wildlife photos? what gear

[Anders_K]

smeared front lens?

 

[Ian Stuart Forsyth]

American Woodcock?

Yes for years we called them Common Snipes and still do

and thank you

 

[cheddarman]

Thank you Ian- your photos look great! some other folk have posted some great photos too, all taken with different cameras and lenses which obviously proves the point that the equipment isn't everything and yes I know I should learn and be patient etc.

I'm not very attached to the camera I have, it wasn't very expensive and I could get some money back by selling it on. The last thing I want to do is to invest more (lenses etc) in technology that is either going to be obsolete or have limits (I know, my ability currently is the biggest limit...) but I wouldn't want to be spending hundreds or thousands of pounds on lenses for this particular camera and then find that I want something different/better and can't re-use them....may as well invest some money upfront knowing that it was a wise investment and hopefully be a bit happier with the hobby in the meantime.

A couple of you guys made a very convincing argument about bridge cameras and maybe that's the way forward for me.

Your ultimate choice very much depends on how much weight you are prepared to lug around with you and how well you can handle it for thing like birds in flight, if that's on you things to photograph list.

Any of the 100-400mm zooms mentioned in various threads come in at around 1.5Kg - + camera and you're into the 2.5-3.5Kg region. I've been there and done that, had a Canon 7D + Canon 100-400 and at around 3.5Kg I found unwieldily so I down weighted to the Fuji XT-2 with their 100-400mm (minimum zoom for wildlife IMHO) and that brought the weight down to 2.6Kg but still too much for my old body so ended up with the Sony RX10M4 at just over 1Kg.

I emphasise this because trying to hold that sort of weight up while trying to track a bird is not easy - certainly for an old git like me which is why I down weighted to a mirrorless - 24-600mm and the total weight is just over 1Kg.

However, bear in mind that with this lightweight camera you are stuck with the lens it comes with. If you later want an ultra wide angle for example or a bigger zoom, you can't "add" them to it.