Equipment for wildlife (birds)

JBol123 · Jan 5, 2013

Hey guys, I have a problem. Should I invest £1000 in a new camera or £1000 in a lens? I would think the major decision is between a 100-400mm L or a 7D. I would also consider the 70-300L or 70-200L 2.8. Lenses last much longer than bodies I know I'm in a pickle.

thanks
Jack.

JBol123 · Jan 5, 2013

I have around £1000, should I invest in a new body (7D) or a new lens (100-400mm L or the 70-300 2.8)?

coastalconn · Jan 5, 2013

You didn't mention your current body? I don't shoot canon, but many people think the 400 prime is sharper than the 100 400. There are rumors that a 7dm2 might be released very soon?

Overread · Jan 5, 2013

Depends what you want to do and thus what you need to achieve your photographic goals or overcome your limitations with your current setup. Without more details its really impossible to say if a new camera body, lens, lighting setup or other items would be beneficial.

The only typical advice I can give is that unless your changing the size of the sensor/film (which if you move from entry level up to the 7D you are not doing as it is still a 1.6 crop camera body), then the best thing to go upgrade with is typically to buy quality glass (ie lenses) and then a lighting setup as well (although for some areas, such as product or portrait photography a good lighting setup is something that often comes first before the lens).

JBol123 · Jan 5, 2013

My equipment Canon 450D, Canon 500D, 17-40mm L, 50mm 1.8, 85mm 1.8, 28-80mm 3.5-5.6. Few tripods and a few external flashes. UV filters for all lenses, 2 HOYA CPL filters for the 50mm 1.8 and the 28-80mm.

JBol123 · Jan 5, 2013

Sorry forget to mention my equipment. Canon 450D, Canon 500D, 17-44mm L, 50mm 1.8, 85mm 1.8, 28-80mm 3.5-5.6.

SamiJoSchwirtz · Jan 5, 2013

Overread · Jan 5, 2013

JBol123 - ahh but what do you want to do? What limitation is your current setup presenting to you that you feel the need to upgrade to one of these two options?

JBol123 · Jan 5, 2013

My limitations are my maximum focal length of 85mm but also the fact that my bodies not produce the best shots (typically with a lot of noise even in well lit conditions). Also that my fps is at best 3.7. I want to start shooting wildlife (birds) and they tend not to get to close. So I could get a better qualilty image in terms of noise and have to crop it losing detail or I could get a better glass and hope that the conditions are ok to still shoot at 100-200ISO.

Overread · Jan 5, 2013

A few thoughts:

1) Set your ISO to 400 or even 800 and learn to work with the noise. Read up upon noise reduction methods in editing since often good noise and sharpening adjustments will reduce noise considerably and indeed when you prepare images for typical display (eg online or in a print) you'll find much noise is impossible to see as well.

2) If you need reach you need reach, cropping significant amounts from short lenses just won't give you good results. So one that score you need a longer lens; a better body won't give you much improvement. So a long lens would be an ideal purchase, for the rough £1000 mark you've a few options to consider:

100-400mm - has IS and gives you a good zoom range and good optical quality. That said it is a zoom lens, so you'll want to stop it down by 1 stop when shooting at the 400mm end for the best results sharpness wise (although it will still do well wide open).

400mm f5.6 L - gives you the best optical quality for this price range. It's a popular choice with bird photographers and an ideal option if you're going to shoot wildlife most of the time and don't need the other ranges (ie if you don't need a zoom lens).

300m f4 IS L - gives you IS in the lens for some help when handholding and good optical quality. A bit shorter than the other options in focal length, but will work very well when combined with a 1.4teleconverter (shifting it to a 420mm f5.6 IS L lens).