Nikon 51oo (1 Viewer)

At the moment I have a fuji bridge camera 30 x zoom with 35mm to 720mm.
I have had some great pictures but need something with a bit more zoom and oomph.
A friend told me to have a look at the Nikon 5100 was wondering what your opinions are on this camera, funds are limited to £500 including lenses.

Also are the 1.4 or 2 x adapters all they are cracked upto be?
400mm lenses and above are silly money.

Any imput will be gratefully recieved .

Andy I'm not sure if 'reach' is all that you are looking for ( you mentioned more zoom), why you are interested in a DSLR ? The 5100 (or any DSLR) is just a camera with a much larger sensor than your bridge and in itself is not going to get to the 'effective reach' of your x30 until you add a lens from the realm of exotics (i.e. ca. US$10K+ lenses such as a 500/4 or 600/4 with TCs). Of course the IQ is not comparable, even a cheap birding lens (say the new Tamron 150-600 @ US$1,250+) on a DSLR will knock a bridge out of the park, but they can't match the reach. If I was you I'd start looking at the new x50 - x63 bridges as these next generation bridges should meet both of your criteria in terms of extra zoom and better IQ.

andydan said:

At the moment I have a fuji bridge camera 30 x zoom with 35mm to 720mm.
I have had some great pictures but need something with a bit more zoom and oomph.
A friend told me to have a look at the Nikon 5100 was wondering what your opinions are on this camera, funds are limited to £500 including lenses.

Also are the 1.4 or 2 x adapters all they are cracked upto be?
400mm lenses and above are silly money.

Any imput will be gratefully recieved .

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Look at the Canon SX50. Out to 1200mm with Raw and much better IS than the Fuji. Built-in teleconverters get you out to 2400.
Neil.

I know that you funds are limited to £500, so if you get the D5100 try to get a Nikon 70 300mm f4.5/5.6 VR zoom used

BUT, the following is far far better

The Nikon 300mm f4 is a very good lens - around £600 used. The Nikon x 1.4TC is good - maybe £175 used.
A used D300 is a great buy - £500

With the DX sensor plus 300mm plus 1.4TC - you get 630mm. The IQ on this set up is very good and "a street mile" better than any bridge or super zoom.

12mega pixels "cropped" down will still give you a great image.

The D300 is a really nice chunky camera and you computer should cope with the image processing. Once you get to the 24 mega px of the new Nikon D5100/5200 you may need to upgrade your computer to get a reasonably quick image processing in PP.

I also find the new Nikon "budget" DSLR's too small - but that's just me.

A used D7000 or D7100 is a good buy - but up to 24 mega px and the D7100 give you a further x 1.3 in camera crop bring the reach to 820mm with the DX + 300mm + x 1.4

I have both the D300 and D710 and in some ways still prefer the (old) D300

I have tried a bridge, a super zoom, M4/3 and the Nikon V1 plus FT-1 - none of them "do anything" for me - the images they produce can be miserable and aways "hit or miss" - OK you may get one or two good ones, but - IMHO of course

I am struggling with choices seen a canon 600D with 2 lenses one being a 70-300 at £449.99
Nikon at £379.99 with standard 35mm lense and 70-300mm lense at £89.99 so they are £20 apart in price.
The canon is 18 megapixels the Nikon 16.2.
Lenses are both priced the same I know I will get split decisions depending on what cameras people own.
Do I hold out and buy a 5200 with 24 megapixels?

I dont know what to do I want to make a good purchase and not think I have wasted £500.

andydan said:

I am struggling with choices seen a canon 600D with 2 lenses one being a 70-300 at £449.99
Nikon at £379.99 with standard 35mm lense and 70-300mm lense at £89.99 so they are £20 apart in price.
The canon is 18 megapixels the Nikon 16.2.
Lenses are both priced the same I know I will get split decisions depending on what cameras people own.
Do I hold out and buy a 5200 with 24 megapixels?

I dont know what to do I want to make a good purchase and not think I have wasted £500.

Click to expand...

Andy - it is useful to have VR on the 70mm 300mm for hand held shots.
I don't think pixels are everything especially if you do not have expensive glass.
I'd be happy with 16.2 million over 24 mega
You cannot really use TC's with the 70 300mm - just won't AF focus fast enough.

I only ever use a viewfinder, never a screen

If you are looking to take some good/reasonable images I go for the DSLR set it and try to get as near as you can. If you just want "record" shots these super zooms can do that.
Have a look at images taken with both.

I am a Nikon shooter so I cannot give an opinion on Canon

andydan said:

I am struggling with choices seen a canon 600D with 2 lenses one being a 70-300 at £449.99
Nikon at £379.99 with standard 35mm lense and 70-300mm lense at £89.99 so they are £20 apart in price.
The canon is 18 megapixels the Nikon 16.2.
Lenses are both priced the same I know I will get split decisions depending on what cameras people own.
Do I hold out and buy a 5200 with 24 megapixels?

I dont know what to do I want to make a good purchase and not think I have wasted £500.

Click to expand...

Bill has made important points for you above. The difference in MPs between 16 and 18 hardly matters and 24MP is only of benefit for birds if you do serious cropping - then you need improved hand holding technique). The new 5300 is a great camera too but not just for the 24MP.

Try using this website to do a comparison (though some of their comments are inane) it is good for at least noting the differences and checking to see which camera has the features you want.

http://snapsort.com/compare

Then read as many reviews as possible of the lenses - because that is what is going to make the biggest impact on your bird photography. Fast AF and relatively sharp at 300mm are two of the major features to look out for. VR/IS would be a major benefit as would the ability (in the camera) to handle noise well at higher ISOs.

Thanks so much for the replys am going to have a closer look at the 5100 today.
Been swayed towards the Nikon.

Brought the nikon with 18-55 mm lense and the 70- 300mm lense

Great news - now go out and have fun!!

Pasquier said:

Great news - now go out and have fun!!

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I will thanks.

how this working out?