Newbie, on a budget, what to do?!

Dirty Karlos · July 4, 2010

Hi all, loving the forum, hoping to get some good advice.
My love of nature watching is leading me towards taking my photography a bit more seriously. I've been using a Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm & a 55-200mm for the past couple of years, and with that limited kit, been getting some acceptable results.
I have a budget of £1500 (roughly $2300), now what would be my best option?

1. Go for a nice new camera body and buy a good lens when funds allow

2. Buy the best possible lens for my D40

3. Digiscope?

Please advise people!

Thanks in advance.
:scratch

CKjeep · July 4, 2010

i was using the same combo as you up until 2 weeks ago. i now have the D90 w/ 18-105 vr (kit) lens and couldn't be happier. The D90 has what i was missing on the D40 without going into Pro bodies.

Punkybeth · July 4, 2010

I'd spend the money on a good lens! A good lens will give you more options than a body (in my opinion). Unless you're looking for specific features that a new body will do that your old one won't, invest in the glass.

Just my 2 cents (or in your case, 2 pence,

!).

Dirty Karlos wrote: »

Hi all, loving the forum, hoping to get some good advice.
My love of nature watching is leading me towards taking my photography a bit more seriously. I've been using a Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm & a 55-200mm for the past couple of years, and with that limited kit, been getting some acceptable results.
I have a budget of £1500 (roughly $2300), now what would be my best option?

1. Go for a nice new camera body and buy a good lens when funds allow

2. Buy the best possible lens for my D40

3. Digiscope?

Please advise people!

Thanks in advance.

BradfordBenn · July 4, 2010

I have had the opportunity to use better lenses on my XTi and that change alone was huge. I would also go with the suggestion of going with better lenses/glass.

snowman1 · July 4, 2010

Better lens for sure

How about Don · July 4, 2010

I think a better lens is a good idea but you have a lot of money to invest! If I were in your shoe's I'd get a D90 with the kit lens. That's an 18-105. I got it for my D5000 and it's become my favorite lens. I'd also go with a 170-500 Sigma. I also have that lens and it does a great job. By doing that you have everything from 18mm to 500mm covered. Actually with the 1.5 crop you'd have 27mm t0 750 mm covered and with your 55-200, everything overlaps a bit.

I got the D5000 as a referb for a good price, didn't know my old lens wouldn't focus. Really nice camera with about everything the D90 has. I did it again I'd get the D90 and use all my Nikon lens!

Now you could blow the whole $2300 on just a lens and get a really nice lens. I'm a thrifty guy and can't see spending that kind of money on one as what my 170-500 cost for a difference in quality I might not even recognize! If you start making this hobby pay at some point it get's a lot easier to justify spending $2300 on a lens.

Harryb · July 5, 2010

I would replace the D40. Its a fine camera but with its limitation on available lenses and its 6 mp it really limits your possibilities.

With your budget I would go with a D90 its has 12 MP which gives you a whole lot more leeway for cropping and its good up to ISO 1600 for low light shooting. You can gte a D90 for around $800 - $900.

A really fine lens with a reasonable price is the Nikon 300 f/4. Its AF is fast and its IQ is excellent. It sells for around $1300 new and there a quite a few used ones out for sale if you look around. You can always add a 1.4 or 1.7 TC to it later to give you reach up to 510mm

NorthernFocus · July 7, 2010

Ditto Harry's suggestion. With your budget you can get both the high quality 300 f/4 lens and a D90. You can keep using the 18-55 for landscapes, the 55-200 as a "walkaround" lens, and the 300 for some pretty serious wildlife photography. If you are going to do birds in flight or something that makes a faster frame rate desireable, you can pick up a D200 for about the same price as the D90. Same pixel count but the D200 does not have the CMOS sensor like the D90. But for a nominal sum you can get noise reducing software like NeatImage which does a pretty darn good job. I upgraded from a D200 to D300 to get the CMOS sensor and in hindsight I don't think the expense was warranted

Newbie, on a budget, what to do?!

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