Upgrade from D70

klw81 · Feb 16, 2010

I have had a Nikon D70 since late 2004, and I am considering upgrading. I still love it, but I am going to a bird photography workshop and I was thinking about upgrading to either a new 18-200mm VR lens(to use with the D70) or a D300s and use the 70-300mm(non-VR) lens I currently have. Which would be the better upgrade? Obviously I know which is the cheapest, but I would like to get the most for the money. This will be my first try at bird photography. I also like to shoot landscapes.

Sw1tchFX · Feb 16, 2010

Keep the D70 and get the 80-400VR. You'll come home with much better pictures that way instead of a D300s/18-200VR.

If you have the 18-70, keep that lens anyway, it's better than the 18-200.

klw81 · Feb 17, 2010

Thanks for your suggestion. I will look into it. What about the 70-300 lens though, would it be good enough? I do have the 18-70 as well. I like the dual memory card slot feature of the D300, I would like to try RAW but I want to still have high quality JPG as well. I think most of the birds will be captive so I might not even need the long lens.

KmH · Feb 17, 2010

klw81 said:
Thanks for your suggestion. I will look into it. What about the 70-300 lens though, would it be good enough? I do have the 18-70 as well. I like the dual memory card slot feature of the D300, I would like to try RAW but I want to still have high quality JPG as well. I think most of the birds will be captive so I might not even need the long lens.

Frankly, the 70-300 non-VR has a very poor reputaion for image quality.

JE Kay · Feb 18, 2010

A friend of mine is a 'birder', she had only one piece of advice for me when I was thinking of getting into it. First thing you need is a body that can track and focus. If you're going to take it seriously go for something that is as close to 'pro' autofocusing as you can get. She had a D300 and quickly went to a D700 as the D300 just didn't do it for her. Not sure why, she just didn't like it.

In her words, if you can't track and focus on it, doesn't matter how good your lens is, you'll get a bad image.

(I'm a Canon person so I'm not familiar with Nikon Digital all that much, other than owning a D70s for a short period of time, which I thought was a great camera.)