My son was fortunate to have a Sony a35 for Christmas, as a first decent camera. What would be a good lens for photographing birds at a distance - so zoom and something that could be used to take pictures of sporting activities from the edge of the pitch! Possibly not too expensive or even something that could be bought secondhand.
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Sony a35 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter socksitis
- Start date
Wildmoreway
Well-known member
The Tamron 70 - 300 is a good starting point and can be picked for around £100 to £150, best to avoid the Sigma 70 to 300 has some of us have had problems with them on Sony cameras.
carlj
Well-known member
Woah, 2 Sony's in Devon - getting to be a hotbed there!
SW has picked a good starting point, especially as it doubles up as a very fine lens for butterfly and dragonfly work, but there is always a but.
300mm is rarely long enough. Both SW and myself own 500mm lenses and even then, get a little lens envy when I see an 600/800mm. But even with Tamron's fine 200-500mm, second hand approaches £500.
A little cheaper, though not a zoom, and with one or two unique problems, you could look at either the Minolta, or Sony 500mm f8 mirror lens. It's the only mirror lens that autofocuses, and I've seen second hand ones for £300...
SW has picked a good starting point, especially as it doubles up as a very fine lens for butterfly and dragonfly work, but there is always a but.
300mm is rarely long enough. Both SW and myself own 500mm lenses and even then, get a little lens envy when I see an 600/800mm. But even with Tamron's fine 200-500mm, second hand approaches £500.
A little cheaper, though not a zoom, and with one or two unique problems, you could look at either the Minolta, or Sony 500mm f8 mirror lens. It's the only mirror lens that autofocuses, and I've seen second hand ones for £300...
Wildmoreway
Well-known member
I agree with Carl re the 500 mm mirror lens, I own one and it can give good results but it can also be hit and miss, first priority i would say is to get a Tamron 70 to 300 which will be of use with larger birds, and also usually adequate for getting shots of smaller birds at feeders.
Something else to remember is that the a35 is a 16 mega pixel camera so cropping images is an option that will in effect serves like a high quality digital zoom and often help with viewable images of smaller birds. Both Carl and myself satrted off with DLSR of just 6 mega pixel resolution and often obtained good images. I also know of a least one member here who still uses a 10 mega pixel camera amd a 70 to 300 lens and get some excellent images.
Something else to remember is that the a35 is a 16 mega pixel camera so cropping images is an option that will in effect serves like a high quality digital zoom and often help with viewable images of smaller birds. Both Carl and myself satrted off with DLSR of just 6 mega pixel resolution and often obtained good images. I also know of a least one member here who still uses a 10 mega pixel camera amd a 70 to 300 lens and get some excellent images.
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