Which lens is best?

[PeachDragon]

Hi.

I have a Nikon D3300 and the kit (18-55mm) lens currently, but would like to get another lens. I’m looking at budget/cheaper lenses, although I’d rather pay a slight bit more and get a better lens then get the cheapest possible and be slightly disappointed with it.

I’m a beginner in photography so trying to photograph various things, but would like some decent landscape and wildlife photos.

What I’d really like is to be able to take a photo of a bird of prey in the sky and have at least a clear enough photo to be able to identify the bird, rather than a distant bird-shaped blurry blob in a vast sky. Not looking to fill the entire image frame or anything close.

Would I be able to achieve this with a Nikon 70-300mm or 55-200mm VR lens? Is there a better option?

Thanks.

 

[cambsno]

At that budget, no. The 70-300 is a decent lens and range is king. You may get a used 300mm f4 prime which is an excellent lens but fixed length

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

I suggest that you start by reading some online guides before asking this question.

Asking questions on a forum means that you will receive answers from people who have a widely varying set of skills. This means that you will have to evaluate what you're told to reach a sensible decision. By giving yourself some background, you might be able to decide whether the advice you're being given is valid or nonsensical

Try these four to start with...

A Guide to Birding with Long Lenses

Capturing amazingly sharp photos of birds in the wild is the goal of many birders. There are different ways to do this, but the most organic is using extremely long telephoto lenses for digital or film SLR cameras or mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras.

www.bhphotovideo.com

9 Top Camera Tips & Techniques for Improving your Bird & Wildlife Photography

www.imaging-resource.com

The Best Lens for Bird Photography in 2024 (Updated)

The best lens for bird photography helps you make the most of your birding experiences. Bird photography requires a lot of patience. Opportunities can be few and far between. Even when your feathered subject arrives, they're gone with a single flap of their wings. The best bird photography...

expertphotography.com

Canon Bird Branch Project | Biodiversity Initiatives | How to photograph wild birds Lesson 2 | Types of lenses and selecting the right lens

Types of lenses and selecting the right lens

global.canon

 

[PeachDragon]

Thanks for replying.

I have read/watched lots of reviews/articles. Many say 300/400mm+ for bird watching, but then they keep saying about getting as close as possible and many talk about 600m+ lenses and really expensive lenses for just bird watching and show photos of small birds on the ground or in trees. So I'm just confused as to whether I could get a half decent photo of a bird of prey far up in the sky when I'm on the ground, every so often, with the 55-200mm? And if not, would the 70-300mm do it?

Plus I know the D3300 has a crop factor and sometimes things say Xmm, but I have no idea if their camera is full frame or not or whether crop factor has been taken into account. I think the Nikon 55-200mm VR would be fine for the majority of photos I'd like to take. The 70-300mm would be nice to have and I'd definitely go for it over the 55-200mm if that was the only way to get an okay bird photo. If neither can come close I'll go with whichever I get the best deal on, probably the 55-200mm, but I didn't want to just get that if there is a chance the 70-300mm would be suitable. I figured asking the question directly to people who know what they're talking about would be easiest lol.

 

[g4aaw]

I tend to agree with Andrew. However, with a limited budget, your options will be somewhat constrained.

I also have a D3300 & will not be ditching it anytime soon. I’ve tried:


Afs DX 55 – 200mm

Afs DX 18 – 200mm

Afs DX 55 – 300mm

Afs DX 18 - 300mm


All good value for money, except possibly the 18 – 300mm, which in my view is a lot of money.

I bought mine when they were on special at John Lewis for £439.

It’s the lens I often use when I want a light weight setup. Be warned, that one suffers lens creep.

If you extend the zoom fully to 300mm & point it upwards, the barrel will drop under its own weight. This can be a right nuisance.

I think the 55 - 200mm represents good value on the 2nd hand market. As to crop factor, multiply the DX lens value by 1.5
This gives effective range of 82.5 - 300mm compared to a full frame lens.

Be warned that lens buying can be highly addictive.

 

[Nod]

As Simon says, on a low(ish - nothing photographic is really cheap!!!) budget, a 70-300 is probably the best bet, especially on your crop body. If the budget can be stretched, one of the Sigma or Tamron longer options is worth consideration. Keep an eye on second hand dealers and see what they have in stock.

 

[ancient_mariner]

My experience of using 70-300 on crop is that it's not enough for most birds, but if one is either lucky or prepared to wait carefully for birds to come close then it may be acceptable. YMMV. Also I have been quite disappointed with image quality from entry level budget zooms, and would recommend buying a 'good' used lens than a 'bargain' new one.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

Thanks for replying.

