Given the choice , for bird and wild life photography would you.....

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dodgemeister

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James
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Yes
......... Buy a long telephoto lens for a Nikon D70 or use same monies and buy a Lumix FZ 1000 ie approx £650

Decided to join this very informative forum ( helped me endlessly so far ) so any opinions would help as having mulled it over for ages and still no further forward
 
Welcome to the forum it really is a friendly place with lots of tips and advice. For me I would always go for the Dslr, mainly because of the better focus systems and lack of shutter lag that you tend to get with bridge cameras. However depending on what type of wildlife you are into you may find that the cost of lenses are a bit prohibitive. I'm not sure what has made you choose Nikon over the others. I can only comment from a Canon perspective, however with either you should be able to pick up a reasonable body and zoom lens that would take you from 150 to 500mm for under a grand. Oh and BTW these things can get heavy. Most importantly whatever you choose, learn how to use it and enjoy it :)
 
I would stick with the DSLR but you may find the D70 hard work for wild life,maybe ime spoilt but i mainly use the D7100 and when i take the D70 out i am always disappointed with the results,mainly the noise levels
 
Hi James - and welcome!
For wildlife photography I'd be inclined to stick with the D70 and buy a used Sigma 150-500 which will serve you well. It's pretty much the standard in wildlife lenses at that price point and is exceptional value.
You may find after a while that the D70 is then the limiting factor but for a few hundred quid more you can then upgrade the camera to something with a faster frame rate and better low light capability.
Or you may be entirely happy and turn out to be one of the very few forum members not suffering from GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)!!

Good luck and happy shooting

cheers, cw
 
I've tried "bridge" and compact cameras for birds and never got a good shot

They are OK for wildlife parks with large animals when you can get close, but (very) poor for "proper" stuff unless you are just after a "record shot" to record your sighting
 
The general rule is always better glass. This will produce better pics on a lower end body than cheap glass on a higher end body.
 
Open question I have never tried the D70 with anything slower than f5.6 will it work at f6.3
 
Yes. Used to use an old Sigma 170-500 on mine and that's f/6.3 at the long end.
 
The answer does depend on where you're coming from and what you're interested in achieving. If the goal is to take world class nature photography, then the only real answer is a DSLR combined with time, money and field-craft. But if you visit a forum like birdforum.net, you'll find a lot of a happy bridge camera owners; they're not spending hours trying to get the perfect shot of an individual bird with the aim to be crowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year, they want something they can point at a bird in the distance and get a usable record of their interesting sighting. So for them an affordable, lightweight bridge camera with some crazy equivalent focal length trumps a DSLR.

Personally I'm in the camp that wants to aim for world class nature photographs, so I'd go for the lens option. I guess the options are a Tamron 150-600 (£950 at Park Cameras) a used 80-400 mk I (£650 at mifsuds) or used Sigma 150-600 (£650 at mifsuds). I haven't used any of them so can't comment on the best option.
 
Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply and the useful guidance within your replies. So decision made ....a lens for the Nikon, thank you
James
 
I would have a look at some wildlife photography forums before you discount anything other than a DSLR. A lot of people get fantastic shots from much cheaper kit
But, I agree with the comments about bridge cameras, they generally have small sensors and coupled with long zooms, something has to give!
Micro 4/3 systems are getting better and cheaper, Nikon 1 cameras with an FT1 adapter will enable you to use nikon glass, the benefit here is the crop factor, you will get a much longer equivalent focal length with a Nikon 1 and a lot of people swear by them.
But, in good light, you D70 will perform well. I have taken some really sharp detailed shots of birds with a D50 and 70-300vr lens. They still look good today.
Allan
 
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