Please help...driving myself nuts

[toby lester]

Hello

I have long wanted to get into photography. 15 years ago I took a class at a local community college and due to health issues, I had to cancel my plans.

I now live near the coast and have gotten the bug again. I live near some of the best birding ever...ok...now with the question

I have a $1500 budget total, lens included. I would like to get a tamron or sigma 150-600 lense (the cheaper version, not the G2 or sport) because I want to take pictures of the birds in the area, but I also want a "normal" lense as well

what camera would you buy to use with the tamron or sigma zoom lense?

Is there a huge difference in the bottom of the barrel cameras (canon t6 nikon 3500) and the next step up (Canon t7 or Nikon 5600)? will the cheap camera's with no stabilization making using the zoom lenses horrible?

I have about a $600-700 budget after I buy the zoom lens...

Any advice is greatly appreciated...I am driving myself nuts.

thanks again

 

[Derrel]

I would buy the Nikon D 3300, or 3400, used.

 

[Soocom1]

For that money, used pro end systems are abundant.

If you go sigma, avoid the Canon. If Canon go mostly canon system.
(licensing issues.)

Or stick with strictly Nikon and go Full Frame used.

 

[dxqcanada]

You should take a serious look into Olympus.
There are a number of wildlife shooters in this forum that have experience with this ...

 

[toby lester]

You should take a serious look into Olympus.
There are a number of wildlife shooters in this forum that have experience with this ...

would I get an adaptor to shoot with the zoom lenses?

 

[Designer]

Any advice is greatly appreciated...I am driving myself nuts.

If you want to get into birding, you can get a Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6e ed vr (used about $1000), and a used D3300 or D3400 for another couple hundred. With room to breathe.

All set for around $1500.

 

[Designer]

will the cheap camera's with no stabilization making using the zoom lenses horrible?

The stabilization in Canon and Nikon lenses are in the lens, not the camera body.

 

[dxqcanada]

You should take a serious look into Olympus.
There are a number of wildlife shooters in this forum that have experience with this ...

would I get an adaptor to shoot with the zoom lenses?

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera (Body, Black)
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Lens

 

[Derrel]

Buy used and make your money go __much__ farther. There are quite a lot of large used equipment dealers, including MPB, which advertises here on TPF.

 

[TWX]

Honestly I found one of the easier ways to narrow-down what I didn't want was to use resources like Wikipedia to actually get a feel for what cameras were part of what target markets. I was shopping Canon, and I had plenty of confusion as to what constituted a total budget/entry camera, what was a low-to-mid-grade camera, a mid-grade, high-end consumer, low-end professional, etc. In each of Wikipedia's entries for Canon DSLRs and mirrorless, there's a product-timeline at the bottom, which attempts to sort each camera by this kind of criteria over time, allowing one to actually see where Canon basically slotted their products weighed against each other, and when the various cameras were launched and for how long they were the newest in the lineup before the next model superseded.

Now that said, the Wikipedia entries on each camera may or may not be especially useful. If you choose to research a particular camera you may want to look at reviews from when it launched that go over both technical and usage/feel, and you might even want to watch videos, though for the latter I encourage caution since there are a lot of hype videos and many reviewers are biased, whether intentionally or not.

I'm not going to recommend a particular camera or even a brand to you because what I wanted to shoot pictures of when I made my choice isn't really anywhere near what you've stated your goal is, but I will say that I've ended up taking a much wider array of kinds of photos than I had originally expected to when I bought the camera, so it's possible that you could find yourself in the same position. Just bear that in mind, so that you don't go so explicitly narrow in-scope that you find any other kinds of photography exceedingly difficult to impossible.

As for Canon, I use Canon because I was able to borrow a Rebel XS something like ten years ago for an extended period of time including on a vacation and I liked the results and lens library enough that I chose to buy a Rebel XS for eighty bucks body-only and then spent another $20 for an EOS film camera for the lens, then slowly added more lenses both Canon and third party. When I finally had a need for a newer, better camera I continued buying Canon. I did look into Nikon but personally found the lens library more complicated, and likewise for Pentax which I'd used as a high school student. I attempt to avoid fanboying though, and Nikon has made wonderful cameras over the years, as have many other manufacturers. I just found it easy knowing that any EOS EF or EFS lens would work on my camera and that any EF would work on a full-frame. I went with my 77D because I was looking for the least expensive camera with features I would use for the next decade until perhaps it's time for yet another camera.

 

[Jeff15]

Take a look at the Panasonic G range, the miro four thirds system cameras are easily available on eBay.

 

[Warhorse]

Nikon D7200 factory refurbished is $694 right now.

Nikon D7200 DSLR Camera (Body Only, Refurbished by Nikon USA)

I am fighting the urge to buy one. GAS is strong on this one.

 

[Designer]

what camera would you buy to use with the tamron or sigma zoom lense?

Why are you stuck on Tamron or Sigma? You can get a better lens (used) within your budget.