What lense?

[stroker]

What lense would i use to capture a bird mid flight? Im thinking a telephoto but have no idea on what power

 

[D-B-J]

canon? nikon? something else? what body..? price range?

 

[Overread35]

+1 to those questions - without an idea of what system and what kind of budget you are looking at we can't really give many recommendations.

The only generalist advice I can give is that typically bird photographers say that bird photography starts at 400mm and from there the longer the better.

 

[stroker]

sorry for the loss of information. Im using a 35mm Minolta Maxxum400si.
No real set price range yet. But the lower the better without getting crappy quality. Im saving up for a D90

 

[sobolik]

It entirely depends on where this bird is located in relation to the camera.

In general the very best thing you can do is get as close as possible to eliminate a bunch of technical problems related to shutter speed and aperture.

How far away do you plan on being?

 

[CNCO]

a d90 is a good body to start with(i only have a d80). as far as the lense i have no clue but as mentioned before anything less than 400mm is useless. save your money n buy a tamron or sigma to start. quantaray isnt bad either.

 

[KmH]

BIF's (birds-in-flight) are tough, take good reach, and a good tripod and head.

People who do BIF's seriously - like to use $7000 top-of-the-line pro camera bodies, 600 mm f/4 prime lenses ($10,000 plus) mounted on $600 Wimberly gimbled tripod heads, all setting on top of $900 Gitzo tripods.

 

[Overread35]

I've seen great things done with a sigma 50-500mm and a 40D camera body and no tripod So its not all topflying gear - though it certainly helps to have it for certain and widlife in general is one of the most expensive areas of photography.

That said I'm sad to say I can't give any specific lens suggestions - I don't know your camera range or mount type at all - though a quick google shows that its an older film camera body so you might have luck with some film era glass on ebay - but otherwise I can't give any recommendations.

 

[Josh220]

I hate to be the one to say it, but realistically for someone who is saving for a D90 there's not a lot of options. You would be looking at $2k minimum for a lens that wouldn't even get that much reach (70-200). A 1.7x teleconverter will give it an effective 510mm on a cropped sensor. That brings you to around $2500.

Can you get cheaper lenses with long focal lengths? Sure. Will they be good for catching birds in mid flight? Nope.

 

[SLRJoe]

Yes, I reckon it's best to get a lens 400mm + for capturing birds in flight, if you've got the money, get one with image stabilisation...