quick question

[Flower Child]

i tried searching this but i didnt find what i was looking for----

what is the best nikkor lens for shooting birds?

 

[Big Mike]

THIS one might be good.

How about THIS one?

 

[ANDS!]

Those two above are good, but really it depends on what you want to spend, and how far you're normally going to be away from these creatures. An alternative to the expensive prime telephotos, is a 80-200 with a 2x converter on it.

 

[Overread]

generally birds need 400mm minimum for decent shooting with many often going for a 500mm as well - 600mm tend to be out of most peoples price ranges and also tend to be rather too heavy for handholding and thus are tripod only.

Teleconverters are another option though a 2* on a zoom lens (even a top range zoom) needs to really be used on a mid to high range camera body - the lower (starter) bodies just don't have the sensor quality to get the best result from such a combo.
Unfortunatly bird photography can get very expensive.

One things some people do is digiscoping = using a digiscope with an attached camera as an alternative. I don't know much more than that as its something that I have never researched or tried.

 

[Flower Child]

thank you for the great help everyone! i will look into that digiscope and learn more about it, Overread.

is that lens really 9,000 dollars!?!? i had no IDEA they ran that high. do any of you have these lenses?

 

[Overread]

hehe some of us do - not me though.
I do hope oneday to have a good 500mm or greater lens
if you want more info on the digiscoping have a look here:
http://www.birdforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=284

the digiscoping and general photograph/birdwatching section of a bird forum

 

[Ron Evers]

I know a bird photographer who shoots Canon 40D who is published in magazines. She is a sweety & always willing to help. I am sure she would answer your questions & she will be speaking from knowledge rather than opinion. Here is a link to her web site & if you chose to contact her feel free to mention my name. Scroll down the opening page to see some of the birds.

http://cle4toimages.zenfolio.com/

 

[kundalini]

THIS one might be good.

How about THIS one?

is that lens really 9,000 dollars!?!? i had no IDEA they ran that high. do any of you have these lenses?

Unfortunately, this can become a very expensive hobby. Depending on what type of birding you plan to do, I would not go less than 200mm plus a TC....... and make sure it's good and fast glass. If you are serious, the opening bid is probably around $1500 and then goes up significantly.

 

[dxqcanada]

My wife an I take a lot of nature photographs ... which includes birds.

When we had a 35mm film camera we had:

Sigma APO 400mm f5.6
Canon 400mm f4.5

see our website for examples

They were sufficient for most shots if you can approach quietly.
The Sigma is reasonably priced.

The Sigma APO is now on a Digital SLR with an APS-C CCD .. so with the 1.5x mag it is even better ... though we have not updated our website with digital images.

We would liked to have faster lenses but the price became extreme beyond this point.

 

[Flower Child]

I know a bird photographer who shoots Canon 40D who is published in magazines. She is a sweety & always willing to help. I am sure she would answer your questions & she will be speaking from knowledge rather than opinion. Here is a link to her web site & if you chose to contact her feel free to mention my name. Scroll down the opening page to see some of the birds.

http://cle4toimages.zenfolio.com/

wow her site is amazing! thanks for showing me

Unfortunately, this can become a very expensive hobby. Depending on what type of birding you plan to do, I would not go less than 200mm plus a TC....... and make sure it's good and fast glass. If you are serious, the opening bid is probably around $1500 and then goes up significantly.

oh wow no kidding. i have along way to go until i get one of those lenses. i still don't even have an SLR yet. haha. but i SOON will. thanks for your help kundalini

My wife an I take a lot of nature photographs ... which includes birds.

When we had a 35mm film camera we had:

Sigma APO 400mm f5.6
Canon 400mm f4.5

see our website for examples

They were sufficient for most shots if you can approach quietly.
The Sigma is reasonably priced.

The Sigma APO is now on a Digital SLR with an APS-C CCD .. so with the 1.5x mag it is even better ... though we have not updated our website with digital images.

We would liked to have faster lenses but the price became extreme beyond this point.

thank you for the help. your website is very beautiful! i think i might be able to get something like those lenses in the future