Can I even afford a wildlife lens

[Braineack]

I am more inclined to use KEH myself.

KEH, adorama, B&H, mbp -- there's a ton of reputable used photo equipment sites out there.

I haven't found KEH to ever have what I'm looking for, for a realistic price. I've had tons of good luck with adorama used stuffs.

 

[Raw photographer]

Thanks guys. I am wondering if my main lens is a not so great one should I be getting a better shorter lens like a 18-135mm or something instead of buying a super telephoto. Because without my neighbors lens I really got nothing besides my 18-55mm. I don't know, what would you do if all you had was a kit lens.

 

[RVT1K]

A good, short lens will not help with nature photography unless its big, wide landscape shots that you want.

There are pretty much three options with nature photography:
Pay for reach
Improve sneaking skills and get closer
Accept what you have

But if you well and truly believe that the equipment is holding you back, bust the lock off the wallet.

 

[Soocom1]

My experience has been to go large on the lens.
I understand and suffer from the disease myself.. you know lackofundsitus.

But if you can pull it together, I would suggest something along the lines of the 35-350 or 28-300 USM. they are LARGE and heavy lenses, but they will shoot wildlife on an amazing level.

 

[Raw photographer]

My experience has been to go large on the lens.
I understand and suffer from the disease myself.. you know lackofundsitus.

But if you can pull it together, I would suggest something along the lines of the 35-350 or 28-300 USM. they are LARGE and heavy lenses, but they will shoot wildlife on an amazing level.

Thanks I will look into that.

 

[SquarePeg]

I have bought and sold gear on the Nikon USA Buy/Swap/Sell Facebook page. Good deals and just read the feedback thread and stalk the person on Facebook to make sure they are legit. I'm sure there is a similar page for Canon/Canada.

 

[Raw photographer]

Thanks.

 

[DGMPhotography]

I've bought probably at least half my gear from Ebay, and haven't had a bad experience yet. Just use reputable sellers. 99-100% positive feedback, at least 1000+ ratings is usually pretty trustworthy.

I bought the Tamron 150-600 G2 lens for wildlife, and although I haven't gotten to use it much yet, I could tell from my limited tests that it's really gonna step my game up!

 

[Derrel]

I've bought probably at least half my gear from Ebay, and haven't had a bad experience yet. Just use reputable sellers. 99-100% positive feedback, at least 1000+ ratings is usually pretty trustworthy.

I bought the Tamron 150-600 G2 lens for wildlife, and although I haven't gotten to use it much yet, I could tell from my limited tests that it's really gonna step my game up!

99-100% positive feedback, at least 1000+ ratings is usually pretty trustworthy.


A seller like that would be _exceptionally good_, IMO.

Ken Rockwell has an article about,"how to win at eBay". I have not read it, but have seen him refer to it multiple times for probably close to 10 years.

I have bought probably 25 times from eBay, and have sold a few items(lenses mainly) from $300 to $2,000 on eBay

 

[Nathaniel S.]

I've sold close to ten thousand items on eBay. I also like to buy deals when I come across them.

Basically, you've got 30 days from the time you receive an item to open a case with eBay for a return. If you use "item not as described" eBay will decide the case in your favor. You won't have to pay return shipping, and you will get a full refund.

Even if you know you'll win, fighting with a seller isn't enjoyable. Here would be my tips to avoid problems on eBay:

1. Check the other items the account is selling and has sold. You want to see that the account has sold photography items in the past. The exception would be if the account has hundreds or thousands of active listings and you don't mind potentially dealing with a return.

2. Check the return policy. Avoid sellers that have 14 day return policies. Buy from sellers with 30 or 60 day policies. Also, the more feedback someone has, the more likely they are to quickly provide return postage labels and issue refunds.

The rare problems I have had were with sellers with less than 100 feedback. None of my issues were with photography gear.

3. Don't buy from people with bad photos. If they can't produce a correctly exposed, in focus image of what they're selling, would you trust them to correctly evaluate a piece of gear?

4. Read the entire description. Sellers like to create problems for themselves so they will often describe problems at the end of the description. Photos of the problems will also be at the end of the image gallery.

Unless you're willing to deal with a potentially difficult return, avoid buying from sellers that do this. If you get the smallest hint of anything scummy going on, just move on. There's no shortage of used gear to choose from.

 

[pocketshaver]

Don't buy from china or india. Those countries.

Purchased something that turned out to be from china. It turned out to be defective factory seconds. Cant get a ebay refund unless you send it back. SO spent even more to send it back..... and it turned out the address I had to send it to doesnt exist, so got screwed on original purchase,,, AND return shipping.

 

[ac12]

Thanks guys. I am wondering if my main lens is a not so great one should I be getting a better shorter lens like a 18-135mm or something instead of buying a super telephoto. Because without my neighbors lens I really got nothing besides my 18-55mm. I don't know, what would you do if all you had was a kit lens.

STOP

Sit down and think and plan of a complete lens landscape/kit for YOU, what you shoot and how you shoot.
Do you want a general purpose (GP) kit, or one more specific to a shoot requirement?
Do you need a specific lens for a specific shoot? How will that lens fit into the landscape?
If you go at it piecemeal, there is a good chance that you will end up with a lens that does not fit the final landscape, and you will end up selling it at a loss.

Here are some kit examples:

Example1: 18-55 + 55-200 + 500
Example2: 18-55 + 70-300 + 500
Example3: 18-135 + 100-400
Example4: 18-55 + 18-135 + 150-600
Example5: 10-20 + 18-55 + 18-135 + 150-600 + 35/2 + 50/2​

The plan should also reflect your budget.
Example, the Nikon 200-500 is a $1400 lens. But I don't use a LONG lens enough to justify spending $1400 on it. So I got an old used 500 mirror lens for 10% of the price. Manual focus, but it was "good enough" for the job, and how little I use it.

You don't have to buy it all at once. With a plan, you can think about what lens to get in which sequence. What lens do you need most (get it first), and what is less important (can wait till later).
You can even plan a sequence of lens/cameras, based on your increased earnings over time.

Example: budget 70-300 now, replace with 100-400 or 150-600 later.​

The plan is a living document.
As your needs change, the plan should change to reflect your needs change.
As new lenses are introduced, the plan could change.

 

[Winona]

I do landscape,wildlife, pets, family. Amateur stuff. With the Canon 18-135 and Tamron 100-400 I haven’t used my other lenses (18-55 and 70-250). If we weren’t planning trips out West to National Parks I probably would have never bought the 100-400. But I’m having fun with it. But the old lenses were a present from years ago-I’m not rich. Lol.

 

[weepete]

What is your budget? Some of the old superzooms have been superseded but have acceptable image quality and should be avalible at a knock down price if you shop around. If that's still too expensive and old manual focus lens might be an option.

 

[Raw photographer]

What is your budget? Some of the old superzooms have been superseded but have acceptable image quality and should be avalible at a knock down price if you shop around. If that's still too expensive and old manual focus lens might be an option.

My max budget would be about $500.00 but i would rather only spend $300.00-400.00, i have looked at older lenses on Ebay but alot of them have bad reviews.