Lens for birds? I need some help

Arvan · November 1, 2007

Im thinking of getting myself a lens for birds or simmilair. I´m a total rookie on this point so i need all the help in the world..maby not the world but you get the point.

Pentax K10D is the camera.

and the price? 6-700 usd.if possible?.

swintonphoto · November 1, 2007

If you are doing birding you probably need something that gets close to the 300mm range. Looks like the options available in your price range are:
Pentax:
75-300 4.5-5.8: $130
Tamron:
70-300 4-5.6 DI: $170
Sigma:
70-300 4-5.6: $229
135-400 4.5-5.6: $590
170-500 5-6.3: $770

Seems like those are the lenses available for that price range. I use the 135-400 Sigma with my Olympus gear and am very satisfied with it.
There are some good reviews on many of these at: www.photozone.de Of the real budget ones above, the tamron gets good reviews.

pathfinder · November 1, 2007

Read the thread about lenses for birds in Harry's wildlife forum.

Good, fast, long glass is an oxymoron.:D

Birdman and a few others will post images with 200mm lenses that are lovely, but most of us find that 400mm is the shortest lens that will let us shoot birds as anything other than dust motes on our sensors.

Harry shoots white birds in direct, tropical sunlight so he does not need fast lenses - for a 400mm lens, f4 is fairly fast. F2.8 400 is out of sight and priced like it.

If you want to shoot in the shade, in early morning light or late evening light, lenses slower than f5.6 will not work.

SO your choices come down to 400+mm at about f4 or f5.6 Used lenses MAY offer you better bang for the buck.

Some of the Pentax shooters may have more specific recommendations for you. Pentax has made good long glass for a long, long time.

swintonphoto · November 1, 2007

How about this one:
http://www.pentaximaging.com/products/product_details/camera_lens--smc_P-A_1200mm_F8.0_ED_%28IF%29/reqID--3082/subsection--Digital_35mm_telephoto
it would be long enough

largelylivin · November 2, 2007

I did this very thing back in August when I just couldn't stand to watch the birds and not photograph them. I had/have a limited budget and a k10D and birding is not my primary preoccupation. I bought a Sigma Bigma 50-500 and given the price I haven no regrets. The Sigma 70-300 simply isn't long enough. In fact, THERE IS NEVER A LONG ENOUGH LENS FOR BIRDS. When a better lens comes along for the Pentax I will probably buy it.

A couple observations:

All Pentax lenses that I have tried focus faster and better on the K10D than any thrid party lense. Pentax lenses feel great and seem mechanically far superior to anything else.
At 7 lbs the Bigma is a chore to handle. Its slow to swing around when you are following flying objects and it slows down all of your lense-hand functions.
When the light gets low it does not focus well and tends to "hunt" at infinity. I am training myself to be able to switch quickly to manual focusing and dial in infinity.
Invest in a monopod. Invest in a Kinesis or similar harness.
When you really start blowing-up the magnification/print size, expect some purple fringing.
Use the Pentax Photolab for noise reduction (its somewhat better than Adobe DNG) and still invest in some noise reduction software. I am using Neat Image but I think there's better out there. (See the last photo. In order to get the noise out of the sky this is what I have to live with).

See my relatively small collection at http://smile-123.smugmug.com/gallery/3301938

swintonphoto · November 2, 2007

I have always wanted to try the 50-500 BIGMA. Just some other food for thought however:
the Sigma 135-400 is about half the price and half the weight of the 50-500.

Lens for birds? I need some help

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