Russell
Yes, I think that for bird photography, the lens appears to be the
key. The
just above entry level bodies, either latest or nearly latest, seem
now to
be excellent for supporting a variety of suitable lenses, either good
quality zoom or up to the 500mm high quality better aperture lens.
And it
appears that using a 1.4 or 1.7 teleconverter is OK, as long as it
is a good
quality converter, but you do lose one f stop.
It is interesting to conclude that $3000 to $4000 is the cost to get
to that
"better than entry level" with one good lens.
Then, one day, we can dream about the $25,000+ setup that the pros
use.
Bob Cook
-----Original Message-----
From: Russell Woodford
Sent: Tuesday, 9 December 2008 6:22 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Digital SLR for bird photography
Hi Bob
Thanks for posting that summary so birding-aus readers can keep up
with the info you've been collating from around the web.
Much appreciated - I'm also thinking of heading down that path myself.
I have access to a Canon 400D at my school and I've enjoyed using it -
was even allowed to take it to Cairns for a holiday break! BUt of
course it goes back to the AV dpt once I'm back at school, so it would
be nice to have my own :-)
Apparently the 450D is a reasonable step up from the 400D. Canon
introduced the 1000D as its entry level "cheapie" so now there is the
choice of 3 levels before you get into the really expensive ones. From
what I've gathered from friends, it is worth spending as much or more
on the lens as on the camera. The canon 400 lens is a very nice unit,
but I wouldn't want to be carrying it a long way! I've only used the
kits lens 75-300 at school but another birder let me try his 400IS and
it really was very nice to use.
Anyway ... just a dream at this stage, but it's good to have the info
- and of course important that this sort of data gets added to the
birding-aus archive!
That's birding-aus, not Oz!
Cheers
Russell
Russell Woodford
Learning Technologies Coordinator
Sacred Heart College Geelong
An Apple School of Excellence
http://www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/
On 09/12/2008, at 6:06 PM, Bob Cook wrote:
Thanks to you all!!
Much appreciated, excellent information has been forthcoming. And
the issues
I should consider.
It seems that for my needs / desires (budget) the way to go is with
the one
generation ago body, i.e. Canon EOS40D or Nikon D80 together with the
100-400 IS or 80-400 VR lens. Still likely to be just over the
$3000 and
without any spare battery, filter, tele-converter, bag, etc.
Comments I have seen on the Nikon 80-400 VR lens is that it is slow
to
focus. Many user reviews have mentioned this. Is this the same
with the
Canon 100-400 IS? Any experience?
Regards
Bob Cook
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