Digital SLR Wildlife Camera And Lens??

[Sean Howell]

I am thinking of buying a digital SLR camera but i don't have a clue what type to get or what lens to have.

I haven't used a digital SLR camera before so one that's not too complicated would be great. I will be mainly using it for long range photos like photographing deer in a field about 200 metres away and getting a high quality photo that is zoomed in right up to an individual deer.

My price range is £700 for lens and camera, any ideas on what i could get would be really helpful.
Sean

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by Sean Howell

I haven't used a digital SLR camera before so one that's not too complicated would be great.

They're all complicated to use, compared to a 'point and shoot'!

I will be mainly using it for long range photos like photographing deer in a field about 200 metres away and getting a high quality photo that is zoomed in right up to an individual deer.

You won't be able to get 'a high quality photo that is zoomed in right up to an individual deer' images at 200 meters at anywhere near the price you're considering. You'll need to spend over 5 times your budget at least for kit that will approach that. Even then, a deer won't anywhere near fill the frame at that range.

You'll probably get advised to get a Canon or Nikon (not my choice though!), but you can't go far wrong with either.

Jim

[GTH]

I totally agree Jim.....for what you are looking for you will need to up your budget to achieve quality.

Best of luck though

Geoff

[david156]

Hi.

These were taken with a canon 1000d which is their starting dslr camera at around £325 for the body.






But the lens used was the canon 100 - 400 L lens at £1250!
You could get a body and a sigma 150 - 500 zoom for about a £1000 brand new or go for a second hand lens. Have a good shop around and try out a few cameras to see which you found best.

Good luck, David

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by david156

But the lens used was the canon 100 - 400 L lens at £1250!
You could get a body and a sigma 150 - 500 zoom for about a £1000 brand new or go for a second hand lens.

But do you think he could fill the frame with a high quality image of a deer at 200 meters with a £1000 500mm lens?

Jim

[david156]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

But do you think he could fill the frame with a high quality image of a deer at 200 meters with a £1000 500mm lens?

Jim

No jim. But i didn't want to depress him so close to christmas.

[Jim Ford]

Assuming he gets a 50-500mm Sigma (a popular wildlife choice), the angle of view is 5 degrees at 500mm. Therefore the field of view will be (roughly) Tan 5 degrees x 200, meters. This works out to 17.5 meters, which means you wouldn't fill the frame with an elephant, let alone a deer!

Jim

[Geoff F]

But if you have sufficient pixels to start with, you can crop the photo and still get a reasonable image providing you don't want to print at A3.

However price is definitely going to be a problem here unless you do it by installments; ie a decent camera body and small starter lens this year followed by a big zoom next year, and a macro lens the year after that then . . .

If you intend to get one of the larger zooms eventually I would recommend going for one of the larger and heavier camera bodies which will give you a better balance. Say the Canon 40D which has been replaced by newer models so you could get a good deal after Christmas. Their 30D may be available secondhand as a cheaper option.

Nikon have alternatives but generally speaking they tend to be a fraction more expensive. Olympus are good value but I'm not sure of their current range.

Alternatively some of the better 'bridge' range of cameras with a fixed lens do have considerable zoom lengths at a really affordable price and can take good photos. But if you want to get really serious about your photography I would suggest that a 'proper' dslr with interchangeable lenses is the only long term option.

[Ukwildlifeo]

I would suggest saving a little longer and get the sigma 150-500mm for around £700 which is available for all the major camera mounts: Canon Nikon, Sony Pentax, and the 4/3rds Olympus + Panasonic. Then you can look at which camera body you prefer which all have their pluses and minuses but you can't really go wrong with any modern day SLR and they start from around £300.

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

I would suggest saving a little longer and get the sigma 150-500mm for around £700 which is available for all the major camera mounts: Canon Nikon, Sony Pentax, and the 4/3rds Olympus + Panasonic.

Yes but his expectations of a telephoto lens are too high. As I demonstrated above, a deer would be disappointingly small at 200 meters with a 500mm lens. Assuming a deer is 2 meters long, it would only occupy less than an eighth of the width of the frame!

Jim