what to do.... (1 Viewer)

[AnExpatWife]

what to do.... upgrade camera or lens ?

I bought a Canon D60 a while ago for travel photos. To be honest I don't know a huge amount but took advice from friend and up until now it has been perfect for what I was doing...... Now things have changed somewhat... I've started watching the birds around my feeders and noticing the birds in the skies and I'm really enjoying it.

I'm not getting great up-close photos. I'm using a canon 55-250 lens.

What should I think about doing to get better clearer photos ? upgrade to a different lens of upgrade the camera body to higher MP ? any thoughts ?

 

[etudiant]

Difficult question, answer depends on your budget and your future plans.
You can simply add a much longer lens, something in the 500-600mm class, which will improve your reach considerably, at the cost of much greater bulk and weight. For feeder photography, that is not a concern, but for free flying birds, you may want a bearer to keep things enjoyable. |8)|
Alternatively, you could buy a long zoom compact such as the Nikon P950 or P1000, for a cheaper and less onerous option, at the price of reduced sensor size and image quality.

 

[nikonmike]

A good option to look at would be m4/3 and the 100-400 zoom

 

[jurek]

To make better pictures, you could move your feeder and put some interesting sticks near it on a good background and in shade (better than direct sun for bird photography). It is even faster than buying a new gear.

 

[jurek]

By the way, are you already familiar with Birdlife Aargau? They have a nice visitor center at Klingnauer Stausee, and south of it a lot of birds can be photographed easily on the public path along the lake. And it is a pleasant walk, too.

 

[AnExpatWife]

Oh thank you.... I'll have a look into that at the moment I have at least 8 . diff types on birds just in my garden

By the way, are you already familiar with Birdlife Aargau? They have a nice visitor center at Klingnauer Stausee, and south of it a lot of birds can be photographed easily on the public path along the lake. And it is a pleasant walk, too.

 

[Gronk08]

Going for a super zoom lens like the Tamron/Sigma 150-600 lenses would give you the extra reach you need or even the Canon 400f5.6 fixed lens is a good option and all should work well with your Canon body.
I have a 750D and the Tammy lens and find it quite a nice set up

Tim.

 

[AnExpatWife]

Thank you !! I think thats the route I will go down... I now need to find a nicely priced one second hand...

Going for a super zoom lens like the Tamron/Sigma 150-600 lenses would give you the extra reach you need or even the Canon 400f5.6 fixed lens is a good option and all should work well with your Canon body.
I have a 750D and the Tammy lens and find it quite a nice set up

Tim.

 

[opisska]

There is really no reason to buy another body if you already have a 60D, the lens does make way more of a difference. Also considering that a second hand 400/5.6 is less than 1000 Euro, buying something like a P1000 does not make any sense to me at all.

One important thing is to not blindly compare focal lengths and especially "effective" focal lengths calculate to the cropped sensors. A P1000 superzoom for example seems to beat a 60D+400/5.6 combination on sheet numbers, but that's only because of the "effective" focal length trickery, in reality, you see a better detail with the later setup. Having more pixels or more specifically higher pixel density has no point if the optics doesn't use it - don't be afraid to crop your pictures, if the bird looks small at first sight, with a quality lens, you still get a sharp image.