Telephoto lens for Nikon D40X

[kennelman 10]

Hope you can help

 

i am looking to improve my lens capacity for the Nikon we have a lot of wild birds around us and some quite special one i want to be able to zoom in and get good quality photos from about 40 yards the camera is OK but wont zoom in to that capacity any help appreciated

 

so my question is what lens but i obviously will be looking to do it as cheap as possible

[meehailam 10]

I had a Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6G AF Nikkor SLR Camera Lens to let go for £75.00, but unfortunately it is not compatible with D40x.

D40x is without a built in autofocus motor, so you will have to use the more expansive lenses with built-in autofocus, I'm afraid. You can either go for the 70-300mm VR, 18-200mm VR (both in excess of £300+) or 55-200mm VR (around £170).

[kennelman 10]

Thank you for you reply

[Donny B Good 10]

Just a word of advice before you rush out and buy a lens, you will have to get an awful lot closer than 40 yards to get a decent picture of any wild bird with any lens! Even with a 300mm, it will still be a dot in the viewfinder unless it's an ostrich.

[mattsando 10]

Ideal 'birding' lenses for Canon are the 100-400 and the 400mm prime. Do Nikon do the same sort of lenses?

[Donny B Good 10]

Yes, Nikon do an 80-400 but it's painfully slow and noisy focussing and about £850 second hand, the 400 prime is megabucks! (Several thousand £'s)

[kennelman 10]

now i really dont know what to do but thanks anyway

[knighthawk 10]

I would go for something like this if I was you ...but you will have to focus manually with the D40x as it dont have the inbuilt motor in the body...One reason I got returned of my D60 after I was informed it would by Jessops when I purchased it...Also they dont meter with older manual lenses .....as I found the lens choice very limiting...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180616253064&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[suebeedoo 10]

Before spending a lot of money on a lense, have you thought about hiring one for a few days? That way, rather than just testing it in the shop you can take it out and try it on the type of shots that you want it for.

[kennelman 10]

didnt know you could hire them thats worth thinking about

who hires them out

[peak4 277]

Hi, over on Bird Forum, there's someone flogging a Sigma 50-500mm which I would have thought would focus OK.

 

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=191213

 

Hi

I have a little used Sigma 50-500mm lens, complete with box, excellent condition. £500 includes RMSD

Regards

Dave

 

I use the same lens on an Olympus without issue. There seems to be a bit of a Quality Control issue with some of the Sigmas, but a good copy of the lens is capable of excellent results.

Good luck

[kennelman 10]

ouch nice idea but to far outta my reach in cost! joined the site though