Lens for photographing birds and wildlife

Astra

I'm a new owner of the Nikon D5100 and also own the 55-300mm lens and 18-55mm lens. I love this set up a lot and I am totally enjoying myself. However, I like to take shots of birds and wildlife while hiking and I am finding that the 300mm just doesn't seem to be enough.

I saw some Kingfisher birds and the pictures are relatively clear using the 300mm, but I have to crop to get it larger. When I do this I lose some clarity.

So now I am looking for a 500mm lens. The Nikon lens is just way out of my budget range so I have been looking at Amazon for different options. I noticed someone was selling the Vivitar 500mm mirror lens and a 2x teleconverter lens with a D5100 as a package. The Vivitar 500mm lens (without the camera) was about $200.

I also was looking into a Sigma 100-500mm lens, priced around $1,100. I was wondering if you could give me your insight on what option would be better.

Also if you have any helpful hints on using what I have to get better photos with certain settings that would be great...which truth be told I am not all that familiar with.

Moose

Howdy @Astra - Welcome! So in reading your post, it sounds like you need a lens that can zoom in tighter for capturing distant subjects like birds and wildlife.

I would personally stay away from "mirrored" lenses. Without getting into a long technical discussion, you'll have to focus manually which can be incredibly difficult with wildlife and the overall image quality is no where near that of a standard lens.

The Sigma 150-500mm (see here) is extremely popular among bird and wildlife photographers. The lens is quick to focus and super sharp. It has the zoom power to get you close and an effective optical stabilization system to help reduce camera shake at those long focal lengths.

As for settings, I would stick with Shutter priority (S on the mode dial), ISO set to Auto, drive mode set to Continuous, and your focus mode set to Continuous-servo (AF-C). This will allow you to continuously focus on the subject while half-pressing the shutter.

With your drive mode set to Continuous (burst), you'll be able to fire off a series of shots in quick succession which helps improves the odds of capturing keepers during fast action moments.

Hope that helps and happy shooting! :)

Egret

Hi Moose!

I found this site and was going to ask the same question as Astra. Now that the answer is there, do you have any recommendations about the best place to rent a lens to give it a whirl?