I could use the modified nikon tc-16a with which would make the lens semi-af. The only problem is the reach... i also considered the nikon 200-500 and the sigma 150-600 and have heard that the images are pretty soft and lack contrast at their maximum focal lengths. Anyways, if anyone could give me any feedback or recommendations I would greatly appreciate it. Btw my budget is around 1.5k.
Thank you so much for your time,
Youri Babakoff.
Thank you so much for your time,
Youri Babakoff.