That's a good reply, so we now have something to go on.

Firstly: I'm not a bird photographer, though I have taken pictures of the occassional avian. For birds on a branch, I've found that the lens on a travel zoom works. This is a cropped shot from a Panasonic TZ70 with the lens at maximum zoom, equivalent to 720mm...



...not pin sharp but good enough for my needs. Next, a picture taken with a Panasonic G9 through a 100~400mm lens (equivalent to 200~400mm on full frame) - a bit more detail but worth roughly 6x the money?



A gull in flight taken with a full frame Canon 5D through a Sigma 28~300mm zoom from thirty feet or so...



Finally, a swan taking off about 6o feet away, taken on an old Canon 10D (APS-C 6MP sensor sensor) through a cheap 70~300 Canon zoom...



The first thing is: are any of these sharp enough for your needs? The second is that the bigger the bird, the less demanding is the image.

 

[Suvv]

Whatever focal length you have you always want a bit more . It all depends on how far away the bird is.
Assuming that it is in your budget then the 70-300 is a good lens and sharp enough that you can often crop the final shot and still have a usable picture.
I've still got my 55-200 but it just sits in the cupboard now that I have the 70-300.
I did have a Tamron 28-300 which was good as a walkabout but nowhere as good as the Nikon at 300.

 

[PeachDragon]

I tend to agree with Andrew. However, with a limited budget, your options will be somewhat constrained.

I also have a D3300 & will not be ditching it anytime soon. I’ve tried:


Afs DX 55 – 200mm

Afs DX 18 – 200mm

Afs DX 55 – 300mm

Afs DX 18 - 300mm


All good value for money, except possibly the 18 – 300mm, which in my view is a lot of money.

I bought mine when they were on special at John Lewis for £439.

It’s the lens I often use when I want a light weight setup. Be warned, that one suffers lens creep.

If you extend the zoom fully to 300mm & point it upwards, the barrel will drop under its own weight. This can be a right nuisance.

I think the 55 - 200mm represents good value on the 2nd hand market. As to crop factor, multiply the DX lens value by 1.5
This gives effective range of 82.5 - 300mm compared to a full frame lens.

Be warned that lens buying can be highly addictive.

Thanks. Good to know about the lens creep.

As Simon says, on a low(ish - nothing photographic is really cheap!!!) budget, a 70-300 is probably the best bet, especially on your crop body. If the budget can be stretched, one of the Sigma or Tamron longer options is worth consideration. Keep an eye on second hand dealers and see what they have in stock.

Thanks. Very true about nothing being really cheap lol. Which of the Sigma or Tamron ones do you recommend? Just so I know I'm looking for the right thing because there are a lot of different ones out there, often with similar product titles.

 

[PeachDragon]

That's a good reply, so we now have something to go on.

Firstly: I'm not a bird photographer, though I have taken pictures of the occassional avian. For birds on a branch, I've found that the lens on a travel zoom works. This is a cropped shot from a Panasonic TZ70 with the lens at maximum zoom, equivalent to 720mm...

View attachment 354679

...not pin sharp but good enough for my needs. Next, a picture taken with a Panasonic G9 through a 100~400mm lens (equivalent to 200~400mm on full frame) - a bit more detail but worth roughly 6x the money?

View attachment 354681

A gull in flight taken with a full frame Canon 5D through a Sigma 28~300mm zoom from thirty feet or so...

View attachment 354683

Finally, a swan taking off about 6o feet away, taken on an old Canon 10D (APS-C 6MP sensor sensor) through a cheap 70~300 Canon zoom...

View attachment 354684

The first thing is: are any of these sharp enough for your needs? The second is that the bigger the bird, the less demanding is the image.

Thanks. Lovely photos. All of them would be more than sharp enough for my needs.

 

[PeachDragon]

Whatever focal length you have you always want a bit more . It all depends on how far away the bird is.
Assuming that it is in your budget then the 70-300 is a good lens and sharp enough that you can often crop the final shot and still have a usable picture.
I've still got my 55-200 but it just sits in the cupboard now that I have the 70-300.
I did have a Tamron 28-300 which was good as a walkabout but nowhere as good as the Nikon at 300.

Thanks. lol true. If I could afford it, I'd buy a whole load of different lenses just so I could try different things. As it is, the less I can spend the better, but it's worth paying that bit extra for a more useful lens so I'm thinking the 70-300mm is the better choice.

