Beginner Help with lens purchase

pipgyp said:
lincoln
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WEX in Norwich might be your nearest major stockist then. Or phone the distributors (Sigma-Imaging, or Intro2020 for Tamron) and ask who has stock near you.
 
rob-nikon said:
There is some good advice on here. One thing to think about is size/weight and how you are going to use it. If you are going to be sitting in a hide all day a 2-3kg lens isn't so bad, if walking about it can soon wear you down to the point you don't go out with it. Dont forget if you can't hand hold a 2-3kg well it means you need to add a monopod or tripod (more weight to carry).


My first 'proper' wildlife lens was a 300mm f4 non vr. It's a great lens and one I've thought of buying again as a walk about lens when I want to carry less weight. It works well with a 1.4 Teleconverter. One thing it does better than the 150-600 or 200-500 zoom is a wider aperture, sometimes a f4 aperture can be very useful to keep ISO down. It does come at the expense of the versatility of a zoom, it all depends what's most important to you. You can have both zoom and f4 aperture cost then becomes the problem as you would be looking at £2-3k for a used one. I've not personally used a 80-400 vr G version (newest version) but I can understand how it could be a useful zoom range.

If you are not sure if wildlife is for you a nikon 70-300 vr is a great low cost introduction. They can be had for around £200 used and are very good considering their cost. Image quality and focus speed is pretty good for the cost outlay.
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Like you Rob, I like the 300mm f4 AFS lenses as I have owned a couple, IME the 70-300mm lenses aren't so good for fine detail on smaller birds, I have had the Nikon, Tamron x3 & Sigma versions and they don't compare to the prime. I haven't used any of the 150-600mm lenses as I have this feeling in the back of my mind that they are just larger versions of the 70-300mm lenses and think the primes would be better... I know your 200-400mm is probably on a different level? The old 80-400 has the reputation of being a very slow lens and from what I have read, the newer one gets mixed reviews.

If I was buying now and could afford it, I would go with the 300mm PF version just for the lightweight and the VR, it's probably about the same weight as the 70-300mm lenses and takes the 1.7 and 2.0 teleconverters better than the older AFS version.
 
you are all so helpful, i have been looking round for a photography course aswell and have found a guy around lincoln who seems very reasonable on price
so when my new body arrives i am going to book in with him for a few hours to hopefully get me going.
i am going down Rutland water way on mayday weekend , so hoping to combine my dog obedience show and some photography on the other days.
i missed out on a day course they do. 135.00 for the day, taking and talking wildlife photography, so hopefully i will get on one of them in the very near future
 
Just a thought, if you want to practice shooting birds, a trip to the local river or park with a pond, where the birds (greese, swans and various other birds) are tame-ish but still wild. This allows you to get close and practice shooting/framing moving subjects.
 
D7100 and 80-400 VR G is an excellent combo - I bought my lens from here and my only HUGE regret is not getting one earlier.
 
my new camera has arrived , first shot has to be one of my girls practising a send away, thought i put i on but do not know where it has gone lol
 
Hi Hazel

since you now have a D7100 have a look at this tutorial on youtube, some great advice from a knowledgeable person, you will pick things up straight away after watching this.

View: https://youtu.be/_Kw3P1yRwLs
 
very informative, will have to watch it few times for it to sink in :runaway:
 
i cannot seem to find the classified on here , can any one point me in the right direction
 
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pipgyp said:
you are all so helpful, i have been looking round for a photography course aswell and have found a guy around lincoln who seems very reasonable on price
so when my new body arrives i am going to book in with him for a few hours to hopefully get me going.
i am going down Rutland water way on mayday weekend , so hoping to combine my dog obedience show and some photography on the other days.
i missed out on a day course they do. 135.00 for the day, taking and talking wildlife photography, so hopefully i will get on one of them in the very near future
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I'm in Lincoln too. Out of interest which photographer is offering those courses? If my guess is right he seems to take decent night shots of the city but I'm not convinced by his wildlife portfolio. Chris Herring in Norfolk might be a good option (http://www.theuklandscape.com), I went on one of his landscape workshops several years ago as a day out with some colleagues, his prices are very reasonable and he's technically excellent. It looks like you'd have to request one to one tuition for wildlife photography as he doesn't have any workshops advertised for that. This photographer based in Sheffield might also be another option: http://www.paulhobson.co.uk/pages/workshops-trips.php .

The new camera should be a good step forward though, I was going to say you'd struggle with a D80 and it's low light capabilities. At least you'll have the option to crop in with a D7100 with it's 24mp images too. I specialise in landscapes but would love to move into wildlife too, just can't afford it as it's possibly the most expensive type because of the wide aperture long lenses you ideally need. You'd need a lot of patience too and ability to track out your subject. So a workshop run by a reputable wildlife photographer would be a big help!
 
it was phil someone cannot remember, he was very good , but yes he was mainly landscapes, but gave me some very good advice
 
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