Sony NEX 5 Lens Questions

[Pepperami]

Hiya

Noobie here, and as most noobs do probably, im looking for some answers :-)

I purchased for my wife a Sony NEX 5 which to be honest she loves, its a great camera for taking the sorts of pictures she likes to do, and although its not a top of the range Canon EOS or similar, it does for her ... well until now

She has more and more started to get into wildlife photograph, and wants to be able to take photos of birds, but sometimes from a fair distance away, we were in Cornwall recently at Tintagel and if any of you reading this have been, there is a lovely walkway up the cliffs to the top, but out in the sea some distance is an island/cliff with nesting birds, and visable to the naked eye, but not close enough to take some really decent pictures, much to her disgust I might add lol

Now, the NEX5 has I know got to have an adaptor ring by all accounts, allowing other lens to fit, but its where I go from there thats the trouble as I know nothing about this sort of thing!!

Are there some lens that will do the job she wants that will fit this camera?

If so, are they an autofocus like she is used to, or will this mean manual focus (I take it manual focus just means turning the ring on the lens or is there more to it than that?)

I have seen lens that say, for instance, 170-500 (Sigma) but I have no idea if im going in the right direction, so if anyones got some help for me, it would really be appreciated!!

I know im looking to spend upwards or 400-500 pounds, but if it does what she wants it to do, its money well spent, I would just like to make sure its the right thing, and of a good reliable nature

Anyone please

Chris

[John D]

Hi, Welcome to WAB.
I don't know the area but will base my reply on your statement 'a fair distance'.
Just how far is the question.
If you are talking about a distance of say 20+ metres then digiscoping is the real answer. ( Using a very GOOD telescope instead of a long lens ie 400mm +). This method takes quite a lot of practice and has its limitations. Such as moving birds and the need for very good light)).
If using say a 500mm lens I would be looking for a bird, such as a Blue Tit, to be no further than around 8 metres, on a camera with a crop factor of 1.6.
I use a 420mm lens and try and get no further than 6 metres from a similar sized bird, if I'm looking to get a reasonably sized image straight out of the camera.
Obviously with larger birds such as say a Curlew the distance can be a greater say 15metres.
It is possible when using a good quality lens and a camera with a good resolution (10 Mps and above) to crop the image using appropriate software in order to produce a larger image. Although there can be some loss in quality, if carefully done and the image is sharp in the first instance, a very acceptable image can be obtained.
I hope this helps. No doubt there will be others additions to this thread with some slight alternatives to what I have provided.
All the best hope you enjoy WAB.

PS I don't have any knowledge of the Sony NEX5 and what lenses are available for it.

John D
Zenfolio | John's Wild World

[Jim Ford]

Try asking on this forum:

Sony NEX Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

Jim