what lens?

For birds you want at least 300mm and usually more - 500mm is good. For scenery you need to go the other way - 35mm or less. Are you after a DSLR? Quality-wise a DSLR would be best, but with limited funds a bridge camera (which comes with a built-in zoom lens covering pretty much every focal length you'd ever need) might be the way to go. They are improving in optical quality all the time, especially at the shorter end, and they usually have an excellent macro mode. The Panasonic Lumix range are very good, but there are other options.

Thanx Aiki. will have a look at the things you have recommended

Snowdonia said:

Thanx Aiki. will have a look at the things you have recommended

Snowy, I think Sarum Bat has recently bought a new bridge camera - Panasonic FZ45 - which is giving great results. Check out some of her pics :)

Hi Snowdonia

Unless you're looking for publication quality (and have a meaty budget) a bridge camera will probably suffiice. Nearly all the phots of mine you see dotted around on here are taken with a Lumix FZ-18 which has now been superceded by a model with more megapixels. There are bridge cameras edging up to x30 optical zoom now.

This photo was taken with a 1.7x teleconverter attached to the Lumix. I used a tripod and took the shot hands free to avoid any chance of movement.  It's fairly heavily cropped and you can see that the definition isn't that brilliant. 

Rhodopsin's shots are taken with pretty decent hardware if you want a comparison.

JBNTS

I agree with Aiki that even a 300mm lens will struggle for those decent bird photographs (unless of course you are close enough)

Once you start going into the 400mm + range of lens they become very expensive (although there are some decent secondhand bargains to be had); so a 1.4x teleconvertor (magnifies your normal lens) on say a 300mm lens is worth looking at.

This all being if you choose to buy a DSLR (I would highly recommend)

Also a decent tripod is worth gettting to keep a longer lens steady when photographing birds from a distance; if this seems a bit too much to carry around then there are also camera beanbag's that you can rest the lens on and get sharp photos.

My advice is to research as much as you can on kit and technique - Rhodopsin on here is a very good photographer and could help you with some tips.

Good luck

Craig

As aiki says it's probably a choice between a DSLR camera with a fairly long lens or one of the top of the range bridge cameras. DSLR cameras are fairly expensive, heavy to lug about and the lenses can often cost more than the camera.

Quite a few people on this forum use the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38 which has an 18x zoom range and is affordable. I don't use it myself but people seem to get pretty good results. There's a couple of review sites which may help you get an idea of what's out there.

http://www.cameralabs.com/

http://www.dpreview.com/

You may also want to take a look at Rhodopsin's recent thread.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/forums/t/22120.aspx

I think it's a bit of a nightmare trying to choose because you don't want to make an expensive mistake. Take your time and try before you buy.

TJ

The one thing I would say about DSLR is the range of lenses you can buy.

Bridge cameras are great (the Lumix uses Leica glass and is very good quality) but there are limits and this is were I think DSLR come in to play.

I have a Nikon D40x (secondhand on Ebay for probably around 250 quid with 35-55mm lens)

I have:

300mm lens for distant shots and a 1.4 teleconvertor to add more focal length to the 300mm (for birds etc)

90mm macro (for close up of insect and potrait work)

and also a zoom 28-55mm lens for general photography.

I didnt buy all these at once and used my zoom lens for at least a year before I decided to purchase my other lens.

I spent time practising with the camera settings and understanding the manual features on the camera - shutter speeds, apertures, ISO film speed before advancing to my other lenses.

Regards

Craig

Since taking up the hobby of birdwatching, into my  second year now. I have thought about buying a decent camera and lens and was told that for the money i had to spend £900 a cannon 500 with a 75x300 lens should do the job.

On sunday i was at inner marsh farm and was sitting next to a gentleman who was taking photos of the waders etc. What a very nice guy this person was, i mentioned to him what i have put above and he said that he did not want to put me off, but that i could be wasting my money. He said that that would okay for taking photos around birdfeeders and close shots and if i was happy with that then okay.

I than asked would i be looking at about £ 2,000, he said that yes for the body (camera) for the shots he was taking some 50 yards away. Then you have the price of the lens,plus on his setup he had what i think may well have been a teleconvertor ( dont think that i had better go down that road ). He then turned his camera to show me the photo he had just taken. He said that bird photos are all about the eye and getting it right amongst other things.

After listening to this gentleman it looks like i will be saving my cash for other things, because if like me you would like to take something like quality shots of birds at distance you could well buy a new car with the money you would need to spend to achieve this.

All the best, Tipton.

I dont totally agree with that info he gave you tipton.

LIke I mentioned an entry level DSLR will cost around 300 quid

Lenses are the expensive part but there are great secondhand lenses out there and you can also hire lenses for those days out photographing distant birds.

Dont be put off by Ebay or Amazon secondhand gear, most who are selling this have looked after their kit and you can pick up some good bargains.

Third party lenses are also worth considering like Tamron (my 90mm Macro is a Tamron and it is superb) also Sigma are great too.

heres a really good Nikon D3000 DSLR for 335 quid and comes with a 18-55mm zoom VR (vibration reduction) Lens.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002J9GIAQ/ref=asc_df_B002J9GIAQ832186?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B002J9GIAQ

Also DSLR camera sensors are much more sensitive than comapct and bridge camera's and give better detail when taking photos.

thanks

Craig

I agree with Craig - there are bargains to be had and a good entry-level birding DSLR kit needn't break the bank, especially if you're willing to go secondhand. For example, someone on birdforum.net recently offered a used 50-500mm Sigma lens (Canon fit) for £450 - that's enough reach for most bird shots and the long zoom range means it will be useful for other kinds of photography too.