Advice on lenses/converter

[julie5208]

I have recently started going different places to do a spot of bird watching. I currently have Nikon D60 with a extra lense, 50mm to 200mm. I am finding this lense not suitable for my new hobby.

What sort of lense could i purchase to attach to this camera or will i need a new camera all together?

I also see you can pick up a converter? How do these work and are they worth it if i purchase a strong lense?

Hope to get some responses as its a mind field out there and i really don't know where to start


Regards.

Julie

[aquila 1]

hi there yes it can be a mine field, I have a D50 with a range of lenses but use a Sigma 70 to 300mm zoom for most things, just recently I bought a Sigma 170 - 500mm zoom, brand new, it takes great pictures but I found it to heavey for me as I suffer with arthritic fingers,. so I will be selling it, It all depends on what you are mainly taking. Best regards Mac

[PeterB]

Hi Julie, welcome to the forum.

I have a D60 which I use when on a long walk as it is light. You are right 200mm is not enough but I would shy away from converters, even if you could find on to fit that lens there would be compatibility issues.

Go for as much as you can afford. Sure a bigger/better/faster camera is useful, but 90% of the setup is the lens.

You should look for 400mm as a minimum.

[Little Sparrow]

Welcome to the forum Julie!

Sorry I cannot offer any advice.

Looking forward to seeing a few of your images and hearing all about the birds you photograph!

Enjoy!

Judith.

[PeterB]

Yes, As Judith says, Enjoy, whatever you have enjoy it, that's the main thing.

[julie5208]

Thank you all for the advice and kind words. I think its search on the internet to get a new lense...

I will begin to load some of my photo's that i have taken over the past few months for people to enjoy.


Thanks.

Julie

[aquila 1]

Hi Julie if you look at 300mm or 400mm on e-bay the larger the aperture ie 2.4 4.00 they are the best but are more expensive, or if you google lens hire you can hire one for a day/week then you can see the results without laying out a load of money, I found my Sigma lens a lot more studier than the same in Nikon, and not as expensive, best regards mac

[karlk1]

hi julie, one thing to watch for if you buy second hand lenses for your D60, the D60 does not have a focus drive motor so you need to look at AFS and AFI lenses if you want autofocus.

Be carefull with teleconverters, they are only compatible with certain lenses.

A good lense to consider is the Nikon 70-300 AFS F4.5/F5.6 £430 new approx. Probably the best bugdet glass u can buy.

karl

[john_e.fox]

I use a Sigma 150-500 zoom on my Nikon D90, very happy with it
although it's heavy, ( I suspect all big lenses are heavy though ). Not the kind
of thing you can stroll around with, you need a tripod or be in a hide with
a window ledge to steady it on.
A converter would be the cheaper option but the optical quality would suffer.
As PeterB points out, 400mm is really the minimum useful size.

[munchycarrot]

I have Nikon 300mm f4 & use it pretty much all of the time with a Nikon 1.7 converter. It's a fantastic combination & I love it, never take it off my camera (D300)

I don't see any issues with the IQ either I used to use the Nikon 70-300 until I got this, that's a fantastic lens for the money & was my lens of choice.

A couple of shots in my gallery & some on my flickr, link in my sig. I also have a photo forum but not sure if i'm allowed to say on here so I wont