 

[Nod]

Thanks. Good to know about the lens creep.


Thanks. Very true about nothing being really cheap lol. Which of the Sigma or Tamron ones do you recommend? Just so I know I'm looking for the right thing because there are a lot of different ones out there, often with similar product titles.

The only one of the (many!) Sigma/Tamron options I've used was an older 170-500 Sigma (IIRC) which wasn't one of the later versions with VR. Used to use it on my old D200 which wasn't an ideal pairing since the lens needed stopping down a bit to get decent results which meant that the camera (usually) needed a higher ISO setting and the D200 is not that good at ISO 800 and above! Pretty sure your D3300 is significantly better at higher ISOs and that the later long Sigmas and Tamrons are better than they used to be.

 

[PeachDragon]

The only one of the (many!) Sigma/Tamron options I've used was an older 170-500 Sigma (IIRC) which wasn't one of the later versions with VR. Used to use it on my old D200 which wasn't an ideal pairing since the lens needed stopping down a bit to get decent results which meant that the camera (usually) needed a higher ISO setting and the D200 is not that good at ISO 800 and above! Pretty sure your D3300 is significantly better at higher ISOs and that the later long Sigmas and Tamrons are better than they used to be.

Ah right, fair enough

 

[superpippo]

Years ago I had a Nikon D80 and then a D7000.
I bought a Nikon 70-300mm F4-5.6 G AFS VR which i used on both bodies.
I found it to be pretty good for perching birds provided that I kept the shutter speed high and the light was good. I tried some ridiculously low speeds because the Lens had stabilisation, but that was a big mistake.
BIF is difficult with any lens and my technique was never really good.
second hand is always a good option as has been mentioned and a good site to search is https://usedlens.co.uk/ but make sure that you know which lens as I found the Nikon lens descriptions/numbering to be a bit difficult because of the number of variations over the years.
As an example from that site I found https://www.ffordes.com/p/SH-42-052543/nikon-af/70-300mm-f4-56-g-afs-vr from Ffordes who are reliable and may give a limited time warranty. - check.

As others have said, the Sigma and Tamron, will give you more reach if that is your prime consideration.

Eventually I changed systems to mirrorless because of the weight advantages.

A few from 8-12 years ago, mostly taken at the long end, which you can see better if you click throught to Flickr


20140625-DSC_7642 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

20140625-DSC_7594 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

20140625-DSC_7522 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

20100209-DSC_1327 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

20100209-DSC_1289 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

20100209-DSC_1319 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

​

 

[PeachDragon]

Years ago I had a Nikon D80 and then a D7000.
I bought a Nikon 70-300mm F4-5.6 G AFS VR which i used on both bodies.
I found it to be pretty good for perching birds provided that I kept the shutter speed high and the light was good. I tried some ridiculously low speeds because the Lens had stabilisation, but that was a big mistake.
BIF is difficult with any lens and my technique was never really good.
second hand is always a good option as has been mentioned and a good site to search is https://usedlens.co.uk/ but make sure that you know which lens as I found the Nikon lens descriptions/numbering to be a bit difficult because of the number of variations over the years.
As an example from that site I found https://www.ffordes.com/p/SH-42-052543/nikon-af/70-300mm-f4-56-g-afs-vr from Ffordes who are reliable and may give a limited time warranty. - check.

As others have said, the Sigma and Tamron, will give you more reach if that is your prime consideration.

Eventually I changed systems to mirrorless because of the weight advantages.

A few from 8-12 years ago, mostly taken at the long end, which you can see better if you click throught to Flickr


20140625-DSC_7642 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

20140625-DSC_7594 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

20140625-DSC_7522 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

20100209-DSC_1327 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

20100209-DSC_1289 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

20100209-DSC_1319 by Superpippo0547, on Flickr

​

Thanks. Lovely photos and thanks for the links! I get why lenses are named as they are because it gives the spec, but yes it can get confusing, especially on sites with multiple listings where people switch things about or miss bits off. Would be nice if they made it simpler lol.

 

[Sangoma]

Replying to the post above by AndrewFlannigan, as strangely I took a similar photo this morning.




Also with a G9 and 100-400 lens.

I also have a TZ70 and a TZ60 and while they are fantastic compacts, I think the extra cost of the G9 and lens shows and is worth it

Become more apparent when light is poor, or when things are further away than you would like them to be.

​