Dslr

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caddie152

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I am a complete novice so be easy on me.
I cruise a lot and take a lot of photographs of everthing but my main passion is birds in flight.
I am thinking of buying a Dslr camera with approx £500 budget.
With so many choices of camera and lenses can someone please help with my final decision? Canon,Nikon,Fuji orSony etc.
I understand that people have their own opinions and favorites but everyones help will help me in the end i am sure.
Thanks
 
For birding, you are going to need a fast focusing and shooting camera, however the main thing will be a decent lens, probably 300mm or longer.

For your budget, you are going to be pushing it, but you will certainly find something, although it wont be ideal.

Until recently I was a Nikon man through and through, and although Im currently shooting Canon, I still prefer Nikons. The ergonomics of the Nikons are a lot better in my limited experience with Canon.

At the end of the day, you need to hold a range of cameras and see which you like best. Then you need to figure out which will be the best for your budget. You'll want a decent frame rate so it you mightneed to look at a mid range, but an older one like the Nikon D200 or Canon 40D. Thats already pushing your budget however and we dont have a lens yet. for the Nikon, the 70-300VR is very good, but again, thats almost all your budget just in the lens.
Im not sure on the canon equivilent, so someone else will need to fill that gap.
 
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Birds in flight require fast focusing lenses. Not in your budget yet but at some point down the line you may want to buy some decent glass so it's a good idea to get into a system that will work well and I know I'm bias but the fact is Canon lenses are generally the fastest focusing so I would suggest getting a canon dslr perhaps a used 40d - they come up a lot on here.
 
perhaps an old 100-300 for a canon. Not amazing but you can pick them up cheap. You could get a used 40d and a 100-300 for within the £500 budget
 
maybe look at a pentax kx, very good camera probaly the best low noise high iso crop camera on the market also the af is not bad and as it has shake reduction built into the body along with an af motor built in to,so you can buy cheeper lenses that dont need shake reduction/os/vr/vc/is built in also no need for bilt in motors in the lenses unless you want to.
heres it with a twin lens kit up to 300mm which will get you started, also ok for bifs,
and for £515
http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/40...ith-Pentax-18-55mm---55-300mm-DAL-Lenses.html
 
pentax km is predecessor of Kx and is pretty identical apart from 12 MP instead of 14MP and no HD video recording........

I will be putting mine up on the classifieds this weekend (twin kit lens) + with a 70-300 sigma for a reasonable price. Not the best fastest lens but decent reach on a budget.........

The lens can also take a teleconverter as well........
 
Wow I didn,t know there was so much involved in taking a photograph of birds.(In flight).I shall show all these posts to my Dear Wife in the hope my budget might change.
Where is perhaps the best place to find second hand Cameras and lenses that might do what i require.
Thanks for all the help and advice so far.
 
Ebay, here, AVforums. Those are the main outlets I use for second hand gear.
I think you need to be a member here for a month though before you can buy.
 
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