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mesharp

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Mike
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Hi all,

Im still relatively new to this game and although I have had my d40 from new (3.5 years now)- I havent really strayed much further than the (non VR) stock lens other than borrowing a friends zoom lens occasionally.

What lenses are a good 2nd lens to have? I love bird photography and macro, which I guess pushes me towards a zoom?

Thanks

Mike
 
A good lens for birding really needs to be a 400mm or longer and that leads to some heavy spending most of the time. Either a Sigma 120-400 OS or a Sigma 150-500 OS are probably the best lens for the price (between £500-750) for wildlife/birding shots. They are very good optically and the OS system is fantastic. I have a 150-500 and use it on a Canon 5D MkIII and 7D and is great on both bodies and the wife has a 120-400 on a Canon 650D and gives virtually the same IQ as the 150-500. I got them both at Panamoz and the 150-500 is now £582 + postage (but you can get a 5% discount if you pay by bank transfer if you email them first) and I can heartily recommend them as a great seller.

I can't recommend a Nikon lens as I don't use them but the Canon 100-400 L which is another great lens for birding is usually around £1050-1150 and I could imagine a Nikon lens being a similar price.

Welcome to the forum.
 
As a Nikon owner I can recommend a 300mm F4 with a 1.4x or 1.7x teleconverter - or if that's too much then the 70-300mm VR is very good for the money [but not as sharp as the f4 at 300mm and wont take a teleconverter]. I had a 80-400 VR for a while and hated it!
 
As Pitvar says, the 70-300 VR is good value but won't accept NIKON teleconverters - there's a physical connection between the rear element of the lens and the front element of the converter - NOT a good idea! I'm told there's also a physical problem with fitting Nikon lenses onto Sigma telecons - possibly an extra tag on the telecon which is cleared by Sigma lenses but not by Nikons. Apparently it's possible to remove the tag with a file/Dremel or similar but there ends the warranty! Kenko/Teleplus telecons DO fit the 70-300 but mine makes images so soft that I know I get better results from cropping into an unconverted image than I do from teleconning it!

1/2 tempted to carry my Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and get a Sigma 2x EX telecon to fit it - that will give me a 140-400 f/5.6, same speed as the 70-300 at the long end but 100mm longer and no VR. For the time being though, I'll stick with the 70-300 and live without the extra 100mm! It fits in my bag better and is smaller and lighter!
 
Not a vote against the 150-500 Sigma, just a gentle warning.

It's a big, heavt bugger, so make sure you'll need it before lugging it on a walk! That's the main reason I got shot of mine - image quality was fine (once stopped down a little at above 450mm) and the OS worked a treat!

Don't be fooled by the Macro classification some manufacturers give to their 70-300 (or similar) telephoto zooms. A close focussing lens is not necessarily a real macro - a real macro lens gives at least life size images on the sensor, some of the so called macros only go to half size at full "macro".
 
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