Some more mystery birds from Eritrea

[mitzimaybe]

You could be forgiven for thinking it was a bird-watching holiday! All I can say is, if you like birdwatching, you'll like Eritrea. Mostly rubbish photos. I've managed to identify some other birds but haven't got these yet... I'm really enjoying the process but it takes ever such a long time!

Comments

[mitzimaybe]

As it wasn't supposed to be a birding / wildlife holiday, I just had an all-purpose 18-200 zoom. As you can see, the quality at maximum zoom (used for virtually all the bird shots) is very poor. When I went to see the polar bears I took a 400mm but it was too big! (The bears were close.) If I'd known I was going to take so many bird shots, I would probably have taken the 400mm to Eritrea.

It's a trade-off of length, speed, image quality and expense. Fixed focal length lenses are cheaper and better quality than zooms but obviously not as flexible. The longer the lens, the more light you lose; long and fast (wide aperture) lenses are very, very expensive (£000's). You also get a lot more camera shake so IS (Canon - Image Stabilisation) or whatever Nikon call their equivalent - are useful but again add to the £££s.

This is a very long way round of saying - I'm not really sure, never having been on safari. Do a bit of a research online or in some of the photo mags, but as most of the wildlife you'll be aiming at will be a lot larger than a small finch, I think 500mm will be plenty big enough and maybe too big.

[idahoswede]

Thanks for the advice. I went ahead and ordered the 500mm. Fortunately, I have two Nikons and will keep the 500mm on the D3100 and then a 200 on the D70 and I can swap back and forth.

[mitzimaybe]

Good luck and hope to see some brilliant photos when you get back! I would advise practising with both cameras and lenses as much as possible before you go, so when you get there you aren't having to think "which button does what" or turning the zoom the wrong way etc. because timing can be critical and the more familiar you are with the equipment (so you don't even have to think about it) the more likely you are to get a good shot.