Starter camera (1 Viewer)

[Giddy Goldfinch]

Hi lovely birdforum,

I'm looking to start taking photos of the birds I see but know very little about cameras. My father-in-law has an old Nikon D40 with a 200mm lens that's in great condition. Would this work just to get started?

Nikon D40 - Wikipedia​

en.wikipedia.org

Thanks!

GG

 

[Mono]

It is an old camera, but will take perfectly acceptable photos. Your biggest obstacle to bird photography will be the lens you will have will have much less reach than you might desire, roughly equivalent to 6x in binocular terms.

 

[Montereyman]

Current Nikon cameras are mirrorless and require the use of Z type lenses. If you add a f-mount lens for this camera it is not likely that it can be used on a modern mirrorless Z camera.

 

[samnew]

A 200mm lens probably won't give you the reach for bird photography, especially small bird photography.

 

[dpastern]

Whilst you could in theory use said camera, it may frustrate you more than give you pleasure. Nikon doesn't really have any entry level cameras at the budget end, so is a poor choice, imho, for someone dipping their feet into the waters so to speak. A 200mm lens will probably give you closer to 4x binocular views than 6x imho. My Nikon Aculon A30 binoculars are 8x and have a very similar field of view to my 500mm prime lens.

If you're not locked into Nikon and open to alternatives, and aren't interested in video, then my wholesome recommendation would be a Canon R10 (the R10 is limited to 4k video at 30fps and has no IBIS [internal body image stabilisation]). You could pair this with say, a 2nd gen EF 100-400 zoom, or preferably, but a more expensive option, the wonderful EF 400mm f5.6 L prime. The latter doesn't have any IS (image stabilisation) but it is a cracking sharp lens. With the R10, which is a crop camera, the effective focal length would be equivalent to 640mm, which would be suitable for most birds. The R10 has Canon's animal eye tracking AF which is a boon to any bird photography imho. I would never go back to a DSLR.

Sony has their A6400, which could be paired with a Sigma or Tamron 150-600 if you wanted. Both are good lenses and bonus they are zooms.

 

[Giddy Goldfinch]

Hi everyone, thanks so much for your responses! I have not been active here for some time and been pulled away from my initial camera search by other things.

I'm trying to interpret some of the responses here because I know next to nothing about photography, but what I think you all are saying above is that the reach may leave much to be desired. If I was to purchase one and not go with the Nikon D40, I wouldn't have a super big budget - it'd probably have to be a used camera in the $300 - $500 range, which will inevitably limit the quality of photos I will be able to take without spending more money.

Considering that - is it possible to gain better zoom than the D40 in such a price range, perhaps looking at an entry-level Cannon camera (used)?

Thanks!

 

[seaspirit]

I'm trying to interpret some of the responses here because I know next to nothing about photography, but

No matter what camera body you will use , key is the lens and knowledge how to use the camera.
A phrase often used when analyzing the problem behind a poor picture is that "the problem is behind the camera".
With what you seem to have access to right now you can learn photography, no matter what your subject it.
No shortage of video tutorials on youtube how to use dSLRs in ways other than setting everything to automatic, and how to get the camera to autofocus on a subject and stay there.
For many starting out seeing the pictures they can be a brutal reality check that leads to frustration. Movies and TV shows (usally thrillers) give the wrong impressions what long lenses can do, e.g., taking detailed photos from a distance. The photos of birds published here and elsewhere are examples where a lot of know how and experience add as much to the result as the gear that was used.
In the real world one still needs to get pretty close to a bird to get enough of it to fill the frame even in part. With the best 500mm prime lens money can buy, to get a small bird into a frame for a decent looking image and without having to crop like a maniac one needs to get pretty close to the bird (~10m for a typicla size songbird). Birders are more used to think in magnification and as other folks already pointed out even with a long 500 or 600 mm lens we get a view that is similar to what we see through 10x binoculars (before our brain starts zooming in).

There are some 150-600mm lenses from several different manufacturers that will provide reach without having to break the bank, even more if they are 2nd hand. Putting money into a decent lens to use on an older body gets you further than getting a new body and use it with an existing old short lens. Its the lens that gives you the "zoom in", not the camera body.