What equipment for a newbie? (1 Viewer)

[LondonWatcher]

Can someone recommend the best affordable equipment for someone just starting out? I want to get some good snaps but don't know where to begin. I've only ever used the camera on my phone.

 

[John Cantelo]

Unless you want to dive straight into getting a DSLR & telephoto lenses (very expensive!) then a bridge camera of some sort would be a good place to start. The Sony RX10 IV is very expensive but has a good reputation. The Nikon Coolpix P1000 or its smaller brother the P900/P950 are roughly half the price but very popular. Panasonic also have well-regarded options.

 

[delia todd]

I can recommend the Nikon P900 too, I've been using it a couple of years now and really suits my non-technical brain. There's actually a dedicated Birdwatching programme on it LOL.

 

[LondonWatcher]

I can recommend the Nikon P900 too, I've been using it a couple of years now and really suits my non-technical brain. There's actually a dedicated Birdwatching programme on it LOL.

That does sound great. My brain is about as non-technical as they come! This is probably a silly question so forgive me - what does a birdwatching programme do?

 

[LondonWatcher]

Unless you want to dive straight into getting a DSLR & telephoto lenses (very expensive!) then a bridge camera of some sort would be a good place to start. The Sony RX10 IV is very expensive but has a good reputation. The Nikon Coolpix P1000 or its smaller brother the P900/P950 are roughly half the price but very popular. Panasonic also have well-regarded options.

Thanks! great advise. I'll look into those.

 

[delia todd]

That does sound great. My brain is about as non-technical as they come! This is probably a silly question so forgive me - what does a birdwatching programme do?

Ah!! Now you're asking someone non-technical LOL. It's an automatic programme which sets the aperture and speed. All you can change is the EV (raise it if it's a bird on a wire, against a bright background). And you can set it to take multiple shots (7 I think while you depress the shutter); this usually means you'll end with at least 1 usable image if the bird is moving.

There's many other auto programmes such as landscape, night shots, portrait.

 

[njlarsen]

Another even less technical answer: the birdwatching program chooses some settings on the camera that Nikon thinks will work for the purpose of shooting bird photos.

Niels

 

[DRodrigues]

What about the Canon SX70?
Doesn't have as long zooms as the Nikons but is less expensive, smaller and ?faster?
Don't have any super-zoom by I'm trying to decide if will get one or a 200-600mm for my a6000...

 

[PaulCountyDurham]

What about the Canon SX70?
Doesn't have as long zooms as the Nikons but is less expensive, smaller and ?faster?
Don't have any super-zoom by I'm trying to decide if will get one or a 200-600mm for my a6000...

I bought the P950 and when I was researching cameras, quite a few reviewers ranked the Canon SX70 as a better camera for taking pictures of birds. I'll never know whether or not I made the right choice as I doubt I'll be owning an SX70 in the future. What I do know is that the extra zoom is very handy.

Having also used the FZ330, spoken with various people and did a bit of reading, I would certainly choose the P900 as my first camera. The reason being that it's much cheaper than the P950 and gives you more or less the same camera if you're just starting out and don't need the extra little bits such as RAW. The only difference may be that because the P950 is a more recent model there may be newer technology used, although I haven't seen that specifically stated anywhere.

As I say, the extra zoom is very handy, and the camera isn't the bulky irritation that some reviewers claimed: it still feels like a small camera around your neck.

I'm basing this opinion on the assumption that my pictures would be no different in the event I was using the P900 and not the P950, and there's no reason to think they would be any different. I think the P900 is around 500 quid and I'd be pretty happy if I spent that sort of money and it delivered the same quality images as the P950.