Best camera & lens for wildlife

[Pappy]

attached picture has been reduced to 432X324[/img]

[Pappy]

Thanks Don, I guess I did it, but the quality of the picture has been reduced.
This picture was taken at 100-110 feet
It too has been reduced

[Guest]

Paul maybe this will help in your understanding of Focal Length

http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_focal_length.html

It is easy now to see that the focal length would vary with Zoom position.
The artical is a little long but has a lot of good info a photobug should know or at least be familiar with,hope this helps

dick

[flyin-lowe]

On a point and shoot if you are concerned about quality it is usually recommended to ignore the digital zoom and only use the digital zoom. One camera I have you can shut off the digital zoom, the other one you cant but there is an indicator that turns from green to red so you know you are in the digital zoom.

Harley. I know a few guys that have been to the body farm school. I have never been but I have spoke with the guy that runs it. There is also a forensic "bug guy" at Purdue University that I have worked with. Interesting stuff.

[1 Ron Vasser]

I really want a good camera to take pictures of my martins, blue birds, dogs, horses, wildlife etc. Unfortunately, I just haven't been able to afford one yet. The camera on my smart phone just doesn't do it. What, in your opinion, is the best camera and lens combination to capture wildlife with? What have you had your your best results with?

For wildlife I would use a DX sensor rather than a full frame sensor on a DSLR camera. A DX sensor on a Nikon DSLR will multiply the focal length of the lens by x1.5. The focal length of a 200-400mm zoom lens becomes a 300-600mm lens. You can add teleconverters of x.14, x1.7, or x2 on the higher end Nikon lens but they will degrade the picture and for each higher strength converter use lose 1 stop of aperture. A 300mm lens with a f2.8 aperture becomes an f4 with a x1.4 converter, a f5.6 with a x1.7 and so on. VR is only good when you don't have enough light to keep a shutter speed above 1/80 second and not using a tripod.

For wildlife and birds using Nikon I would use a DX camera and a lens with a focal length of 400 or above with an aperture no slower than f4.
I hope this helps.

[Guest]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question! I have learned so much from you all! It has been very educational.

[Bearbarrow]

I am a Nikon fan myself but dont have the 70-300. If you go with that lens (good lens) I would say to make sure and go VR. As far as the teleconverter (TC) i know you can use both the VR and the standard models but NOT a Nikon TC ..... go figure. It must be an off brand and it must be a 2X. That is great for zooming in your lens but here is the problems. 1) you will lose your auto focus now you will have to manually turn the focus ring. 2) it will go from a f/5.6 to a f/11. That will give you real slow shutter speeds and you will have to use real high ISO in low light conditions and even in good light to help fight camera movement and wings beating, etc. there are other things but those are the main.

In my opinion I would go a route like this. You are gonna spend money on a 70-300 lens and on the TC so I would instead spend a little more and look for a used big lens. I am not talking a big 4-5K lens but something like a Sigma 150-500mm or similar. They will be a little slow but not as bad as an f/11 would be. That is what I did before I could get the money for a big chunk of glass and I liked every picture it took.

What ever you get will be great and you will have alot of fun taking pictures!!!

[Don Strickland]

Nice pictures Pappy. I need to do some experimenting with my camera.
Maybe the quality of my pictures will improve when I learn some of the tricks to taking photographs.
I'm going to pay attention to the zoom bar on the next pictures and see if I can get a better picture by not zooming all the way out.
Don..Thanks for the info flyin.

as suggested by flyin lowe:
On a point and shoot if you are concerned about quality it is usually recommended to ignore the digital zoom and only use the digital zoom. One camera I have you can shut off the digital zoom, the other one you cant but there is an indicator that turns from green to red so you know you are in the digital zoom.