Hii.. I plan to buy a DSLR shortly. My budget is 80-90k INR (body+lens) i.e about 2k dollars.. I usually like to do wildlife photography(esp. birds) and landscape photography. Could anyone please suggest me the best buy ? Was thinking of Nikon D90 with 18-200mm(for not having to change lens), or a combo of 18-105mm & 70-300mm lens . Also I prefer taking shots by hand and minimum use of tripod as i keep going long distances through rough terrain where its not possible..Any suggestions and comments ?? Plz help. Thanks in advance.
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Besy buy ??!! Please help.
- Thread starter arjo87
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There're a wide range of configurations you could go for, people will throw in specific advice, but I'll offer some general info.
If quality is what you're after, avoid superzooms.
They're slow and compromise image quality for convenience.
You will get great results when shooting landscaps from most entry-level kit lenses, with a good sturdy tripod* and technique.
Birding has a higher requirement of gear - a faster lens with a larger maximum aperture (eg f/2.8) that helps keep your shutter speed high and produce a pleasant out of focus blur in the background is desirable. They generally have better optics.
These lenses cost a considerable amount more than your standard kit telezoom but with good technique will yield far superior results.
Given your price range, picking up such lens and perhaps downgrading the body could be an option.
The Tamron/Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 are good value and give great results as far as telezooms go, but they may not be long enough for birding.
You can go longer but $$$ begin to rise exponentially.
The one area the superzoom will win over (appart from convenience) is the total weight, so maybe do some weights at the gym to carry the extra load
*You mention you don't want to use a tripod, you may want to consider a lens with inbuilt Vibration Reduction.
You need to re-evaluate. Taking great bird pictures is one of the most expensive branches of photography (if you want birds in flight, over $10,000 is easily invested). Both of the lenses you have listed are very slow (ie require a lot of light or a long shutter speed) which will make taking pictures of birds at long distances quite difficult unless it is the middle of the day. Assuming the bird is sitting still, it gets cheaper, but a good tripod will make a big difference in the sharpness of your prints.
The 18-200 is a lens that tries to do everything, there are sacrifices for that flexibility in focal length.
Personally, I always recommend a used body (the body makes the smallest difference in your prints), a kit lens (18-55 or so, should be ~$100), and save up for one of the variants of 70-200 (or 80-200 if budget is tight). One of the 70-200's with a $400+ tripod and almost any body will easily create sharper images than a handheld body with a superzoom.
Good luck.