p.3 #1 · Super cheap telephoto (and camera) for bird photography
The seller of that lens does not know what they are selling: the lens has a Canon FD mount, not a Nikon F mount, so it will not fit on your camera.
Only lenses with autofocus will meter on your camera. If you can't tell/don't know whether a lens has autofocus, look for a set of electronic contacts (a black chip with ~5 gold pins) by the lens mount. If the contacts are there, the lens will meter; if they're not, it won't. (There are a handful of manual focus lenses with the contacts—a few made by Nikon, plus any modified with a third-party CPU chip such as a Dandelion chip—and these will meter too...but I don't think you're likely to find one in your budget.)
NB: while I personally feel averse to zooms and hesitate to recommend a lens I know almost nothing about, I don't want to steer you away from the Tamron 200–400mm too emphatically. It fits your desired specs and budget, some users have posted very nice images in its photo pool on Flickr, and its predecessors and successors in Tamron's catalog are well regarded—it might be a fine choice for you!
p.3 #3 · Super cheap telephoto (and camera) for bird photography
Thanks for sharing those videos, @carlosriaga—they were very interesting!
What do you see in those photographers’ images and/or hear in their testimonies that you admire, and how do you hope a manual lens will help you achieve it? What made you decide to ask folks here to recommend you a lens, rather than simply buying one of the models demonstrated in those videos (all of which are pretty affordable)? And do you feel that the lenses demonstrated in those videos produce images of adequate quality to satisfy you?
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer to these questions! But I wonder if the answers might help inform your choice of lens.
p.3 #4 · Super cheap telephoto (and camera) for bird photography
I was lucky to find a great deal on the Tamron SP 400mm F4.0 MF lens. Worked great, easy to manually focus on my Pentax K-1 at the time. It held up to the 36MP sensor just fine, it was silly sharp, contrasty and the multi coated optics were as good as most modern lenses. It was huge, heavy and wasn't cheap though, well, it was to me, but not in your budget terms, I think I paid like $800 at the time, and recouped 100% of my money when I sold it.
I understand how your heart led you to help someone buying the D5300 and its hard to fault you on that. It'll be fun finding a high-quality long lens for your budget.
Maybe one of the Sigma nicknamed "Bigma" because it is so large and has a range of 50-500mm could be found inexpensively once you are over your manual focus love affair and get tired of that.
There are 2 versions of that lens, the older being available cheaper than the newer model, but the newer model is the better of the two. They are all over Ebay in the $300-$500 range used depending on condition. The black finish on the outside of the lens doesn't hold up well to abuse, and that may work in your favor to find a "deal". There is also a 150-500mm Sigma, similar vintage, usually similar money, but why give up the range if that is going to be your main/only lens? At least either of these will give half decent autofocus, optical stabilization and appropriate level optics for that sensor. At that point, your technique will be the more limiting factor in getting decent images with that combo than anything else.
You owe us some pictures once you get settled into something, especially for all Sliding Focus's help, heh heh. Joking aside, and most importantly, HAVE FUN!
p.3 #6 · Super cheap telephoto (and camera) for bird photography
Imagemaster wrote:
The reason why Sigma stopped making the Bigma. It was a Big Failure.
Heh, well, yeah, maybe by modern standards on full frame, the gen1 wasnt great past 300mm unless stopped down, and the finish degrades quickly, but the gen 2 on an older apsc sensor, I thought at least he'll be using the sweet spot in the center of the glass, it will still beat his old bridge camera and 1970s cheapo stuff he's looking at...and I couldn't think of much in his budget that would be noticeably better. The second gen Bigma was at least improved to a tolerable level, even though image quality still degraded some past 400mm.
I was going to originally suggest a used Tamron 100-400mm, but when I did a quick price check, even used they are still bringing good money over Carlos budget. I think we have to get into a different head space to be able to make a reccomendation at this level and what is acceptable to us may be very different to him.
p.3 #7 · Super cheap telephoto (and camera) for bird photography
Hello
What do you see in those photographers’ images and/or hear in their testimonies that you admire, and how do you hope a manual lens will help you achieve it?
I like the idea of craftsmanship, if the word made sense in this subject.
What made you decide to ask folks here to recommend you a lens, rather than simply buying one of the models demonstrated in those videos
I guess I wanted to gather more knowledge.
And do you feel that the lenses demonstrated in those videos produce images of adequate quality to satisfy you?
Yes, in general they are fine photos, maybe lack a little contrast.
p.3 #8 · Super cheap telephoto (and camera) for bird photography
Erictator wrote:
I was lucky to find a great deal on the Tamron SP 400mm F4.0 MF lens. Worked great, easy to manually focus on my Pentax K-1 at the time. It held up to the 36MP sensor just fine, it was silly sharp, contrasty and the multi coated optics were as good as most modern lenses. It was huge, heavy and wasn't cheap though, well, it was to me, but not in your budget terms, I think I paid like $800 at the time, and recouped 100% of my money when I sold it.
Thanks for stepping in the conversation, nice to hear your experience, in the future I'll consider this lens.
I understand how your heart led you to help someone buying the D5300 and its hard to fault you on that. It'll be fun finding a high-quality long lens for your budget.
I believe we both gain, I spend a little more than i was planing, but the camera comes with kit lens, and memory card, and found several opinions on this camera that were very positive.
Maybe one of the Sigma nicknamed "Bigma" because it is so large and has a range of 50-500mm could be found inexpensively once you are over your manual focus love affair and get tired of that.
We'll see how long the love last.
You owe us some pictures once you get settled into something, especially for all Sliding Focus's help, heh heh. Joking aside, and most importantly, HAVE FUN!
Yes Sliding Focus deserves recognition for his patience!
p.3 #9 · Super cheap telephoto (and camera) for bird photography
I met yesterday with the girl who sold me the camera, she live in another city and came to Bogota for her son's therapy. So the camera is finally in my hands. So far reading the manual. https://flic.kr/p/2pmsTDz
p.3 #11 · Super cheap telephoto (and camera) for bird photography
Your friend’s lens has a Canon FD mount, so it will not fit your camera as-is…but if you were really determined to attach it to your camera, you could buy a lens mount adapter that would allow you to. However, folks often don’t feel that’s worth the trouble for Canon FD-mount lenses: the cheap adapters you’ll find all over the web either won’t allow the lens to focus to infinity or will have low-quality optics that permit infinity focus but degrade the lens’ image quality more than is acceptable. And if an adapter with high-quality optics exists (I’m not certain if there is/was ever one), it’s probably not worth seeking out in order to use that particular lens (though of course only you could decide that for sure). As with any manual lens on your camera, you wouldn’t get metering—which may or may not matter to you (I think metering’s essential for birding, but for other applications it may be less important).
