Hi everyone. I am looking to get a new camera in the ~$1500 range all told. While I love all types of life I am an avid birder. My needs from this camera are:
Withstand temperature between -20c to 32c
Water resistant ( as in rain will be fine)
Can handle low light
fast shutter speed and autofocus to capture birds in flight
A lens that can detach or not that can comfortable photograph a small bird from a good distance.
Small enough to be handheld without too much shake
I am comfortable with digital cameras and am looking to upgrade. I am also looking for one with a good life span.
I would love suggestions on what you have found useful.
These two criteria will rather limit your options. Generally more tele = larger lens size
So probably you are looking at a bridge/superzoom camera or possibly an interchangeable lens camera with a smaller sensor size (MFT / APS-C). There are some (relatively) light/compact tele lenses for cameras in the latter category, but even here it quickly becomes a question of how much size and weight you are willing to carry around.
$1500 budget may be tight for a body and lens with decent tele reach unless you buy used.
You say “looking for a new camera” – do you already own one, and if so, what and what needs is it currently not meeting?
I don’t think there are many if any cameras that are designed to go down to -20c, 32c will be fine.
I wouldn’t trust many DSLR or mirrorless cameras in the rain, the best brands for weather resistance are probably Olympus (OM Systems) and Pentax.
Most of the newer DSLR/mirrorless cameras (last 5 years or so) have decent low light performance.
AF Shouldn’t be a problem for cameras <10 years old (shutter speed on any interchangeable lens camera will go plenty high).
Things get problematic here the only camera system that will have the reach for small birds and be reasonably light is Micro 4/3rds or in other words OM Systems/Olympus, The problem is that such a system would push your (low by bird photography standards) budget.
At the end there are only a couple of options remaining and they are a bit of a compromise, the best option I can find is the Olympus OM-D E-M1 + Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400mm F5.0-6.3 IS with a ~second hand cost of just under 1500 usd (based on MPB “Excellent” category). This system (or similar) ticks most of your boxes: Weather resistant, lightweight and good AF, the only issue is that the 100-400mm lens is reasonably slow which will have some impact on low light performance and as I mentioned previously I don’t think there are any (consumer) cameras in existence that are rated down to -20c.
I have a small kodak but it cannot take pictures fast so birds are often blurry. The camera does not have great zoom, and cannot handle low light. As you say I am open to either a superzoom or one where the lens is seperate.
I can go up to $2000 but would rather not.
That is okay I will just not go birding with it that cold. I keep my kodak under my coat in this weather but it is small.
I will look into this it sounds like it has almost all of what I am looking for.
I agree with @felix-insects, as the Olympus would probably be the lightest, although isn’t quite as good in low-light. If you don’t mind spending about $600 more, you could get a Nikon Z50 II, and the amazing Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens, which is very versatile and sharp. And, the Z50 II even has bird detection autofocus, which would be really useful. You can get the Nikon gear for a total of around $2,015 (if you get refurbished on https://www.nikonusa.com/refurbished-cameras).
There are the laws of physics.
You need a big sensor to get good low light performance. Those need big lenses and a tripod.
You can get lightweight zoom lenses but they only work with small sensors. That means reduced low light performance.
Pick your compromise.
My favorite camera was my Panasonic Lumix DC-FZ80, which is a “bridge” or “superzoom” camera. I got some great photos of birds and insects at a distance with it. However, it wasn’t designed for heavy use and the electronic zoom mechanism started malfunctioning after less than five years. So unfortunately it doesn’t fit your criterion of having a good life span.
Yeah, for me a good life span is 5-8 years. I have had my current cheap little kodak 4 years and except for the flash for night photography it still works.
I use a Canon T7 with a TAMRON SP 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di VC USD A005E lens.
The T7 body is very light, but the lens is fairly heavy. With the camera in “Sport” mode, auto focus does really well when tracking birds in flight. When shooting perched birds through branches, the auto focus can be wonky, I just switch the lens to manual focus.
I takes better photos when zoomed out on sunlit days than cloudy ones, or in heavy shade, but still takes a decent photo. I shoot RAW and can usually fix lighting/exposure in Photoshop.
I got it for birds, but have found out that it takes really good photos of butterflies, moths, dragonflies, bees, wasps, frogs, and turtles.
If you go to the obs you can click the “i” at the bottom of the photo to get camera/lens info for that photo. Some of my photos are shot with the Canon EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens that came with the camera.
I have the same camera and I personally use Tamon 18-200 mm telephoto lens. It super nice since that it has a feature that allows you to lock the lens at 18 mm for walking between shots.
Just be aware that 200mm on an aps-c will probably be too short for small birds - the general consensus is that you need 400mm minimum full frame equivalent (200mm on aps-c is 320mm equivalent field of view) and superzoom lenses tend to be soft at the long end.
